Huge news for Torontonians looking to stay connected to Japan!
Kobo and Libby working in harmony to help me devour books
The Japan Foundation, Toronto launched a brand-new digital library last month via Overdrive, the popular library-lending app.
Since the pandemic has closed their physical JFT location, this is huge news for library lovers. It goes without saying that without regular borrowers, the library could find itself in a serious dilemma, and pivoting to a digital platform in the meantime is a great move. (Unfortunately for me as an author, Edokko is a Kindle exclusive, so you won't find it in the JFT catalogue - but maybe they'll pick up Meet You By Hachiko at some point, who knows!?)
Considering that they started from zero, I'm impressed at the collection that's been put together so far - as of this writing, just shy of 500 books, with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, manga, and Japanese-language materials. Kudos to the library staff for their hard work, here!
JFT library card holders can borrow instantly by visiting JFT OverDrive and logging in with their library card number and PIN (last four-digits of phone number). If you're new to the Japan Foundation Toronto or haven't been in in a while, the staff will need to help you renew your card first, but it's easy and quick, and so worth it.
For me, the timing of the Overdrive launch couldn't be better, as we've almost fully packed up for a move, and all my books are currently in boxes. My Kobo Libre has been saving me with access to tons of ebooks via the Toronto Public Library, and the minute I saw the JFT had gone live with theirs, I immediately headed over on the Android app Libby to get hooked up and browse the selection. My only regret is that I can only borrow five books at a time, and I'm continually running up against that 5-book limit and having to return things I didn't actually get to read yet in favour of the holds I wanted more. 😂 What to read next!?
I still prefer the real-paper feel, but pandemic + moving has finally gotten me aboard the ebook train. How many of you read ebooks as well as physical...?
What would you do if your best friend lived half a world away—and suddenly vanished?
Loner
Grace Ryan feels completely invisible. Awkward and shy, she can't seem
to get ahead in her studies, social circle, or new relationship with her
childhood best friend. But discovering Tokyo street fashion ignites her
creativity and leads her into an unlikely online friendship with a
Japanese high schooler.
Beautiful and fashionable Kana eats,
sleeps and breathes English in order to pass her university entrance
exam, but she's tired of sacrificing her own happiness for everyone
else's high expectations. Kana finds a friend and conversation partner
in Grace, relieved to distract herself with someone else's problems for a
change.
Just when things are finally going right, Grace's best
friend abandons her, her relationship falls apart, and Kana disappears
without saying goodbye. Fearing for her friend's safety, Grace boards a
flight to Japan... only to realize that she is completely unprepared for
the bright lights and confusing streets of the real Tokyo.
Finding one lost girl among twelve million is much more than she bargained for.
Have you ever bought a book just because it had a really intriguing title? That was how My Year of Meatsby Ruth Ozeki ended up on my Amazon wishlist. Touted as a documentary-style work of fiction, it is both a story of relationships and a critique of the meat industry (which I freely admit I am a consumer of, so reading this book gave me the heebie-jeebies on occasion). The dynamics of the two main characters seemed, I imagined from the synopsis, very interesting indeed, and they did not disappoint. The narration is primarily from the point of view of a Japanese-American woman named Jane, who is hired to work for a Japanese studio producing a television show called "My American Wife." The show explores the lives of American families and is sponsored by BEEF-EX, promoting the use of American beef in Japan. (I only ever remember buying Australian beef in Japan, but what do I know!) The rigid rules imposed on her direction - only "perfect" Caucasian wives cooking with real American beef - cause Jane to stretch further and further in trying to show not just storybook people, but real families of different races, orientations and religions.
Alongside Jane's narrative is the story of Akiko, wife of Jane's boss and a very delicate woman struggling with abuse, infertility and an eating disorder. Her husband forces her to watch "My American Wife" and rate it as well as preparing all the recipes to help her increase her weight. His actions, however, cause her only to grow further away from him, and she becomes emotionally invested in the families Jane selects from the show. She grows out of her complacency and begins to really think about what she wants for her life.
Toward the end of the novel, the documentary side of the story becomes quite harsh as Jane exposes the truth behind the chemicals, hormones and terrible conditions the animals are living in. Soon, it becomes her personal mission not just to hint at the dark side of the industry, but to expose it fully to the public.
I enjoyed My Year of Meats, though at times I felt it focused too much on the anti-industry theme and not as much on the characters as I wished. Still, it was an interesting way of presenting a topic that the average person might not be likely to pick up a book about. For the most part, I liked the characters - Akiko was sympathetic and well-written; Jane's perspective was much harder to identify with, but interesting nonetheless. I enjoyed the minor characters like Miss Helen, whom we saw very briefly but received a very realistic impression of. Others, like Mr. Ueno, seemed to fall a bit flatter.
All in all, it was a good read and a good length for this type of story. Toward the end, I was growing slightly weary of Jane's point of view, but the Akiko scenes eased this considerably. Of course, once I had finished the book, I was also immediately considering veganism! Perhaps it's just a weak will, but Jane's narrative had me wanting to start myself on a shojin ryori diet right away. I think I eat too much red meat...
Check out Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca!
The first two volumes of My Darling is a Foreigner
I have a tough time with reading in Japanese. It's unfortunate, but I've never been a patient person - this is primarily why I fail at baking, drawing, and other hobbies that require the simple skill of waiting. I have a tendency to rush - and it makes language-learning particularly hard.
For a time, I tried reading manga in Japanese to help encourage my reading skills. I tend to like the kind of manga that comes chock-full of big, complicated words and no furigana at all, though (Tezuka Osamu, I'm looking at you!) so this quickly became a failed effort. The amount of dictionary lookups it took to get through a chapter of Detective Conan made the pace mind-numbingly slow. At some point, I found Chi's Sweet Home, an adorable cat manga targeted at a younger age group, but found that not quite challenging enough. I was enjoying, but not really learning anything new when I read.
Recently, though, I've found a happy medium in「ダーリンは外国人」; My Darling is a Foreigner. I bought the two first volumes of My Darling is a Foreigner from Honto back in June, as my 'test' purchase from them to gauge the shipping costs. (Came to ¥800 - fantastic!) It's the story of a mixed married couple; she Japanese, he American with Italian-Hungarian heritage. It is a very nice departure from the usual "Japanese girl meets foreign man" plot, as the leading man, Tony, is a linguist who's very interested in wordplay and the leading lady and artist of the story, Saori, is a manga artist. They are not, by any stretch, your typical mixed couple living in Japan! There was even a comedy movie a few years back based on the franchise (it wasn't bad at all, though it also wasn't quite in line with the books) and I used to see animations based on Tony on the Yamanote Line media monitors. Natsukashii, ne!
The main draw of My Darling is a Foreigner for me, right now, is the level and pace of the comics as a study tool. The short illustrated stories in the books are usually just long enough to get in some good reading practice, and often address things that are funny to me as a linguist and student of Japanese, which makes it a perfect choice for aspiring JLPT test-takers.
The first volume, I had actually already read in the form of a translation - a bilingual version of the book was published while I was in Japan. The alternate title of one of the English prints, which was offered for a time on Amazon, was "Is He Turning Japanese?" It's still in print in the bilingual format in Japan, but much tougher to find on Amazon, so I'd recommend using the Honto.jp link I provided above if you'd like to pick it up.
Reading it in its native Japanese has been much more of a challenge than reading the bilingual version, and I can stop myself more easily from peeking at the English now, though that would certainly be a help when I'm stuck! It's good that you can enjoy these books on either level, in any case - with the English text, or without. When I finish this set, I'm definitely going to pick up the next one!
The world has gotten smaller, but it certainly hasn't gotten any easier for Canadians trying to buy Japanese books. Since coming home, I've spent considerably more money on shipping reading material to me than I am on the reading material itself...and the selection is very hit-or-miss when I do find an online business (usually American) that will send me my books affordably. On a few occasions, I've bought from Bookweb, the online version of Kinokuniya U.S.; as well as Amazon.jp, to great expense. However, I may have found a great solution this time with Honto, a Japanese site that offers at-cost shipping abroad. The two books I purchased from them cost me ¥800 in shipping; pretty much exactly what I would have spent had I walked down to the Japan Post office in Osaka myself, and I paid the cover price on the books rather than the import markup. Great deal! Kinokuniya U.S. is fast and has plenty in stock, but paying double the cover price AND their pricey shipping to Canada is rough, so I'm thrilled to find Honto. Just click on the tab for International Shipping when it asks you to input your address, and away you go!
Any other readers have suggestions for Japanese online bookshops? I'd love to hear them!
I've mentioned before that I am very fond of Holly Thompson's work - her novel Ashis my favourite title set in Japan and among my favourite books, period. When I saw that she had written another book, I picked it up with hardly a glance at the summary or even the reviews on Amazon.
I was surprised, when I finally held it in my hands, to discover that Orchards is written entirely in free verse.
I'll admit that poetry isn't usually a lure for me. I was a little dismayed, especially since the synopsis given was very interesting - but after opening the cover, I never looked back. Orchards' style is entrancing and lyrical - when I realized it was poetry, I had briefly envisioned a novel in the style of Basho. Fortunately, I found this to be much lighter reading, in style if not subject matter.
Orchards is certainly aimed at a younger reading audience than Ash was, though I still felt it was mature enough to be appreciated by adults. The length is quite short in comparison to the book's thick appearance, however, as the poems are laid out stylistically. You can expect to finish this quickly, so the reader who prefers a longer story, or is leery of a teenage protagonist, should beware.
The main character is Kanako Goldberg, a half-American, half-Japanese girl born and raised in New York. After the suicide death of one of her classmates, Ruth, due to bullying, Kana is sent to Japan for the summer to live with her grandmother and work on the family's mikan farm. While she speaks Japanese fluently, she struggles with fitting in, missing her parents and sister, and living under the rule of her strict and traditional grandmother, who only recently has accepted the American branch of her family. Kana is very thoroughly American, despite her heritage, and feels their differences at every turn.
Her biggest hurdle is working through the death of her classmate. While she was not directly responsible for Ruth's death, she feels immense guilt and a definite sense that Ruth was not so different from her and her friends. The book reads like a letter to Ruth as Kana tries to come to terms with the loss - and ultimately, prepare herself for what might come next.
The pace and voice of Orchards are both fantastic, but the imagery is bar-none. The author did an immense amount of research into mikan farming and was able to paint a very realistic scene of Kana's life on the farm, in the backwoods of Shizuoka prefecture. I could almost smell the mikan as I read! Like in Ash, the setting is the strongest feature, though the plot and characters are hardly lacking. Kana is perfectly developed, and the supporting cast receives just enough care as to make them realistic. It is Kana that the reader comes to feel for - and while her issues may not be close to the reader's heart at the beginning, by the end, she becomes very real indeed.
Any expat who enjoys reading has no doubt devoured a title or ten about their host country. I'm no exception - or maybe I am the exception in that I really love fictional books set in Japan and written by foreigners. Don't get me wrong; I have plenty of beloved titles by Japanese authors, and I've enjoyed many of the classics, from Genji to Murakami. (I will cover some of those in another post!) However, fiction stories that present life in Japan - good or ill - as viewed by visitors or permanent residents have always caught my interest.
After a year away at college, military brat Bernadette Root has come “home” to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, to spend the summer with her bizarre yet comforting clan. Ruled by a strict, regimented Air Force Major father, but grounded in their mother’s particular brand of humor, Bernie’s family was destined for military greatness during the glory days of the mid-’50s. But in Base life, where an unkempt lawn is cause for reassignment, one fateful misstep changed the Roots’ world forever. Yet the family’s silence cannot keep the wounds of the past from reemerging . . . nor can the memory fade of beloved Fumiko, the family’s former maid, whose name is now verboten. And the secrets long ago covered up in classic military style–through elimination and denial–are now forcing their way to the surface for a return engagement.
I picked up The Yokota Officers Club more recently, here in Toronto while trying to put some of the reverse culture shock at bay. When she saw it in one of our shared spaces, my roommate commented that I always read "the weirdest books." Well.
Must have been the title?
Max Danger, The Adventures of an Expat in Tokyo, by Robert J. Collins
Follow the adventures of Tokyo’s favorite expatriate Max Danger, as he weaves his way in and out of the intricacies and dilemmas of living in Japan from baffling bilingual breakfast meetings, through the mind-boggling enigmas of doing business in Japan, to the dubious pleasures of late-night hostess clubs.
Max Danger seems to exhaust himself just trying to make it through the day.
This collection of short stories is showing its age considerably, but it's still a quirky look at what living in Tokyo was like for an expat businessman in the 1980s, at the height of the "bubble economy." Personally, I couldn't get over the way they took taxis everywhere around Tokyo. Taxis! Seriously!?
The print version can be picked up secondhand, or try the new Kindle release for this one.
Caitlin Ober is back in Japan, teaching English in Kyushu. Some 15 years ago, as a little girl, Caitlin lived in Kyoto, but a tragic accident drove her and her family back to America. Now guilt obscures her path, just as ashfall from a nearby volcano covers Kagoshima in dust. In a garden Caitlin meets a teenage half-Japanese girl, Naomi, who may be someone Caitlin can save this time around. Together the two travel to Kyoto during O-Bon, the festival when the dead return. Amid bonfires, temple grounds, and ghostly memories, Caitlin bravely embraces her future. Ash is a bittersweet novel of redemptive beauty, of startling images and alluring details.
This novel is stunning. I really have no other words for it. It is poignant and beautiful both in its characters and in its setting, and is far and away my favourite novel about Japan by any author, foreign or otherwise. The lucky grab of this book at a book sale in Tokyo was very fortunate, and the author has written another novel on Japan that is at the top of my reading list.
'When I was nine, in the city now called Kyoto, I changed my fate...What I asked for? Any life but this one.' When Aurelia flees the fire that kills her missionary uncle and leaves her orphaned and alone in nineteenth-century Japan, she has no idea how quickly her wish will be answered. Knowing only a few words of Japanese she hides in a tea house and is adopted by the family who own it: gradually falling in love with both the tea ceremony and with her young mistress, Yukako. As Aurelia grows up she devotes herself to the family and its failing fortunes in the face of civil war and western intervention, and to Yukako's love affairs and subsequent marriage. But her feelings for her mistress are never reciprocated and as tensions mount in the household Aurelia begins to realise that to the world around her she will never be anything but an outsider. A lushly detailed, spellbinding story, "The Teahouse Fire" is an unforgettable debut.
The Teahouse Fire is a title I was very into right up until the ending. I suppose I felt that the way the story went after a certain point wasn't the way I wanted, though from a literary standpoint it certainly was dramatic. Still, I'd highly recommend this novel, especially for fans of Memoirs of a Geisha - it's a great way to learn more about ancient Japanese fine arts.
Have more recommendations for me? Leave them in the comments! Or check out some of these other fine Japan-centric books:
Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog - Tadaimatte. As a bit of background, I returned from living abroad in Japan a little more than a year ago, and have found the adjustment back to life in Canada a little difficult. I think everyone thought me to be a "lifer" once I got over there, but there are important people here whom I hated being so far away from!
I've been looking for ways to connect with my life in Japan and put some of the reverse culture shock and homesickness to rest. I volunteer with exchange students and write for JapanTourist, and from time to time I write as well. I thought, why not share some of these struggles, and document some of my memories from Japan? Thus the creation of this blog. I hope everyone - ex-expats and Japan hopefuls alike - will find something close to home in my writings.
