Anyone recognize this guidebook? Originally published in 1964 in five volumes, the tome in the photo above was a second issue published in 1992 in a single volume: a whopping 1,341 pages, 135 maps, 85 sketches and 2,099 festival dates! It weighs one kilogram. Even back in the day when travelers lugged around guidebooks, I can’t imagine schlepping around something like this, having to winch it out of my backpack every time I wanted to look up some information. But according to reader reviews on Amazon, enough people did, and to this day harbor a special attachment to the book. En route to the tourist sites, perhaps these people made their children carry it. The fact that the single volume weighs in at exactly one kilogram suggests to me that this edition may have been edited down to that figure. I say this because the author has deleted as many definite and indefinite articles as possible, to the point that much of the book sounds like someone’s personal notes:
Ise Daijingu, Home of Sun Goddess Here in forest primeval is Japan’s birth bower. In first centuries of Christian era these islands witnessed progressive waves of foreign human and cultural invasions, which melded with original inhabitants and each other, gradually creating this amalgam we know as Japan. Seal on this unification of groups as well as of wedding of continental organization with indigenous aesthetic, was establishment of JINGU, Grand Shrine of Ise, which stands today, unchanged for at least fifteen centuries.
The only reason I can think of why someone would write this way is to save space. Unless the authors just couldn’t be bothered to turn their notes into prose. But I doubt that since the book is thorough enough to suggest these are not lazy writers. The sole Editorial Review on Amazon notes “the text is choppy” as if the author where aboard a ship during a storm when he wrote it. Entirely possible. The review goes on to rave that the book “covers not only where to go but what to do.” Apparently, that was a bonus at the time the guidebook was written.
Since it is doubtful that the three authors went to all of the places listed (which would take a lifetime), producing such a volume of this scope would have necessitated copying information directly from tourist brochures and translating from Japanese guidebooks (no internet back then). But such information in English would have been in high demand and the authors would have found an eager audience to read their book.
Japan Inside Out is surely a classic, and probably serves better as a reference book for most of us. Though it is now out of print, It can be bought used on Amazon for US$7.51
In eighteen chapters, this anthology takes an epic journey the length of Japan, from subtropical Okinawa, through the Japanese heartland, all the way to the wilds of Hokkaido.
“It’s easy to fall under the spell of rural Japan” is the first sentence in the introduction to this anthology that sets the reader upon a path to enchantment. Each essay acts as a beguiling incantation that will amplify one’s desire to explore the Japanese countryside.
If you’re an avid reader of Japan-related literature you’ll recognize some prolific and well-known writers like Amy Chavez, Lesley Downer, and Stephen Mansfield. While newer, emerging writers like Paul Barach, Tom Gibb and Paul Vickory enthral with their humor and wit.
The first composition is by Silvia Lawrence and begins on the islands of Tanegashima and Yakushima southwest of Kyushu. Next, is an armchair trip to Okinawa and Tsushima islands before moving to Tokushima and Okayama prefectures. After several anecdotes in the surrounding areas of Nara and Kyoto the reader takes a north-eastern journey to Fukui and Gifu prefectures. This is followed by tales in Shizuoka and Ibaraki before ending up in Tohoku and finally on the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands: Hokkaido.
Stephen Mansfield tickles the senses with the sights, smells, and sounds of Okinawa. He exudes an appreciation of the awamori (Okinawan alcohol) jars and the shisa lion-dog figures, handcrafted and presented in the showroom of potter Paul Lorimer. Brian Burke-Gaffney’s determination is impressive as he struggles through his Buddhist monk training at the Busshin-ji Zen Temple in Shikoku.
Suzanne Kamata sent me on a flurry of Google searches on the creation of sukumo (natural indigo dye) in Tokushima and the farmers who produce this beautiful material.
Shucho-cho in Yamaguchi felt like the perfect retreat for Sarah Coomber who craved seclusion in Japan. The kindness of the locals and a connection with the koto (Japanese stringed musical instrument) were able to repair her soul and define her future in ways she’d never imagined.
Amy Chavez’s devotion to her island in Okayama Prefecture and her willingness to preserve its history is commendable. Her description of the fishermen on Shiraishi Island and their success catching octopuses and sardines gives an immersive impression of life on this Japanese island where culture and traditions are respected and maintained.
Rebecca Otowa is upfront and honest about the positive and negative aspects of rural life, running a country home, and the way in which inaka life is evolving. Iain Maloney comments on one’s “adventurous nomadic spirit” with the realisation that in the end, we all settle. Thersa Matsuura’s passage is an example of frustrating Japanese superstitions that can become misconceptions.
One can imagine drinking tea on a mountainside overlooking Mount Fuji with Mei Ling Chiam. Lesley Downer’s travels in Tohoku, retracing the footsteps of the great haiku poet Matsuo Bashō, are fascinating. Bashō’s haiku are sprinkled throughout her chapter giving it a lyrical nuance.
This book gives readers an intimate portrayal of rural Japanese life. The writers’ keen observations make it a collection that will educate, thrill, shock, spoil and delight.
I’ve read 84 books so far this year. According to my Goodreads “Reading Challenge,” I’m 15 books ahead of schedule, so I’m well on my way to hitting the 100 mark. In fact, I’ll probably surpass it. How did I go from reading 5 to 10 books a year to reading over 100? It was easier than I thought, especially considering that I am not a fast reader. In fact, I take pride in being a slow, careful reader.
Before I share my easily implemented strategies to read more books, I want to discuss why it’s a good idea to read more, and in particular why one might want to set the bar rather high.
For me, knowing I have one hundred books to choose from over twelve months means I am no longer limiting myself to a few must-read books each year. Let’s say, for example, that you have to read texts for work or to keep up with your profession. That leaves very little time for leisure reading. But imagine if you could add novels, biographies, short-stories, classics and best-sellers to the mix. And consider how, if you spent more time reading, your views and biases might change because you could peruse books you wouldn’t normally even consider? Reading isn’t just about increasing knowledge, it should include expanding your horizons and gaining perspective on the world we live in.
At the moment, for example, people are “getting back to books” with the Black Lives Matter movement. While reading newspaper articles, op-eds and essays brings the topic to awareness, none can go into the depth needed to understand all the issues. So many people are turning to the best-sellers on the topic such as How to be an Anti-Racist, and So You Want to Talk about Race. Books give much needed, and desired, perspective. So next time, when you know you’re not getting the whole story, be proactive and turn to books that give a more balanced treatment of the subject.
The Elephant in the Room: Time
There are already so many demands on your time, so where is this magic reading time going to come from?
The good news is that you don’t need any more time than that premium free time you already have. Consider how much time you spend per day reading newspaper articles, Facebook posts, emails, newsletters, etc. You’ll probably find that you are in fact already spending a few hours reading. You’re likely spending a few minutes watching videos on YouTube or the odd program on TV too. Or perhaps you play video games? Rather than trying to find more free time, try shifting your screen time to include more books than anything else.
Next, add these 5 tricks to your reading time:
1. Read e-books
If you’re one of those people who prefers the feel of a print book, I can assure you that those who choose digital books agree that there’s nothing quite like the feel of a real book. But reading isn’t all about print books anymore. The attractiveness of ebooks is not how they feel, but that they give you more of a chance to read and more options for absorbing information.
Apps are available now to allow you to inspect digital books on your phone so you can read anywhere, anytime. Both ebook readers and reading apps for your mobile allow you to adjust the font size, underline words and passages, and take notes. An additional bonus is the built in dictionary: just highlight any word and the definition pops up. I find the best reading experience is a balance of both e-book and print. Novels I tend to read in digital, while reserving print for poetry and non-fiction.
And once you start reading more, you’ll soon find that you physically do not have the space to keep so many paperbacks. That’s when you’ll really start appreciating e-books that take up minimal space in a digital library. You can also take that entire library with you when you travel or commute.
Should you dare to become a voracious reader, you’ll also find that ebooks are necessary to keep reading affordable. Digital books are generally much cheaper than physical books. Popular ebooks are regularly put on sale and discounted to just a few dollars or less.
2.Listen to Audio books
If you already listen to music or podcasts on your phone, then you’re accustomed to finding time to listen: while exercising, driving, commuting, gardening, walking the dog, doing mundane house chores or while out running errands. Audio books fit well into these time slots. Besides, it’s nice to give the eyes a break now and then while still allowing the brain to engage.
For a couple years I’ve had a subscription to Audible, where for $US15.00 per month, I can listen to an audio book of my choice. Audible uses professional narrators who are more like voice actors. For Japanese literature, my favorite reader is Brian Nishii, but you’ll soon discover your own faves! You can bookmark audio books and write notes just like you can with e-books, too. I tend to dedicate longer tomes to the audio format because the narrators are usually very engaging (some audio books even include sound effects). Tip: increase the listening speed slightly to 1.3x of 1.5x for light novels and easy-to-process material and you’ll get through them faster. Set the sleep timer if you’d like to be read to sleep by Mr. Nishii.
If you find you’re having a hard time getting through a book, put it down and choose something else. Time is too precious to waste on content that doesn’t entertain, enlighten, or educate.
If you find you’re burnt out on books, maybe it’s a genre thing. Switch to something light, like a Murakami novel where you can just sit back and enjoy the adventure of magical realism. Try including short books in your repertoire too! Red Circle Minis are a series of very short novellas in English written by mostly Japanese authors. Penguin Specials are meant to be read in one sitting. There are plenty of classics that practice the art of brevity too like The Book of Tea by Okakura Tenshin (150 pages) and Jun’ichi Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows (102 pages). When you want to slow the pace of time and savor beautiful words and phrases, dip into Matsuo Bashō’s travel diary The Narrow Road to the Deep North or Saigyo’s Poems of a Mountain Home. Not only will you find time for reflection, you can be assured you’ll finish the book that week!
Stats from my 2019 Reading Challenge
3.Use the Library
I’m a patron of a public library in Japan, where I can check out up to 10 books for two weeks. Having a deadline provides an incentive to finish books. As long as no one else has placed a hold on the title, I can extend the loan by another two weeks for a total of one month.
But don’t do this! I recently learned that the library doesn’t want readers to use sticky notes (as they can lift off the print on the page). Use bookmarks or strips of paper in stead.
4. Borrow books from friends
You likely have friends who share the same interests as you when it comes to authors, topics and genres. They’re also bound to share their own recommendations. Borrowing books from friends not only provides an incentive to return them in a timely manner but you’ll have someone to provoke discussion with when you’re finished, which is one of the many joys of reading. Furthermore, you’ll likely be surprised at what is casually resting on friends’ shelves: first editions, rare books and those that have long been out of print! You’re bound to discover some gems.
If you exchange books with friends, you might want to get book name plates to make sure you get your books back! This is mine, made by friend and author Rebecca Otowa.
5. Join Goodreads or a Book Club
If you haven’t already, join Goodreads (and friend Books on Asia!) or a book club. These communities of bibliophiles will inspire you to not only read, but to share your opinions and reading experiences with others. On Goodreads you can see what your friends are reading and recommending. Here you can also make your reading goal for the year and keep track of the books you want to read as well as those you’ve finished. You’re also welcome to share your views and reviews.
Lastly, if you think you’re “too busy to read,” don’t presume you’re the only one who is busy. Look around and you’ll see other busy people getting in their reading time: that girl at Starbucks reading a book while drinking her coffee; that guy on the train engrossed in his cell-phone ebook app; someone staring into an ebook reader while waiting for a friend at the station. Or maybe that’s you!
Remember, reading should be fun. It shouldn’t be about how many books you read per year, but about how many hours you spend engrossed in being a happy bibliomaniac!
Interested in Japanese poetry? Author and translator Roger Pulvers offers a few minutes of poetry on his YouTube channel each update. His recitation of Masaoka Shiki above is typical of his offerings where he reads haiku and tanka. He introduces the poet, recites some of their well-known verses (that he translated into English himself) and gives short commentary. Subscribe to his YouTube channel to get a few minutes of poeticism in your life!
About the Author: Roger Pulvers acclaimed author, playwright, theatre and film director, translator and journalist, has published more than fifty books in Japanese and English. He was assistant to director Oshima Nagisa on the film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and has directed the film version of his novel Star Sand. Awards include the Miyazawa Kenji Prize in 2008 and the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2013; in 2018, the Order of the Rising Sun; and in 2019, the Order of Australia.
There is a common assumption that Japanese people love nature. In some ways that is clearly true, thankfully. However, in various important respects what happens in practice seems to go very much against that. In a world increasingly focused on sustainability and protection of the environment there is one habit in Japan which, I suggest, needs to change.
I’m referring to the bad habit of cutting down all or 90 percent of the trees, bushes and plants in an old garden when knocking down the existing house and a building a new house there. And replanting either no greenery at all, or only a tiny amount, less than five percent of the of trees and bushes that were there before in the old house’s garden.
This is an e-book only deal on iBooks and Amazon and will last only 24hrs, so grab it now by clicking the green “More info” button on the left.
Norwegian Wood ノルウェイの森 (Noruwei no Mori)
First published in Japanese in 1987.
Translated into English by Alfred Brinbaum in 1989, then again in 2000 by Jay Rubin.
“Until the publication of Norwegian Wood in 1987, Murakami had enjoyed the psychological and material satisfaction of writing for a solid, faithful readership of perhaps 100,000. But the intrusion on his private life of sudden fame sent the normally unflappable author into a mild depression and the closest thing to writer’s block he had experienced since his debut. For seven months during the latter part of 1988, owing to what he called ‘the after-effects of uproar over Norwegian Wood,’ he was unable to write, though he remained productive as a translator.” —Jay Rubin, Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words.
The short-story that led to Norwegian Wood was “Firefly” which you can read in his short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
A film adaptation, directed by Tran Anh Hung, was released in 2010.
Tokyo-based author and collector Amy Katoh has had her Blue & White store in Azabu Jūban, Minato-ku for 44 years. Her shop celebrates the Japanese love for blue and white, especially as represented in traditional textiles (kasuri, tenugui, zabuton cushions, etc.) and porcelain (Imari plates, vases, soba cups, etc).
Many of our readers will be familiar with Katoh’s books on traditional Japanese living and crafts. I remember when I first came to Japan, I used to stop by Kinokuniya bookstore just to do tachiyomi (standing and reading) of her beautifully written and photographed book Blue and White Japan. Twenty plus years later, I not only have applied her methods to my own interior decorating, but have a complete library of Katoh’s books: Japan: The Art of Living, Japan Country Living: Spirit, Tradition, Style and Otafuku: Joy of Japan.
You can help author and entrepreneur Amy Katoh keep her 44-year-old store afloat through the COVID-19 crisis by shopping at the Blue and White online shop where she offers hand-made original merchandise perfect to give as gifts or to imbue your house with that Japanese aesthetic touch! Alternatively, you can buy her books here (Japan) and here (Int’l).
Included in the University of Michigan Press ‘Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies,’ The Era of Great Disasters is a scholarly but highly readable text that investigates Japan’s three major quakes: The Great Kantō Earthquake (Yokohama, 1923), The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (Kobe, 1995) and the Great East Japan Earthquake (Tohoku, 2011). The play-by-play telling of each event, from the first rumbles and unfolding of the disasters to first responders sometimes reads like a thriller complete with insurmountable dilemmas among impeccable timing. The author, himself a victim of the 1995 disaster takes the reader behind the scenes into the Prime Minister’s office and board rooms of government agencies to parse the catastrophes from beginning to end, including recovery efforts and reconstruction of beleaguered cities.
The book sheds a welcome light on the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 with its epicenter in Yokohama, that killed 105,000 people, 90 percent of them casualties from the resulting fires that spread through Edo (Tokyo). Iokibe expounds upon the “Vigilante Massacres,” in which hundreds of Koreans were randomly killed after false rumors circulated that Koreans were looting, murdering and starting the blazes. Conscious steps were taken to make sure such events didn’t repeat themselves in the future.
Among the myriad details the text presents, two really stood out for this reader. The first is that researchers tied higher survival rates to those living in communities that held local festivals. Because residents had close ties, they had a vested interest in helping each other. Because they visited each other’s homes often, they were familiar with the layout of houses and were better able to rescue their neighbors. The second item was how students in a dormitory at Kobe University of Mercantile Marine rescued Kobe residents under the direction of one particular student, Arita Toshiaki, who took charge by insisting his dormitory mates don gloves, boots and winter jackets before rushing out to help people in dire need. He further instructed them to first visit houses that hadn’t collapsed in order to borrow tools such as saws, hammers and crowbars. Arita’s foresight enabled the Hakuō dormitory students to work quickly and efficiently to rescue over 100 people in their neighborhood.
The last third of the book is dedicated to mitigation. Disaster preparations and regulations are changing on national, prefectural and local levels as Japan looks to prepare for future calamities. The Sanriku area in Eastern Japan has been repeatedly devastated by tsunami in the Meiji, Showa and Heisei eras. Of the 22,000 lost lives in the East Japan Earthquake, 90 percent were a result of the tsunami. This has prompted towns to move or rebuild at higher elevations, construct higher sea walls, and relocate individual houses. The nation’s 2.1 percent tax increase to cover the costs of the devastation is also unprecedented.
Discussion is also given to reconstructing cities, and given Japan’s shrinking population and continuing depopulation of the countryside, how to rebuild. Should some towns be replaced at all? If so, should they be rebuilt with just the necessities, or enhanced for future generations?
The author is president of the Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute and penned a regular column on natural disasters for the Mainichi newspaper.
This collection of fifteen short stories provides a delightful portrayal of urban and rural life in Japan of the past and present. Rebecca Otowa shows remarkable talent as she glides through a series of eclectic writing styles. Central themes include fate, despair, morality, prosperity and decline, frustration and acceptance, adjustment and change, love and loss, cultural adversity, and misunderstanding.
The writer has taken on the tricky method of switching to different time periods to show maturity, growth or decline. She does this seamlessly; we see all sorts of characters evolve, or not, and their health and lifestyles prosper or fall by the wayside as the years pass.
“Genbei’s Curse” is a harrowing piece particularly poignant in these uncertain times due to COVID-19. If karma is considered, readers may worry about becoming a victim themselves if they’re unsympathetic towards others.
Readers who relish Japanese history or love a good old-fashioned fight with fire and axes will be on the edge of their seat reading “Trial by Fire.” But it was “Showa Girl” that really appealed to me. The story drops the reader straight into pre-war Japan and the Manchurian crisis while following a young girl who carries out her every day chores, attends school, and confronts soldiers during the Showa period (1926-1989).
“The Turtle Stone” addresses traditions and the ingrained value and respect attributed to customer service in accordance with the Japanese phrase okyakusama wa kamisama desu (the customer is god). The story describes how cultural heritage is passed down from one generation to the next and how modernity is eroding a long list of Japanese treasures, crafts and skills while dementia also plays its part impacting humankind.
The title story is the last anecdote in the volume. “The Mad Shoe Swapper” is a comical piece based on the author’s personal experiences but is best understood realizing how strict Japan can be. There are rules everyone abides, and Westerners are expected to follow, like the removal of shoes at the entrance to a home or at certain temples. In “The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper” a young man flouts the laws of propriety and steps into other people’s shoes at temples on his way out, leaving his own pair behind. This little game of theft becomes an obsession. The writing is thoroughly entertaining and there’s an unexpected happy ending.
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Stories is packed with interesting stories with appealing characters. The writing is passionate, the endings unexpected. I sense Otowa’s liberation via her prose, and I hope we can look forward to more of her anecdotes that unearth even deeper insights into Japan.
