A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (MacLehose Press)

Nanae Aoyama was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1983 and began writing career while working full-time as a travel agent. Her first novel, 窓の灯 (Mado no Akari) was published in 2005 and won the 42nd Bungei Prize. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is her first novel to be translated into English. It was originally published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha as ひとり日和 (Hitori Biyori) in 2007. The book won Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the 136th Akutagawa Prize in 2007. It is the story of a young woman who is a freeter, a Japanese term used to describe someone between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four who is “unemployed, underemployed, or otherwise lacks full-time paid employment”. 

Chizu is a twenty-year old woman living with her mother in Saitama Prefecture who decides to move to Tokyo to make her way in life. Her parents got divorced when she was five. Her father had moved to Fukuoka two years ago and she hasn’t spoken to him since he left. Her mother was a teacher who taught at a private secondary school and was going to China as part of a teacher-exchange program. 

Although her mother invited Chizu to come with her to China, Chizu refused and said she was going to make a go of it in Tokyo. After exchanging a few words, her mother told her, “Well, if you aren’t coming with me, then I’m sorry, but you’ll have to earn your own keep. That, or go to university. There’s only so long I can keep supporting you”. 

Chizu told her mother, “Guess I’ll earn my own keep then” because she really didn’t want to return to being a student. Her mother relented but said she does know someone with a house in Tokyo that she might be able to live with. 

So, Chizu finds herself moving into the house of a distant relative. The only thing she knows is that the relative has let others stay with her before until they found places of their own. It was a rainy spring day when Chizu arrived at the house which is located near Sasazuka station on the Keio Line. 

The first thing Chizu noticed about the house were the walls of her room. They were lined with cat photos. That’s when she meets the owner of the house. A woman in her seventies. Chizu remembers when she first came to the house and saw her, she was thinking, “she looks like she’s barely got a week to live”. 

It wasn’t until the woman got Chizu settled in her room and showed her around the house that the two properly introduced themselves. The old lady’s name was Ginko Ogino. Chizu couldn’t help but ask about the pictures of the cats in her room - there were twenty-three of them. 

Ginko tells Chihiro that she calls the room with the cat photos, the “Cherokee” room. When Chizu asks why, Ginko tells her she calls all the cats Cherokee because she can never remember all their names. Chizu thinks perhaps Ginko is a little senile and has some reservations of her own, living with this woman she barely knows. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is a coming-of-age novel. It follows a year in the life of twenty-year-old Chizu Mita as she finds herself living with a seventy-year-old woman she barely knows. At first, Chizu comes off as cold-hearted, selfish, and entitled. She was very difficult to like. However, as the story progresses, we see her mature into a responsible adult. I’m sure many young people will relate to Chizu. She reminded me of when I was in my twenties and I thought I owned the world and knew everything, but as many people have said, “Live and learn!”. ~Ernie Hoyt

Mata Tabi (またたび) by Sakura Momoko (Shinchosha) Japanese text only

Momoko Sakura was a Japanese manga artist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter who grew up in the town of Shimizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. She is best known as being the creator of one of Japan’s longest running anime series - Chibi Maruko-chan, which was based on her own childhood. 

Chibi Maruko-chan was serialized in the magazine Ribon from 1986 to 1999 and continued in serialization until 2022. The first anime series began in 1990 and continued until 1992. The second anime series began in 1995 and continues today, even though Sakura passed away from breast cancer in 2018. She was fifty-three at the time. 

Her first collection of essays, もものかんづめ (Momo no Kanzume) was published in 1991 and became a million seller in Japan. Although the title translates in English to “Canned Peaches”, Momo is short for Momoko and she describes being stuck in a hotel room to write her essays. Her follow up collection of essays - さるのこしかけ (Saru no Koshi Kake, trans. Monkey Trick) and たいのおかしら (Tai no Okashira, trans. Seabream Head) were also million sellers. 

In January of 2000, Sakura Momoko became the editor-in-chief of a magazine called 富士山 (Fujisan). Although the title imitated the look of a magazine, its distribution was handled as a book. All five volumes include an ISBN number. またたび (Mata Tabi) is a collection of Sakura’s travel essays taken from all five volumes of Fujisan. The majority of the essays are her stories about her travels in various parts of Asia. The title translates to “Travel Again”. The only two essays outside of Asia she wrote about were her trip to London and her visit to Venice. 

One of her first projects for an article was visiting foreign countries close to Japan. One of the first destinations she chose was Khabarovsuk in Russia. All the times she traveled to Europe, she would hear an announcement saying, “We are now flying over Khabarovsk. However, when Sakura looked out the window, all she could see were mountains, plains, and rivers. She thought, if it’s popular enough to be announced then there must be something special about the place. 

When Sakuro told some of friends, “I’m going to Khabarovsk”, she was usually met with, “Huh? Khabarovsk?” One of the staff members of the magazine said they had been there before and told Sakura, “Don’t expect the food to be any good”. Another staff member who had been there informed Sakura that canned crab and caviar are cheap. Still, Sakura was determined to go and see for herself. 

Another destination, a foreign country close to Japan, was Guam. Guam is only a three hour flight from Tokyo but Sakura had never been there. She thought the only thing to do in Guam is swim in the ocean, go golfing and maybe do a little bit of shopping. She talked to a few of her friends who had been there and when she asked what did you do in Guam, almost all of them answered, “swam in the ocean, played a bit of golf, and did a bit of shopping”. 

Khabarovsk and Guam may not have seemed like interesting places to visit but Sakura’s writing and experience makes it a joy to imagine. In this collection, she also writes about her adventures in South Korea, gem mining in Sri Lanka, eating unusual foods in Guangzhou and  buying large quantities of tea in Yunnan Province in China, suffering from atlitude sickness in Tibet, checking out one of Japan’s World Heritage Sites - Toshogu in Tochigi Prefecture, cruising to a small resort island near the hot spring resort town of Atami, and ending the book with a trip to Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture to thank the people of the town for being the biggest supporters of her work. 

Every essay is a joy to read. They are filled with humor and you can feel the joy and pain of all her experiences abroad. Reading the book may inspire your wanderlust. I’m ready to pack my bags and go! ~Ernie Hoyt

Mio The Beautiful by Kinota Braithwaite, translated by Setsuko Miura (Self-Published)

Kinota Braithwaite is a Canadian-African children’s book author and elementary school teacher. He is married to a Japanese citizen and they have a young daughter. Braithwaite wrote Mio The Beautiful for his child who experienced being bullied at school due to the color of her skin. He also illustrated the book. 

The book includes English and the original Japanese which was translated by Setsuko Miruo who is also a childhood educator and Montessori Teacher Trainer. She dreams of a world “where all children can find happiness, love, and acceptance”. 

It was Mio’s first day of school. She was starting the first grade but was feeling nervous. She was wondering what her new school would be like. Would she be able to make friends? Who was going to be her teacher? Questions all new students have when they’re starting a new school or going to elementary school for the first time. 

Mio enjoyed her first day of school. She liked her teacher, Momo-sensei. Momo-sensei made learning fun and all the students enjoyed her lessons. Mio really liked school. She enjoyed the school lunches, called kyushoku, which is common to all Japanese schools. Students help serve the food as well. 

Mio also liked learning new things about Japanese culture such as flower-arranging and wearing a kimono. But then one day everything changed. Some of the other students started making fun of her because of the color of her skin. Once she got home, she told her parents she didn’t want to go to school anymore. 

Prejudice against foreigners is nothing new to Japan. Even for those foreigners who were born and raised in Japan. Even if they can speak the language, often they are not accepted as Japanese. Mio’s father being African-Canadian means her skin color is different and being different in Japan makes you stand out. And if you stand out, you are almost sure to become a target of ridicule. 

In the book, Mio’s parents call Momo-sensei and express their concern. Momo-sensei says she will talk to all of the students about the power of words and how they can hurt people. In class the next day, Momoh-sensei asks the other students if they have ever had their feelings hurt because someone called them a name they didn’t like. Many of the students raised their hands. 

Momo-sensei explained to her students that Japan would be a boring place if everyone was the same. She goes on to tell them, “Mio has a different color than many of you but that does not mean she is not beautiful”. She continues by telling her students, “Mio was born in Japan, like us, and speaks Japanese, like us, and she loves Japan like we do”. 

If all teachers in Japan were like Momo-sensei, there wouldn’t be bullying of any sort in any of the schools. It would be an ideal world but bullying continues to be a problem. Not only for bi-racial children but even for Japanese kids as well. 

The story is very reminiscent of the children’s book Yoko by Rosemary Wells. In a plot similar to Mio The Beautiful, Yoko’s mother prepares her favorite dishes for lunch. At lunch time when everyone takes out their lunch box or brown paper bags, Yoko takes out her bento box. The kids then see that she’s eating sushi for lunch…and the teasing begins which leaves Yoko in tears. 

Finding acceptance in a foreign country can be a difficult thing, especially for kids, and Mio the Beautiful is a reminder to parents and teachers and others how everyone should be treated with respect. As my father used to say to me, “Treat people the way you want people to treat you.” I’ve always taken that advice to heart. ~Ernie Hoyt

Houses with a Story by Seiji Yoshida, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash (Amulet Books)

Seiji Yoshida is a former employee of a PC game manufacturer who became a freelance Japanese illustrator and background graphic artist in 2003. He has worked on a number of video games and recently has designed the cover of books. He is also a lecturer at the Kyoto Univeristy of Arts and Kyoto Seika University. 

Houses with a Story is the English translation of his second book which was originally published in the Japanese language with the title [ものがたりの家 吉田誠治美術設定集] (Monogatari no Ie : Yoshida Seiji Bijutsu Settei-shu) by PIE Books in 2020. It is a collection of his illustrations of imaginary houses.

Yoshida mentions in the Foreword that he has always been impressed by the buildings in the books and stories he’s read. He mentions “the hideout in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the hut in the Alps from Heidi, the Nowhere Hose Of Master Hora in Momo, and so many others”. He would read the stories and look at the illustrations over and over and would imagine the details of those various worlds. 

In Houses with a Story, he says, “To re-create my childhood self’s delight, I introduce unique homes within this book, all of which could easily turn up in stories of their own”. He has drawn more than thirty houses and the people that live in them. He also gave a lot of thought as to the location and time period for each building. 

Some of the houses featured in the book include the Kaidan-do Bookstore, a World Weary Astronomer’s Residence, the Meticulour Clockmaker, the Reserved Mechanic’s Cottage, the Post Office of the Dragon Tamer, and The Library of Lost Books to name just a few. Many of the designs of the houses were meticulously researched while others were purely drawn from inspiration. 

One page is a full color illustration of the house from the outside. The other page shows a cut-away so you can look into the interior as well. He has imagined the type of person who lives in the house and gives a little background of the person and the story. 

The bookstore owner is a young man who “quit his steady job in the city and moved to this town, following his dream of owning a used bookstore”. The house is located on a hilly road that leads to the ocean. As the house is built on a slope, “its defining feature is the multiple levels that make up the interior”. 

Yoshida has also included a panel story about the Reserved Mechanic’s Cottage titled The End of the Day. There is absolutely no dialogue so he leaves it up to the reader’s imagination of what might be going on in the mechanic’s mind as he makes dinner and feeds his dog. 

Yoshida includes an illustration of his work studio and explains in detail where he makes his drawings. It is easy to visualize him at work as he includes the top of his work desk and the equipment he uses and also shows a top view of the layout of the room which he shares with his wife. 

Towards the end of the book, Yoshida provides concepts and commentary about each house included in this collection. For example, we learn that the house of the Meticulous Clockmaker is located in Japan and was built sometime around the nineteenth century. The interior of this house is based on a stationary store called Takei Sanshodo which can be seen at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, Tokyo Prefecture.. Although it is an old building, he believes it’s appropriate for the present. Even today many old homes are renovated and given new life in the present. 

The final section of the book is a full chapter on how one of his illustrations comes into being. It is titled Making of a Minor’s Engine House. He writes in step-by-step detail of how a drawing comes into being starting with “Creating the Rough Drafts and Sketches”, followed by “Color the Model Sheet”, and ending with “Color the Illustration”. 

Houses with a Story is more than just an art book. It is more than just a collection of unique houses. It is a book that will help you expand your imagination. Yoshida says, “The tale you weave for each house is entirely up to you, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than you finding yourself immersed in a wonderful story”. ~Ernie Hoyt

海峡の記憶：青函連絡船 (Kaikyo no Kioku : Seikan Rensakusen) by Asako Shirai (Kajisha) Japanese text only

Asako Shirai is a Japanese photographer. She was born in Hakodate, Hokkaido in 1951. Before the advent of the Seikan Tunnel that connects the islands of Honshu with Hokkaido, from Aomori City to Hakodate, the only way to travel to and from Aomori to Hakodate or Hakodate to Aomori was to take the Seikan ferry. 海峡の記憶：青函連絡船 (Kaikyo no Kiouku : Seikan Rensakusen) translates to Memories of the Straight : Seikan Ferry. The strait refers to the Kaikyu Strait that separates Honshu from Hokkaido. 

March 1988 marks the last day of the Seikan ferry service between Aomori and Hakodate. There were still seven ships in service at the time - the Hakkoda Maru, Mashu Maru, Yotei Maru, Towada Maru, Sorachi Maru, Hiyama Maru, and the Ishikari Maru. 

The Sorachi Maru was only a freight service ferry. The Hiyama Maru and Ishikari Maru were freight-only ferries but were converted into freight-passenger service. The other four ships were freight-passenger ferries from the beginning. 

A little history of the Seikan ferry service from 1960 onward is provided by Takashi Ishiguro. From 1946 to 1953, Ishiguro worked at the Ministry of Transport, General Bureau of Trade, Marine Division. From 1953, he was the Hakodate Railway Management Bureau Marine Affairs Division Manager. It was his job to design and oversee the safety aspects of the Seikan ferries. 

To understand the need for the safety of the ferries, Ishiguro says one must revisit the Toya Maru Disaster. On September 26, 1954, The Toya Maru sank during Typhoon No.15, also known as Typhoon Marie. Aside from the Toya Maru, four other ferries sank during the typhoon - the Dai Juichi Seikan Maru, the Kitami Maru, the Hidaka Maru, and the Tokachi Maru. 

From a total of 1,632 passenger and crew members, 1,430 people lost their lives, 112 people could not be found. Only 202 people survived.Out of the 1,089 passengers, 981 were lost, 108 survived. Of the 57 American servicemen, 50 died, 6 were unaccounted for, and only 1 survived. 

It was one of the worst ferry disasters in history. Ishiguro was assigned to design the new ferries and to make them safer so a similar accident would never happen again. Learning a bit of the history of how and why the new ferries were designed adds to the enjoyment of viewing the photographs taken by Shirai. 

As someone who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, one of the small pleasures of life was taking the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton. I had never given any thought to the people who work and run the ferries. However, with any form of public transportation - safey must always remain the top priority. 

Since 1990, the Seikan Ferry Memorial Ship [Hakkoda Maru] sits in Aomori Bay as a Maritime Museum. My mother-in-law worked there as a receptionist for about ten years so I have taken the tour on many occasions. You would be surprised that the freight was carried directly by trains, some of the trains are displayed inside the ferry.

There are displays on the ship portraying life in Aomori during the Showa era. It surprises some people because as you pass by some of the displays, the life-like figures start talking to you, in the Tsugaru dialect. Even if you understand Japanese but haven’t lived or worked in Aomori, it is very difficult to understand what is being said. You can also take a tour of the Mashu Maru which sits at the harbor in Hakodate. 

There is still a ferry service between Aomori and Hakodate and it is much more economical than traveling by shinkansen, also known as the bullet train. After reading and looking through this photography book, you will have a new appreciation for how the ferries run. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa (Vintage)

Kotaro Isaka is one of Japan’s foremost mystery writers that also includes Keigo Higashino and Miyuki Miyabe. A number of their books have been adapted into feature length movies and many of their titles have been translated into English. 

The Mantis became available in English in paperback for the first time in 2024. It was published by Vintage Books and translated by Sam Malissa, a Yale scholar who holds a PhD in Japanese Literature. He has also translated Kotaro Isaka’s books 3 Assassins, Bullet Train, and most recently Hotel Lucky Seven. 

The Mantis was originally published in the Japanese language as AX in 2017 by Kadokawa. It was nominated for the Bookstore Award in 2018 which was won by Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Sky (Asia by the Book, April 27, 2023). The Mantis is the third book in Isaka’s Hitman series. 

The main character is Kabuto. An ordinary family man with a wife and a high-school aged son, Katsumi. He works at an office supplies company. He started the job in his mid-twenties when his son was born and has continued to work there. Kabuto has another job. A job he hasn’t mentioned to his wife or son. 

Kabuto is a contract killer. However, Kabuto has a strong desire to leave that particular profession behind. When he was talking to his son the other evening, he said to his son, “Do you know what the one thing I want to do most is?” Of course his son doesn’t know but he answers, “I want to worry about my son’s future. Whether it’s school, or anything. I want to rack my brains thinking about what path you should and shouldn’t take”. 

On his latest assignment, Kabuto teamed up with a couple of other contractors who were given the same target. After the job was done, the assassins joked around with each other. The other two admire Kabuto for being a married man who continues to do this job. Kabuto shares a story about his wife that the other two find quite amusing. They told him “The whole industry respects you” but adds, “There are a lot of people who would be disappointed if they knew you were this frightened of your wife”. 

Kabuto often goes to a hospital in another part of town away from his own house and his son’s school. The clinic may seem like an ordinary clinic on the outside but the doctor who runs the place is also Kabuto’s handler. He advises Kabuto “to undertake this surgery”. In their line of business, they use codes and phrases that may sound normal in a hospital setting but have totally different meanings. “Surgery” means “target”. “Emergency operation” means the deed has to be done as soon as possible. 

Kabuto had promised his wife that he would go with her to their son’s parent-teacher conference but the “emergency operation” is to be held on the same day. Kabuto wants to refuse the “operation” and tells the doctor, “No more risky procedures”. He tells the doctor he wants to get out of the game. The doctor answers “Retirement requires capital” which Kabuto knows to mean the doctor will never let him retire. 

He reluctantly takes the assignment but consistently refuses other “risky procedures”. He also learns that the Doctor has taken out a contract on him. Now Kabuto must do everything he can to save himself and his family. 

Kotaro Isaka’s Assassins series never disappoints. There is a lot of action, there are many plot twists and you never know what will happen next. If you’re unfamiliar with Japanese mystery, Kotaro Isaka books would be a good place to start. ~Ernie Hoyt

Kiki's Delivery Service (Volumes 1-4) by Hayao Miyazaki (Viz Media)

Studio Ghibli animation films have become popular worldwide and are loved by many people around the world. Although many of the films are original stories, there are a few that are based on other works. 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a film that was based on a novel written by Japanese children’s book author and essayist Eiko Kadono. The original title is 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyubin) which translates to “The Witch’s Delivery Service”. it was originally published in 1985 by Fukuinkan Shoten. This four volume graphic novel adaptation of the book was written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. 

We are introduced to Kiki, a thirteen-year-old witch who is about to embark on a journey to become an independent witch. She is the daughter of the witch Kokiri and a mortal man, Okino, an anthropologist who studies witches and fairies. 

Kiki speaks in the first-person and tells us “I’m the witch Kiki. When a witch turns thirteen she has to take a journey to hone her craft!”. She has made her own broom and plans to leave on an evening when the skies are clear and the moon is full. Joining Kiki on her journey will be her pet and companion, Jiji, a black cat that can speak. 

Kiki’s mother offers Kiki her old and reliable broom but Kiki wants to use the one she made herself. Jiji also says that she should take her mother’s broom. An elderly woman says that Kiki can make a new broom once she gets settled into her new town. Then, her adventure begins. 

Kiki heads towards the ocean and finds a bustling coastal city. it’s the kind of place she’s always imagined. The first person she meets and talks to in the city is the town’s clock tower keeper who informs Kiki that nobody has seen a real witch in a long time. 

However, her first encounter with a citizen of the city is the local police who reprimands her for nearly causing an accident. She is saved from the police when someone shouts “Thief!!”. It was a young boy who loves flying. He tells Jiji it was him that helped save her and would she mind teaching him how to fly. Although she is thankful for being saved, she finds the boy's demeanor to be rude and walks away. 

Kiki tries to find a place to stay for the night but wherever she goes, she’s asked about her parents or if she has any identification on her. She begins to have doubts about living in this big city and Jiji suggests looking for a bigger city with friendlier people. But then she meets Osono, the proprietress of a local bakery who offers Kiki a room in return for helping out in the bakery. 

As a new witch in a new town, Kiki must now find a way to make a living. After helping Osono by delivering an item a customer forgot, she returns with a message telling Osono her new delivery girl is quite special. Kiki knows the one talent she has that others don’t is the ability to fly. So she asks Osono if she could start a delivery service at Osono’s Bakery. 

The story is about the trials and tribulations of fitting into a new environment, making friends and becoming a responsible witch after a year of training. However, even with humans, witches have their ups and downs. The most serious being losing her magical abilities. 

Kiki makes her amends with the young boy Tombo, a boy about the same age as Kiki named tombo who has a love of flying. He is a member of the Aviation Club at his school. Although she feels comfortable talking to Tombo, she feels his friends look at her differently. She can sense that they see she is different. It’s after this encounter that Kiki discovers her magic is weakening. 

Will Kiki’s magical powers return? Will she be able to talk to her cat Jiji? When danger threatens and Tombo’s life is hanging by a thread, it takes all of Kiki’s power to conjure up the courage to face her fears and help her new found friend. 

At its most basic, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a coming-of-age story. It is the story of becoming independent and finding the courage to face up to one’s fears in the face of danger. The story can be enjoyed by adults and children alike and perhaps will be able to teach the reader a lesson as well. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai, translated by Sam Bett (New Directions)

Osamu Dazi is the pen name of Shuji Tsushima. A Japanese writer who was born in the rural town of Kanagi, currently a part of Goshogawara City, in Aomori Prefecture. His most famous novel is 人間失格 (Ningen Shikkaku), translated into English as No Longer Human. 

The Flowers of Buffoonery is a prequel to No Longer Human and has become available for the first time in English in 2023. It was first published as 道化の華 (Douke no Hana) in the literary journal Japanese Romanticism Vol.1 No.3 in 1935. It was published in book form as 晩年 (Ban’nen) in 1936 by Sunagoya Shobo. 

The story features Yozo Oba, the protagonist of No Longer Human, convalescing in a seaside sanatorium in Kanagawa Prefecture after an attempted double suicide with a young woman. The woman perished but Yozo was saved by a passing fisherman. 

Yozo Oba is staying at a place called Blue PInes Manor. He is recuperating from his failed suicide attempt. The story takes place over four days with Yozo’s friends and family coming to visit him. They try to keep Yozo in good spirits and avoid talking about Sono, the woman he was planning on dying with. 

The director of the sanatorium and the nurse that works there also drifts in and out of Yozo’s room to see how well he is doing and to check his mental stability. While staying at the sanatorium, Yozo decides to write a book with Yozo Oba as the main character. 

The story opens with Yozo reading his own lines from his book he is trying to write. It starts off with “Welcome to Sadness. Population one.” He tries to tell the story about how and why he survived. He continues to write in the first person, “It was me - these are the hands that pulled Sono underwater. In my insolence, I prayed for my salvation in the same breath that I prayed Sono would die”. 

Yozo Oba isn’t the only patient at Blue Pines Manor. When he was brought in, there were thirty-six tuberculosis patients. Two of them were in critical condition, eleven had mild cases, and the rest were in remission. 

Yozo was staying in Room 4 of the Eastern Wing of the sanatorium. A place reserved for “special cases” such as himself. There are six rooms in the Eastern Wing, two of which are currently vacant. In Room One was a male college student. In Rooms Five and Six were a couple of young women. All three were recovering patients. 

Although the story is rather short at just shy of one hundred pages, the emotions that are displayed by Yozo and his friends and family shows Dazai’s understanding of the human condition. 

Yozo Oba is of course based on Dazai’s own life experiences and he often makes fun of how people react to different situations. He makes Yozo act lighthearted when he is around his friends who can joke about a serious subject like suicide and yet, Yozo’s innermost thoughts are quite the opposite of how he acts. 

It’s difficult to sympathize with Yozo Oba. You cannot know if he’s being serious or if he just has a chip on his shoulder and is a bitter person at heart. If you have also read No Longer Human, you will know what becomes of him. 

Reading Dazai’s stories can be quite depressing at times and yet he manages to add a bit of humor so the reader won’t give up in disgust. Even if you cannot sympathize with Yozo Oba or Osamu Dazai, you can’t help but to continue reading to find out what happens in the end. ~Ernie Hoyt

Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami, translated by Stephen Snyder (Kodansha)

Trying to categorize Ryu Murakami’s novel Coin Locker Babies is an exercise in futility. it doesn’t follow any known patterns. Is it science-fiction, is it horror, is it a love story. It’s actually all those things and more. 

This book was originally published in the Japanese language in 1980 by Kodansha. It won the Noma Literary New Face Prize in 1981. A prize established by Seiji Noma, the first president and founder of Kodansha Publishing. 

The book centers on two main characters - Kikuyuki Sekiguchi and Hashio Mizouchi. The only thing these two boys have in common is that they were abandoned by their mothers and left in a coin locker in an unnamed station in Tokyo in the summer of 1972. They were the only two babies to survive the ordeal. They were usually called by their nicknames - Kiku and Hashi.

The two boys became wards of an orphanage in Yokohama and became friends as Kiku always came to the aid of Hashi, who was often bullied. Most of the other kids avoided both boys. They also behaved in unusual ways so the nuns finally took them to see a psychiatrist. Their treatment consisted of having the boys listen to an in utero heartbeat without their knowledge. The therapy was supposed to help calm them down. 

The boys were eventually adopted by a couple named the Kuwayamas before they were to begin school. They grew up on a small island off of Kyushu. On the island they discover an abandoned mining town. Their foster parents have always told them to avoid that place but they were young and full of mischief. There, they meet a man they called Gazelle. One of the last words Gazelle says to Kiku is DATURA. He tells him not to forget it. That it will come in handy one day. 

In junior high, Kiku found that he was adept at pole-vaulting and soon that became the focus of his life. Hashi was proud of him and would tell others that Kiku was his big brother. In high school, Kiku becomes even more serious about pole-vaulting but on the day of an important competition Hashi is nowhere to be seen. Kiku’s foster mother shows him a note that Hashi left. Hashi went to Tokyo.

As the story progresses, Kiku and his foster mother go to Tokyo to look for Hashi but do not succeed at first. During their search, they are accosted by some unruly characters. One knocks his mother over who falls and hits her head. She later dies in the hotel they’re staying at. 

Kiku finds Hashi in a fictional area of Tokyo called Toxitown. An area that is surrounded by barbed wire and the outskirts are partrolled by some military types who are ordered to shoot anything that moves if they try to get in. 

Kiku finds Hashi in Toxitown. He also meets a woman named Anemone who becomes his girlfriend. Hashi is now a bisexual singer discovered by a man named D who decides to become Hashi’s manager. He markets Hashi by making public that Hashi’s origins was being an abandoned baby in a coin locker.

As Hashi’s music begins to sell, Mr D has a promotional stunt set up where Hashi will meet his mother who abandoned him on live television. When Kiku sees Hashi break down on TV, he goes to Hashi’s rescue and ends up shooting the woman who turns out to be his own mother. 

Kiku is sent to a Juvenile Detention Center for five years and during that time, Hashi’s music becomes even more popular. However, Hashi is slowly losing his mind while Kiku thinks of escaping and finding DATURA, a lethal substance he plans to use on the city of Tokyo to get his revenge against everybody. 

This book certainly isn’t for the weak of heart. It’s also very difficult to be sympathetic to either Kiku or Hashi even if the reader is aware of their unfortunate beginnings. If you’re in the mood for a dystopic vision of Tokyo, then Coin Locker Babies might be the right book for you. ~Ernie Hoyt

Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda, translated by Philip Gabriel (Doubleday)

Riku Onda is the pen name of Nanae Kumagai who was born in Aomori Prefecture in 1964. She came to prominence as a writer when she wrote 六番目の小夜子 (Rokubanme no Sayoko), The Sixth Sayoko which was published in 1992 and was adapted into an NHK drama in 2000. Her first novel to be translated into English was ユージニア (Eugenia). The international English title is The Aosawa Murders (Asia by the Book, January 12, 2023). 

Riku Onda’s latest novel to be translated into English is Honeybees and Distant Thunder.  It was originally published in the Japanese language as 蜜蜂と遠雷 (Mitsubachi to Enrai) and published by Gentosha in 2016. It won the Naoki Prize in 2016 and the Japan Booksellers Award in 2017. The book was also adapted into the full length feature film Listen to the Universe in 2019. 

The book centers around a prestigious and highly classical piano competition being held in a small town located just outside of Tokyo. Auditions for the fictional Yoshigae International Piano Competition were being held in five cities around the world - Moscow, Paris, Milan, New York, and the town of Yoshigae. The competition is held every three years and this year marks the sixth time it would be taking place. 

There is Jin Kazama, a sixteen-year-old prodigy who isn’t enrolled in any music school and doesn’t have a piano of his own and travels with his father who is an itinerant beekeeper. He is also the protege and student of a world-reknowned figure in the classical world, the recently deceased Yuji Von Hoffmann. 

Aya Eiden was also considered a piano genius but fled the stage during a competition and seemed to have vanished without a trace since her mother’s death. She is now trying to make a comeback but still lacks the confidence needed to participate in an international competition.

Another participant is Masaru Carlos Levi Anatole, also known as “The Prince of Julliard”. He was also befriended by Aya when they were still high school students. He is favored to take the top prize at this year’s competition. 

Finally, there is Akashi Takashima. He is the oldest entrant. He is married and has a steady job. However, he wants to make one last attempt to have a career in music. If he is able to win this competition, the dream he gave up may be rekindled. 

Onda’s book is a story of love and courage, friendship and rivalry and what it means to be a genius. The four main protagonists' interactions with other minor characters such as a piano tuner, a documentary filmmaker, and a stage manager shows the human side of each individual. Onda leaves it up to the reader to determine what makes a person a genius. If you’ve never been a fan of classical music, reading this book might spark your interest. 

The Japanese edition of the book included a CD of different selections mentioned in the story. Although the English edition doesn’t include a CD, readers can check Spotify or other streaming services to hear the actual works of Chopin, Mozart, Bach, and others. You may even become a fan of classical music while doing so as well. ~Ernie Hoyt

Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (Soho)

When Aki Nakasone and her parents return to Los Angeles after years in an internment camp and an involuntary relocation to Chicago, their hometown feels unwelcoming and unfamiliar. “Ban the Jap” committees prevent them from moving into many areas in the city, Little Tokyo is filled with Black transplants from the South, and Aki feels lucky to find a house in the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Many others who have returned from the camps can only find temporary housing in trailers and old army barracks.

She’s also fortunate to find a job in the Japanese Hospital as a nurse’s aid because California is mulling over propositions that will limit the livelihoods open to Japanese Americans. There are rumors that the state intends to confiscate property owned by Japanese Americans under an act of escheat, and the Ku Klux Klan is a legal entity under California law. 

When one of Aki’s elderly patients turns out to be covered with bruises, she’s surprised to find that the old man is the father of one of her husband’s best friends, who was best man at her wedding. His dismissive reaction to his father’s injuries shocks Aki and when the old man later dies in the hospital from a gunshot wound, her suspicions flare into life when the son is nowhere to be found.

As Aki searches for the missing son, she becomes drawn into the scattered community of  internment camp returnees and into the underworld that flourishes in post-war Los Angeles. Police corruption and rampant prejudice impede her efforts to find the dead man’s only relative, plunging her into a perilous and frightening mission. To complicate matters, the man Aki married in a whirlwind wartime romance has come home from the battlefield with memories that trouble his sleep and have turned him into a stranger.

In this sequel to Clark and Division (Asia by the Book, July 2022), Naomi Hirahara once again uses a compelling mystery to bring past history to light. Aki’s husband is one of the “Go for Broke Boys,” a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, part of the 100th Infantry Battalion that fought in Europe while their own families were interned in U.S. camps. In less than two years these two units earned over 4000 Purple Hearts and 4000 Bronze Star medals, only to face discrimination when they returned to the United States. In a heartbreaking portion of Evergreen, a member of the 442nd is unable to marry the woman he loves unless the couple elopes to another state--California’s anti-miscegenation law isn’t repealed until 1948, three years after the war ended.

Hirahara’s deep dive into history and her skill in creating intricate mystery plots are brightened by bursts of descriptions that are original and lovely. “Palm trees swaying against a bleed of pink,” and “windows spilled sun on tile floors” make readers understand why Aki and her family, along with so many other, returned to Los Angeles and fought against steep and daunting odds to make it their home once again. ~Janet Brown

The Ainu and the Bear : The Gift of the Cycle of Life by Ryo Michico, illustrated by Kobayashi Toshiya, translated by Deborah Davidson and Owaki Noriyoshi (R.I.C. Publications)

The R.I.C. Story Chest series published by R.I.C. Publications is a publisher that focuses on releasing Japanese picture books in English. The Ainu and the Bear is one of those books. It introduces young people to a story by northern Japan’s indigenous people - the Ainu. 

The Ainu and the Bear was originally published in the Japanese language as Iomante in 2005 by Parol-sha. The English version became available in 2010 and includes a CD which narrates the story. Also on the CD is a song titled “Iomante Upopo” by Umeko Ando, an Ainu of the Tokashi region in Hokkaido. 

The original title of the book, Iomante, is the name of the “sending” ceremony performed by the Ainu. The sub-title [The Gift of the Cycle of Life] will give the reader an idea of what the story is about. The Ainu believe that “every grain of millet, and every piece of meat and fish, contains the life of another”. As narrated in the story, “We feed on the life of others. We are a part of a cycle of fleshly and spiritual life. We all partake in the blessing of the cycle of life. We all partake in the blessing of the cycle of life”. 

The Ainu believe that the animals they kill and eat are all provided by the Kimun kamuy, mountain gods who take the form of bears when in the human world. They believe that kamuy are gods who live in both the human and non-human things in the human world but their true home is the land of the gods.  This story is told from two perspectives, a newborn bear and an Ainu boy. The climax of the story being the Iomante. 

The Iomante or bear “sending” ceremony is an Ainu tradition in which a bear cub is raised by the village and then killed in a ceremony “to relieve it of its flesh so that it may return to the land of the kamuy”. 

The story opens with the killing of a mother bear and how a newborn bear smells humans for the first time. We then listen to an Ainu boy talking about his father going on a hunt. When the boy’s father returns, he says to his son, “Look what Kimun kamuy has given us” and shows the boy a small bear cub. The boy is a little scared as it’s his first time smelling the scent of a bear. The father tells his son, “But as tiny as she is, she’s still a true Kimun kamuy. She’s an honored guiest who comes to us from the land of the gods”. 

The village celebrates by eating ohaw, a type of stew filled with meat and vegetables. The boy and the people of his village raise the bear cub as if it is a child of their own. The bear grows and becomes quite strong. It can no longer stay in the house and must be raised in a cage. 

The bear becomes increasingly wild and makes the boy scared to get close to her. The father tells him, “She’s starting to get homesick for the land of the kamuy, that’s all”. The boy still doesn’t understand until his father says, “Where her mother is”.  The boy realizes the bear is lonely for her mother which is why she is howling. 

The father then reminds the son of when he first brought the bear cub home and how the village feasted on ohaw. The boy thinks back to the huge chunk of meat, the beautiful bear fur. Only now does the boy understand that the meat of the ohaw was the meat of the mother bear. Then the father tells his son that they must send the grown bear back to the land of the kamuy. 

The story is a fascinating look into the rituals and traditions of the Ainu people. The Japanese government abolished the Iomante in 1955. However, the law was rescinded in 2007, “because the Ministry of Environment of Japan announced that animal ceremonies were generally regarded as an exception to the animal rights of Japan in October 2006”. I’m sure the decision was a blow to animal rights activists, but in my opinion, I don’t see the difference between raising a bear cub for food as being any different from raising cattle for beef or raising pigs for pork. 

The moral of the story is about having respect for the animals whose lives are taken, so that we can eat and be nourished by them. It is my belief that governments should respect indigenous people as the indigenous people respect animals and life. ~Ernie Hoyt

Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt, illustrated by Tatsuya Morino (Kodansha)

Ghost stories have been around for a long time. They are told around campfires or at slumber parties. A number of movies have featured a wide array of ghosts as well. Ghost stories are not always horror stories as some may believe. In Japan, ghost stories and other stories of the supernatural are called kaidan. They became popular with the publication of Lafcadio Hearn’s book Kwaidan which is a play on the words “kowai” which means scary and “dan” which means “stories”, published in 1904. 

Many books in English have translated the term “yokai” from demon to ghost to spectre. However, none of these translations are fitting to the Japanese term. For Japanese, “yokai” are “yokai”. The kanji is written as 妖怪 which more closely translates to “other worldly”. 

In this book, the term yokai refers to “mythical, supernatural creatures that have populated generations of Japanese fairy tales and folk stories”. They are the things that “go bump in the night, the faces behind inexplicable phenomena, the personalities that fate often deals us”.

The authors have done extensive research into the history of yokai. One of their references they often use and has the most comprehensive illustrations of yokai are from Sekien Toriyama’s Gazu Hyakki Yakko, translated into English as The Illustrated Demons’ Night Parade which he drew in 1776. 

Another major reference the authors used was Tono Monogatari (Tales of Tono) which was written by Kunio Yanagita. It is a collection of folktales and yokai stories from the Tohoku region of Japan and was originally published in 1912 and remains in print today. 

In the 1960s, it was due to the comic series Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki that sparked another fad in all things yokai. The mang would be adapted into a popular and successful anime series as well. 

In Yokai Attack! The reader is not only introduced to a number of different types of yokai but also gives you information on what to do in case you encounter one. The Japanese yokai have been around for centuries. They can be seen “in museums worldwide on scrolls, screens, woodblock prints, and other traditional forms of Japanese art”. 

The authors remind readers that this book is not a comprehensive encyclopedia of yokai and is not a scholarly work. It is a collection of conventional wisdom concerning the yokai. It is about what the average Japanese already knows about them. it’s more of an introduction to yokai culture for the novice. 

The authors group the yokai into five specific categories - Ferocious Fiends, “the sorts of creatures you wouldn’t want to encounter in a dark alley (or a bright one, for that matter); Gruesome Gourmets feature yokai with “peculiar eating habits). Annoying Neightbors are the types of yokai you hope never move in next door; The Sexy and Slimy which are yokai that enchant their prey, and finally there are The Wimps which are rather self-explanatory. The kind of yokai that are more afraid of you than you are of them. 

The book includes full color illustrations of all the yokai featured. The authors also provide the names of yokai in English, their gender, height, weight, and distinctive personalities. And as the authors state at the beginning of the book, “So forget Godzilla. Forge the giant beasties karate-chopped into oblivion by endless incarnations of Ultram, Kamen Rider,and the Power Rangers. Forget the Pocket Monsters. Forget Sadako from The Ring and that creepy all-white kid from The Grudge. Forget everything you know about Japanese tales of terror”. 

“If you want to survive an encounter with a member of Japan’s most fearsome and fascinating bunch of monsters, you’ve got some reading to do”. ~Ernie Hoyt

Foreigners Who Loved Japan by Makoto Naito and Ken Naito (Kodansha)

I am a foreigner who loves Japan. I’ve made it my adopted home for the last thirty years and plan to live here until my days are over. So when I came across a book titled Foreigners Who Loved Japan, I knew I had to read it. I was under the assumption that I would be familiar with all the individuals whose stories are told. Imagine my surprise when I knew less than half of the twenty foreign nationals featured. 

The twenty individuals featured in this book not only loved Japan but they also contributed to the country in some way. Japan has a long history of being a “closed” country and every Japanese student learns who the first foreigner was that was granted access to the country and also given permission to spread his message of Christianity.

The first person to be featured is Portuguese Jesuit priest Francisco Xavier. He reached the shores of Kagoshima in present day Kyushu in 1549. He was taken to see Shimazu Takahisa, lord of Kagoshima. When Xavier showed Takahisa a picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus, “Takahisa was struck by its holy aura and fell to his knee in a display of reverence”. Takahisa would give permission to Xavier to build a church and spread the Gospel of God. Xavier is still honored as the man who brought the Christian God to the country. 

Luis Frois was another Christian missionary and was also one of the first of the Portuguese Jesuit priests to come to Japan. He is known for writing reports about Japan and penned the book The History of Japan in 1585. He would gain the trust of one of Japan’s most famous bushi (samurai warriors), Oda Nobunaga. A man known for being one of the unifiers of Japan at the end of the Sengoku or Warring States era.

It wasn’t just Portuguese Jesuit priests who fell in love with what was still a mysterious country. Englishman William Adams joined a Dutch trading fleet traveling to the Far East but there was trouble at sea and after drifting in the ocean, they reached the shores at Usuki in Bungo which is now present-day Oita Prefecture. Adams would become an advisor to Japan’s first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Novelist James Clavell’s main protagonist in Shogun, William Blackthorne is based on William Adams who would later take a Japanese wife and also take the name Miura Anjin. He would also teach the Japanese to be better shipbuilders.

One of the most popular foreigners who really loved Japan and that almost every Japanese citizen knows is Lafcadio Hearn who is also known as Koizumi Yakumo. He wrote a number of books and essays on Japan. He is mostly responsible for introducing Japanese horror to English speaking readers with his book Kaidan, also known as Kwaidan. 

Other prominent foreigners who loved Japan that are featured in this book are Phiipp Franz von Siebold who taught the latest medical techniques to the Japanese, American James Curtis Hepburn who created the Hepburn system of romanization of the Japanese language, Henry James Black, Japan’s first foreign performer who took the stage name Kairakutei. 

Not all of the featured foreigners remained in Japan but their contributions to Japanese society remains. Their stories and why they came to Japan and fell in love with it will also make you want to visit this country and to see firsthand what they experienced. 

I’m making a minor contribution to the Japanese by teaching Japanese students English at an English Conversation School. Perhaps one day I will also be featured in a book such as this. One can only hope. ~Ernie Hoyt

Osamu Dazai's The Setting Sun : The Manga Edition by Osamu Dazai, translated by Makiko Itoh (Tuttle)

Osamu Dazai whose real name is Shuji Tsushima is a Japanese writer who was born in Kanagi in Aomori Prefecture. His most well known work is 人間失格 (Ningen Shikaku) which was later translated into English with the title No Longer Human. 

His novel, The Setting Sun, was first serialized in a literary magazine titled Shincho between July and October of 1947. The original title was 斜陽 (Shayo) and was published in book form in later that year. 

Now in 2024 Tuttle has published Osamu Dazai’s The Setting Sun : The Manga Edition and is retold and illustrated by Cocco Kashiwaya. A manga artist who debuted in 1990 in Booquet Comics, a sister comic to the Shojo Manga (Girls Comic) Margaret. It was translated into English by Makiko Itoh. 

The story begins at the end of World War 2. An aristocratic family now find themselves impoverished and are forced to sell their home in order to survive.  Kazuko, a young and divorced woman who lives with her mother is told by her uncle that since Japan has surrendered, their life of luxury is no longer possible. 

Kazuko’s father died ten years prior and it was her Uncle Wada who has been supporting them since the war ended. He tells the two that they have no choice but to sell the house and that the two should move to the countryside. Her younger brother who was an aspiring writer was sent off to war and has not been heard from since. 

The night before the two were going to move to Izu, Kazuko’s mother was trying to sleep but kept murmuring, “Because Kazuko is here. I’m going to Izu. Because of Kazuko… Because Kazuko…Because Kazuko is here with me”. 

But then she heard her mother say, “And what if…Kazuko wasn’t here. I’d prefer to die!”. Her mother was having a complete mental meltdown shouting, “I WISH I COULD DIE!”. Kazuko’s mother has always been a pillar of strength so Kazuko was shocked to see her mother in this state of hysteria. 

Even after the death of Kazuko’s father, after Kazukogot married then divorced, when Kazuko came home with a baby in her belly, when the baby was stillborn, when Kazuko was taken ill, and when her younger brother did bad things, during the ten years after Father died, Kazuko’s mother was the same as she always been - easy-going and gentle. 

It was at night when Kazuko thought that as children, she and her brother were spoiled. She had not realized what a great life she had. She thought, “Oh, to have no money! What a horrible, irredeemable hell this is”. 

The next day, her mother acted if nothing happened and they moved to Izu without incident. However, due to Kazuko’s carelessness, she almost burned down the house. After that, she was determined to become a rugged country woman.

Then one day, her younger brother appeared. He goes back to his old ways, drinking and hanging out with his mentor, a writer he admires named Uehara who also has love for the bottle and women. Kazuko had met him while she was still married.

After the death of Kazuko’s mother, she finds herself thinking more and more about Uehara and how much she loves him and how she wants to have his baby even though she knows he’s an alcoholic. She is determined to live her life for love even if it means breaking with traditional conventions. She thinks of herself as a revolutionary - a revolutionary for love. But…will she find true happiness?

Most of Osamu Dazai’s novels are semi-autobiographical and they can be very bleak and depressing. In this story, Kazuko’s character was based on a woman named after the writer and poet Shizuka Ota who Dazai had an affair with while he was still married. Kazuko’s actions may seem mild by today’s standard but if you keep in mind the timeframe of when the story took place. Kazuko may be considered a true revolutionary. ~Ernie Hoyt

Getting Closer to Japan : Getting Along with the Japanese by Kate Elwood (ASK Co., Ltd.)

As of January 13 next year (2025), I will have been living in Japan for thirty years. Although my mother is Japanese and I lived in Tokyo, Japan during my elementary school years, albeit, at a family annex for military families called Grant Heights, I may have found Kate Elwood’s Getting Along with the Japanese an excellent reference for living and working in Japan before my move. 

According to the publisher, Getting Closer to Japan series is a series of books for those who:

• would like to get accustomed to the life in Japan quickly

• feel communicating with the Japanese is difficult

• want to learn the Japanese way of thinking

• want to enjoy life in Japan

There are five books in the series. Aside from Getting Along with the Japanese, other titles in the series include Living in Japan by Andy D. Para, Working in Japan by Bruce Rutledge, Japanese Industry by William Carter, and Japanese Culture by Naoki Takei.

All the books give useful information one needs to know if they plan to have an extended stay in Japan. The books are written by business people sharing their own experiences of the trouble, in living, working, and understanding Japanese people and Japanese culture. At the end of each chapter are useful words and phrases related to the subject being discussed. 

Getting Along with the Japanese is broken down into three sections. The first section is Twelve Key Words Useful in Understanding the Japanese. It focuses on words such as gaijin (outsider / foreigner), wa (group harmony), tatemae and honne (surface feelings vs real feelings), gaman (endurance) and how the words are related to business culture. 

The first chapter is an example of what it’s like to be a gaijin in a Japanese company. Steve Wilson started working in Japan three years ago. He enjoys his job and has a good relationship with his co-workers. However, it’s been three years and Steve wonders why his colleagues seem to keep him at a distance. He notices that Japanese employees who joined the company after him seem to blend in quickly and become more relaxed in a short span of time. 

Even non-business people may find this a little hard to understand. Even if they were born and raised in Japan but have foreign parents, they will always be treated like gaijin. It doesn’t matter how long you have been living in Japan. If you are a foreigner, or like me, have one foreign parent, you will still be treated like a gaijin. 

The second section focuses on direct contact with Japanese people. Nancy Evans met a Japanese client who said to her in English, “My name is Hori”. So, throughout the evening, she called the man Hori, only to find out that Hori was the man’s family name. It is rare and may even be considered rude to call someone by their first name. It would be more proper to add the honorific -san after the family name. So Ms Evans should have called Hori, Hori-san. 

The final section deals with life events such as weddings and funerals. If you’ve never been to a Japanese wedding or a Japanese funeral, there are many things you need to know before you attend such an event. Getting Along with the Japanese will help you answer questions you may have without having to rely on anyone else. 

As a longtime resident of Japan, I always enjoy reading other people’s experience of living and working in Japan and what kinds of situations they find confusing, amusing, or even irritating. It’s also interesting to read about the types of culture shock they may have had as well. 

If you plan on working and living in Japan, or if you are just interested in Japanese culture, the Getting Closer to Japan series may be the series for you. ~Ernie Hoyt

Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers by Brian Ashcroft (Kodansha)

I grew up in the late seventies and early eighties and one of my favorite pastimes was playing video games at an arcade. I remember the first time my friend and I saw our first video game - “Pong” at a neighborhood pizza restaurant. Although a very simple game, we must have played that game for over an hour. When I was a university student at the University of Washington, I worked part-time at a place called the College Inn Cafe and located diagonally from the cafe was a 24-hour video arcade called [Arnold’s] which I also frequented. However, with the advent of home systems, the video arcade soon became a thing of the past. 

Imagine my surprise when I spent the summer of 1980 in Japan and discovered there were video arcade cafes. These shops didn’t have arcade games where you stood and played. They were built into the tables themselves. You could order coffee or soda, have a sandwich and while eating and drinking, you could play video games at the table. I thought that was so cool. Another fad was also just beginning in Japan at that time. Something called karaoke. Who knew then that that would become a worldwide phenomena.

In 1995, I moved to Japan and wasn’t surprised to not find any video cafes but taking its place were game centers. These were not one building video arcades like there were in the States but some of them could be two, three, or even four story tall buildings filled with a whole range of games to play.

Now Brian Ashcroft did his own research and wrote the book Arcade Mania : The Turbo-Charged World of Japan’s Game Centers. Turbo-charged might be an understatement. Ashcroft’s detailed account of the rise and popularity of the Japanese game centers will make you want to experience the sensation yourself. Unlike the pachinko parlors with its noise and smoky atmosphere, the game centers in Japan are more family-friendly. 

The game centers in Japan are well-organized. if it’s a multi-story building, on the first floor you would usually find an assortment of crane games. In Japan, these crane games are called “UFO Catchers”, although the term has been discontinued sometime in the mid-2000s. What draws people to these games are the different types of prizes they could get. Many of the prizes are limited editions of popular characters. Other prizes may include snack foods. A national crane game championship is held every year as well. 

In the nineties, another craze started at the game center. Sticker picture machines. In 1995, a twenty-nine year old woman named Miho Sasaki, who was working for a Japanese arcade game developer called Atlus saw that home-video editing machines could superimpose titles on pictures and print them out. This gave her an idea. She recalled “her own love of cute stickers when she was younger and how she’d put them all over her notebooks”. Her idea was to mix girls’ love of stickers and their love of taking pictures of themselves. Blending them together, she thought up the idea of the sticker pictures, but her bosses initially rejected her idea.

At the time, fighting games were all the rage at game centers and her bosses were salarymen in suits and they thought the risk was too large and that a sticker picture machine in a game center would look out of place. However, three months later when Atlus had a new boss, Naoya Harano, he saw the potential of such a concept and thus the Print Club was born. Or as they say in Japan puri kura and by 1996, puri kura was all the rage, especially among high school girls. 

The crane games and sticker picture machines are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Japan’s game centers. Ashcroft fills in the reader with the introduction of shooting games, rhythm games, fighting games, and games of chance. He further explores the game center world by talking about dedicated cabinets - “games that are housed in a specific casing and are built especially for the arcade experience”. 

It's been nearly thirty years since the introduction of the sticker picture machines but they are still as popular as ever. Crane games continue to draw in children and adults alike. Now, there are game centers full of retro games that you can still play. These places appeal to adults who find them nostalgic and remind them of their childhood. For kids, there are now card-based games - “a mash-up of playing arcade games and collecting cards”. 

The video arcade may be a dinosaur of the past in the U.S. but the game centers in Japan are still thriving and will probably be here to stay for another twenty or thirty years. If you ever make it to Japan, aside from seeing temples and shrines, you should set foot in a game center to see what it’s all about. ~Ernie Hoyt

Japan : The Toothless Tiger by Declan Hayes (Tuttle)

Currently, with the weakness of the yen against the dollar and with North Korea continuing to test their missiles over Japanese terrain, Japan’s future is looking pretty bleak. Back at the beginning of the 21st century, author Declan Hayes had already made a number of predictions about Japan’s future. I decided to read his book Japan : The Toothless Tiger, which was originally published in 2001 to see if any of his predictions had come to fruition. 

Now that it is already 2024, you would think a lot of the material would be dated but what he said back in 2001 may still hold true today. “There is a specter haunting Japan and Asia: the specter of Chinese communism”. Hayes mentons two main points concerning his argument. “The overt, military one that her vast defense forces pose and the covert diplomatic one undermining America’s key alliance with Japan”. 

Hayes argues that it is in Japan’s best interest to rearm itself in order to defend its territories. While in theory, it may sound reasonable but it goes against the principles of Japan’s constitution. Throughout the book, Hayes says that Japan needs to build up its military. He argues under the assumption that the U.S. 7th Fleet which is headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, will eventually sail home to Hawaii and without the protection of the U.S. Japan would easily fall into the hands of China. However, his assumption is not supported by any facts.

China has always been a threat to Asia and the world at large. Hayes says once the 7th Fleet leaves the vicinity, “China will eventually incorporate Taiwan and the islands of the South China Sea into her vast kingdom”. He further argues, “China’s resulting hegemony will put severe strain on the weakest link in America’s Asia defense strategy - Japan, the toothless tiger”. 

Hayes claims that because Japan has become a “toothless tiger”, North Korea often tests its missiles which enter Japanese terrirtory and China’s navy often enters Japan’s waters without compunction and because Japan is a toothless tiger that country can only “toothlessly grin and bear it and hope that things do not get worse”. 

Hayes' main focus seems to be the threat of China but he says it isn’t only China that Japan needs to be wary of. Japan must also build better relations with its neighbor South Korea. Japan’s history of military abuse in both China and South Korea cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Hayes also mentions that until the current government of Japan officially recognizes its crimes committed during the second world war, the relationship between the nations will continue to stand on thin ice. 

His suggestion is a very slippery slope. Although it was the Occupied Forces that wrote up the Japanese constituion, it emphatically states that Japan renounces war and will not build up its military might so that it would repeat history. Japan is the only country in the world to be attacked by two atomic bombs and the country saw what devestation it could cause, not to mention its after effects of the radiation fallout. 

It is now 2024 and the U.S. Fleet has not retired to Hawaii. Japan has also renewed its alliance with the U.S. that will continue to protect Japan and Asia and will also curb the threat that China poses. The U.S. government has also officially announced to China that if it tries to take Taiwan by force, the U.S. will protect Taiwan and will attack China in its defense.

The threat of a world dominating China continues, as does the threat of North Korea. However, to insist that Japan rearm itself and build up its military goes against everything the Japanese government stands for. As long as relations between Japan and the U.S. continue, Japan will continue to be a toothless tiger but one that has power and assertive ally on its side. ~Ernie Hoyt

Doraemon : Gadget Cat from the Future (Selection 6) by Fujiko F. Fujio (Shogakukan)

If you love Japanese anime or have lived in Japan, then you would be familiar with the blue robot cat named Doraemon and you would know the robot cat’s most famous gadget is its dokodemo door or “4 D (fourth dimension) pocket”. The manga was first serialized in 1969. The chapters were then collected in forty-five tankobon volumes, tankobon being a Japanese word now used in English to refer to cartoons collected in one volume from the weekly and monthly manga magazines. 

The manga was adapted into an anime three times. The first time in 1973, then again in 1979, and finally in 2005. There are over forty anime films as well including two computer generated full-length features as well. The merchandise spawned from the manga and anime series is still a multi-billion industry that continues to appeal to children and adults alike. 

I did not realize at first that Doraemon : Gadget Cat from the Future was part of a series published by Shogakukan English Comics. I would have started with the first volume but as these stories are not collected in chronological order, it doesn’t matter which volume to start with. Also available in English are ten volumes of the story originally published by Tento Mushi books which includes the Japanese text outside the picture frames. The Tento Mushi series follows the same order as the Japanese manga. 

There’s a bit of history concerning Doraemon as well. As mentioned, Doraemon is a robot gadget cat from the future and was born on September 3, 2112. Hard core Doraemon fans will know that the blue robot cat was originally yellow and also had ears even though the backstory was written long after the manga debuted. 

In the storyline as Doraemon was napping, a mouse nibbled off his ears. When Doraemon saw himself in the mirror, he turned blue from the shock. As to why Doraemon travels back in time from the future? It was to help Nobita, a ten-year-old Japanese school boy who at heart is a good boy but is very lazy, gets bad grades at school and is terrible at sports. His future grandchild, Sewashi Nobi, sends the cat to take care of Nobita so future generations will have a better life. 

Surrounding Nobita are his classmates Shizuka, the main female character and also the love interest of Nobita. Gian, a big bully who often steals toys or other items from Nobita and his friends. He often gets his own comeuppance for his actions though. Then there is Suneo, a spoiled rich boy who likes to show off how rich he and his family are. 

In this collection of Doraemon stories, Nobita is once again bullied by Gian who steals his ice cream cone, gives it a lick, then says Nobita can have it back. But as it was licked by Gian, Nobita doesn’t want it. He cries to Doraemon to do something about it. 

In another episode, Suneo brags that his family is going to ride on a steam locomotive. When Nobita finds a ticket for the Milky Way Express that Doraemon drops. Nobita invites his friends who at first don’t believe him, but they all get into a little trouble when they discover there is no way to get back home.

There are a total of fifteen stories in this collection and its main aim is to help Japanese learners of English by providing them with a one point English lesson. Doraemon remains as popular today as it was after its debut and there is even a Fuji F. Fujio museum in Kawasaki where you can see Doraemon’s development along with other works by the manga artist. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Samurai and the Prisoner by Honobu Yonezawa, translated by Giuseppe di Martino (Yen On)

The Samurai and the Prisoner by Honobu Yonezawa is the English translate of [黒瘻城] (Kokurojo) which was originally published in the Japanese language in 2021 by Kadokawa Books. The translator, Giuseppe di Martino is an Assistant Language Teacher for the JET program (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program). 

Yonezawa is mostly known for writing his young adult mystery series Kotenbu which is also known as The Classic Literature Club series. The series would be adapted into a television animation program and the first book in the series, Hyokka would be adapted into a movie starring Kento Yamazaki and Alice Hirose. 

The Samurai and the Prisoner is a more adult-oriented story blending historical fact with fictitious mysteries occurring during the Siege of Itami. Araki Murashige, a samurai lord is defending his castle against the forces of Nobunaga Oda, a daimyo during the Sengoku Period or Warring States Era in Japan. The time is the winter of 1578. It is four years before the Honno-ji Incident resulting in the assassination of Oda. 

Murashige, who once was an ally of Oda, betrayed him and sided with the Mouri who were also fighting against the Oda forces. Oda had sent an envoy named Kanbei Kuroda, one of Oda’s chief strategists, to convince Murashige noto to defect; however, Murashige went against bushido protocol and instead of killing the envoy there and then and sending his head back to his master, he imprisoned Kuroda in the dungeons of the castle.

As Oda’s forces are closing in on Aroka Castle, Murashige continues to hold them off while waiting for reinforcements from the Mouri or Ishiyama Hongan-ji armies who never arrive. As Murashige’s men continue to protect the castle, a string of mysterious incidents occur and it appears the only one who can help Murashige solve them is the one man who’s wasting away in the dungeon - Kanbei Kuroda.

The first incident involves a young boy who is killed on the castle grounds. His death spurs rumors about “Divine Intervention”; however, Murashige is a warrior. Although he commanded his retainers to detain him and lock him in a room, he is mysteriously killed. Murashige recognized the wound as an arrow wound, there was no arrow to be found. 

Reluctantly, Murashige visits Kuroda in the dungeons to get his advice on how to solve the mystery. Murashige believes that Kuroda cannot resist showing off his deductive skills but speaks to Murashige in riddles. It is later that Murashige understands why Kuroda only gave him a hint because to help Murashige would mean to betray his own master. 

Three other mysterious deaths occur, one in each season of the year. Murashige finds himself consulting with Kuroda after every  incident since none of his men can answer his enquiries. But, does Kuroda really help Murashige? And if so…why? 

Yonezawa’s blend of historical fact and detective fiction will entertain its readers in highlighting the actions and thoughts that took place during the Warring States Era. The conflicts between the The only two flaws in the story being the translator’s assumption that the reader is familiar with Japanese history and the use of archaic words in English such as thee, thou, prithee which stem the flow of the story. The plot twists at the end of the book may surprise you as well. ~Ernie Hoyt