31.Aug.2009 Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara
Snakes and Earrings is a novella by young contemporary Japanese author which won the Akutagawa prize (a prestigious literary award in Japan). The front of the book states it as a cult-classic in Japan. I can understand why. The book is bold in carrying the darker issues of Japanese youths: body modification (split tongue, gigantic [...]
13.Aug.2009 Squeamish about Sushi by Betty Reynolds
Squeamish About Sushi: And other Food Adventures in Japan is an illustrated “guide book” to eating in Japan. Delightfully drawn and colored in water color pencil, it shows various situations that you may find in Japan, from eating in a restaurant, Japanese style inn (ryokan), to Sumo stadium. From cherry-blossom (sakura) viewing, street food at [...]
08.Aug.2009 Japanese Literature Challenge 3
30 July 2009 – 30 January 2010 Bellezza is hosting the third Japanese Literature Challenge! How exciting! Yes of course, I’m joining! Japanese literature always has a special place in my heart, as I grew up with all things Japanese throughout my childhood and teenagehood years (from manga to anime to merchandise), though only in [...]
01.Apr.2009 Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
“It was, with no attempt at covering itself, the naked heart of a woman calling out to her man.” ~p34 Snow Country is a literal translation of the Japanese title Yukiguni (雪国, read ゆきぐに). The name comes from where the story takes place, rural Japan that receives a huge amount of snow in the winter. Snow [...]
10.Mar.2009 Mailbox Monday and JLPT
Mailbox Monday! It’s Tuesday here in Australia, but I believe it’s still Monday on the other part of the world *wink*. Yesterday I got a small package from Japan. Inside is Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami from Tanabata as I won giveaways that she held for her 3rd blog anniversary. Thank you Tanabata-san! [...]
30.Jan.2009 Japanese Literature Challenge 2 Wrap-Up
In July I joined the 2nd Japanese Literature challenge. The challenge is to read 3 Japanese lit from 30 July 2008 to 30 January 2009. Thought it would be easy peasy, since I loved Japanese lits. But nooo, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. First, I wasn’t very happy with the 2 novels that [...]
25.Jan.2009 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
It took me a damn long time to read this book. I started it some time in November last year, and I finished it 10 other books later. And I’m not sure if I even liked the book. It wasn’t painful to go through, but it was all kinda meaningless. I didn’t quite connect with [...]
30.Nov.2008 Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
I’d like to say that this is probably the last Banana Yoshimoto’s that I would read. I read Lizard a while back and didn’t quite like it. I don’t understand how she got to be so famous outside of Japan (or in), because I think her stories are nothing but ordinary. Ordinary. Ordinary. And the [...]
13.Jul.2008 Japanese Literature Challenge 2
Update 30 Jan 2009 My wrap-up post here. Dolce Bellezza is running the second Japanese Literature challenge. Yay! I’ve been waiting for this one, since I missed the first one. The rule is to read 3 Japanese Literature between 30 July 2008 and 30 January 2009. Bellezza has some books to recommend on her site. [...]
11.Jul.2008 Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
The books is titled 蜥蜴 (とかげ, tokage) in Japanese, literally means lizard. This is the second collection of short stories that I read. First was Interpreter of Maladies. Again, I’m still not sure if I like short stories. With Lizard, I didn’t keep looking to see how many pages I had left, like I did [...]