Job Discussion Forums

[iverin]

One really interesting book is called Kangaroo Notebook by Kobo Abe. It's about the strange adventures of a Japanese man. It's post-modern in style and sort of "quest"-y. It's a good book in general and incorporates some Japanese myths as well as others. It's a good read.

[reasonJP]

For books on Japan, surprised Hokkaido Highway Blues hasn't been mentioned- it's about a guy hitchhiking from the southernmost point in Japan up to the northenmost following the cherry blossoms. The observations of Japanese people and their reactions to a gaijin hitch hiker are often hilarious.
As for Japanese authors, I've recently enjoyed Natsuo Kirino's 'Out'- it kind of reads a bit like Crime and Punishment, although much more accessible (and much more gruesome in parts). Also check out Okuda's 'In the Pool', a collection of darkly comic short stories set in a psychiatrist's office.

[ntropy]

[gaijinalways]

I read 'Out' too and saw the movie. Wouldn't quite describe it that way as being like Crime and Punishment, but the storyline certainly creeped me out. You never know what your neighbors might be doing...

[fluffyhamster]

Of the primarily non-fiction authors mentioned so far who write specifically about Japan, I think the most perceptive and illuminating is perhaps Donald Richie*. His Japanese Portraits: Pictures of Different People might well be, as one reviewer says, THE book 'to put in the hands of those who want to understand Japan' (more reviewers on the back cover: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0804837724/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link ); then there is his The Honorable Visitors (famous people's impressions of Japan, stylishly related and in their turn interpreted and sometimes ultimately criticized by Richie), The Inland Sea (given an excellent thumbnail review by Natsume on the first page of this thread), Zen Inklings (Zen-influenced stories, some IIRC a bit like Boehm's, below), and Japanese Literature Reviewed (gives one a real feel for the writers surveyed).

Other books (including some fiction) that I've enjoyed about Japan are:

Deborah Boliver Boehm's A Zen Romance (sexy shenanigans in 60's Kyoto) and Ghost of a Smile (erotic, humorous, beautifully-written and unforgettable modern supernatural stories inspired by Kwaidan); Cathy Davidson's 36 Views of Mount Fuji (not a current fave of mine, but one that I feel I should re-read at some point, so it can't have been too bad!); Bruce Feiler's Learning to Bow (receives mixed reviews on Amazon, but if you are going to be or have been a JET or AET, this is indispensible reading for you and your relatives); Donald W. George & Amy Greimann Carlson (eds)'s Travelers' Tales Japan (collection of generally worthwhile and thus well-chosen excerpts from a range of travel writers); Robyn Gerster's Legless in Ginza (an Aussie's somewhat glib but very readable take on Japan from the vantage point of a post at prestigious Todai); Tomohiro Hoshino's Love From the Depths (moving true story of the author's near-fatal and permanent quadriplegia following a gymnastics accident at his school, and his efforts to find meaning and purpose in his new, very different life; shows the human side of social relationships in Japan); Suzanne Kamata (ed)'s The Broken Bridge (decent fiction by expats, with an introduction by Richie); Ryu Murakami's In the Miso Soup (have yet to read his Audition, on which the Takashi Miike film of the same name is based); Mark Schreiber (ed)'s Tokyo Confidential: Titillating Tales from Japan's Wild Weeklies (apparently true news items, title says it all really!); and Janwillem van de Wetering's The Empty Mirror (a struggling foreign initiate's life in and outside of a Zen temple in the 60's).

Oh, and just a few "martial arts" books (surprised none have been mentioned, and don't want to assume the following gems are more well-known than might actually be the case!): Dave Lowry's Autumn Lightning (charts Lowry's training with a Japanese master of the oldest classical swordfighting school, from gawky schoolkid to being himself a master; Lowry's later books, particularly the collections of essays that comprise Sword and Brush and Moving Towards Stillness, are good for learning about the ideal(ized) way to the Japanese mind of doing things, though he does at times and as he himself admits come across as a bit of a curmudgeon); C.W. Nicol's Moving Zen (this classic account of training at the famous JKA honbu dojo during its heyday now boasts in its latest edition a foreword by Kanazawa Hirokazu, one of the luminaries whose exploits the book details, as well as an afterword by the author to bring readers up to date with his more recent conservation efforts); and of course Robert Twigger's very engaging Angry White Pyjamas (about living in Tokyo and training with members of the riot police on the tough Yoshinkan Aikido Instructor's course).

Some books on TEFLing in China:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=655402#655402

A few non-Japan books that I've read recently and enjoyed: Francis S. Collins' The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (an interesting though not entirely successful counter to the atheism of those such as Dawkins, by 'Collins, a pioneering medical geneticist who once headed the Human Genome Project' - http://www.amazon.com/review/R1H9RTNRTM3KK3/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm ), and James P. Blaylock's Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories (read this if you like Neil Gaiman - Blaylock is if anything an even better writer, and certainly the more enjoyable, especially in his more humorous, light, pastiche-like stories such as The Idol's Eye or The Shadow on the Doorstep (Lovecraftian, the pair of them), or the very amusing Victorian time-travel yarn Two Views of a Cave Painting; and anything with a title like The Ape-box Affair obviously just has to be read! The rest of the stories in this collection are more urban fantasy than "Steampunk").

*I like the other authors and agree with what's been said about them, but Buruma and Kerr are a bit dry and certainly not as intimate as Richie; Booth's travels meanwhile are just a bit too uneventful and a slog (for the reader as well as him!), but at least he didn't set out to have what is ultimately just a "bit of a laugh" (at most of the Japanese that he met along the way), which is what Ferguson seems to be up to in Hokkaido Highway Blues - I haven't managed to finish it yet.

[Sweetsee]

First, Ian McEwan's Saturday, Amsterdam and Enduring Love were very enjoyable. Also, any and all of Ian Rankin's work; detective novels set in Edinburgh. And finally, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, written by an author suffering from locked-in syndrome who could only blink his left eye.
Enjoy,
s

[fluffyhamster]

Hi Sweetsee! Is Enduring Love the book better than the film (not that the film was bad!)? I assume so. I must try to read more fiction!

One book that I forgot to mention in my above post is Masao Miyamoto's Straightjacket Society: An Insider's Irreverent View of Bureaucratic Japan. I've only dipped into it, but obviously it's always interesting to hear what somebody has to say about their own society, especially somebody who's spent time abroad and could be accused of having gone a bit native in the process. Anyway, might beat reading yet another starry-eyed or, on the other hand, ultra-critical account of Japan by some westerner.

[Sweetsee]

Howdy Fluffyhamster,
I don't know about the film, maybe I will find it on the Net and let you know. I do know I love his masterful prose. I savor each sentence and take care not to read it up too quickly. Check it out!
Enjoy,
s

[wintersweet]

I really enjoyed Novala Takemoto's Kamikaze Girls (Japanese title is 下妻物語--the movie is based on it). Weird and fun, and I also enjoyed thinking about the translation choices made in the book (I read it in English). The two main characters represent two different Japanese subcultures: Gothic Lolita and Yankii.

If you like unusual and non-derivative fantasy novels, I really recommend Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. Both are long and dense, which is good for stretching your yen. The former is full of footnotes, snark, and references to non-existent books and history. It's probably best appreciated by people who've been in academia; otherwise, your eyes will probably glaze over. If you're a footnote-skipper, pass on this one. It's sent in an alternative England around the same time as Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels, and is very rich in detail.

The Scott Lynch book is also very detailed, but has a lot more adventure (and death, so watch out, because characters you like will die). It's the only fantasy novel about thieves that I've been able to read in, oh, 15 years or so, since I got sick of typical fantasy novels in high school. It's violent, beautiful, highly imaginative, and well-written. If you used to like fantasy but got burned out on the over-used tropes and endless imitation of Tolkien, try this--it's different. Part caper novel, part revenge story, part industrial fantasy...really hard to describe! The sequel is good too, and the final book will come out early next year, I think.

Speaking of books, my client's moving back to Tokyo--I think Toshima-ku. I found Good Day Books' website and thought it might be good for him--they have both ESL and regular book clubs. I'll search the memories to see if there are other bookstore recommendations.