Matcha on Monday

 

Matcha on Monday / Michiko Aoyama
trans. from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda
NY: Hanover Square Press, 2026, c2021.
208 p.

My final review for WIT Month this year is Matcha on Monday, the second volume of the Marble Cafe series. I loved this book. I found it stronger and more resonant than the first, which I also enjoyed. But this one focused in a little more intently and so the storyline was tighter, and it also made the concept from the first novel -- that we are all connected -- even more explicit and emotionally moving. 

The Marble Cafe is a tiny shop is a quiet part of Tokyo that has a regular clientele. Except for on Mondays, when it's closed. But one Monday, a young woman is having a day full of bad luck and decides to treat herself, forgetting it's Monday. When she gets there she discovers that there is a little pop-up matcha cafe going on, and decides to go in and check it out. She is strangely intrigued by the non-communicative tea expert, the son of a tea wholesaler family from Kyoto who is testing out their teas in Tokyo. Luckily for her, he will be managing the new shop opening in Tokyo soon. 

This book also follows characters into the next story, once they appear in one they are likely to show up in the next one. We meet a lingerie designer/shop owner (loved her story), a befuddled husband who has angered his wife, a theatre artist who has a difficult relationship with her grandmother, and a singer going through a breakup. And The Master reappears in this one too. While the first book had its stories organized by colour, this one moves through a calendar year, as well as moving between Tokyo and Kyoto. 

I really enjoyed the thoughtful conversations that the characters had. Everyone is so civilized somehow, even while going through emotional ups and downs. I loved reading about the garment designer, the tea expert, Kyoto, puppets and more. So much in this one but I was especially struck by the Master's explanation of how we never know the connections that led to our meeting another person - because someone far back in the chain set something in motion, we can meet today, and we'll never know where it started -- and equally, how what we do today will affect those around us down the line. The smallest gesture or action may have a huge effect on someone's lives, and we'll never know it. It was a touching story, and I found the gentle connections between characters appealing and comforting. A new fave. 

Hot Chocolate on Thursday

Hot Chocolate on Thursday / Michiko Aoyama
trans. from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda
NY: Hanover Square Press, 2025, c2017.
208 p.

I first read Aoyama via her novel What You Are Looking For is in the Library. That one was a bit quirky but I still liked it enough to want to try this one, the start of a series. This novel hit my interests right now, and I really enjoyed it. 

It is set in a little cafe in a quiet part of Tokyo, the Marble Cafe. It is owned by someone known as The Master, but run by a young man who acts as manager. As it opens we meet a regular, a woman who comes in alone to write letters, always ordering hot chocolate. The manager is intrigued by her and wonders about her, not knowing that she notices him as well.  

The book is about the connections made in everyday ways - through her writing, to a friend who has moved overseas; to others in the shop connecting accidentally through small things; to the woman who receives the letters in Australia, and her life connecting in small ways to a food truck proprietor there. There is always food, and the constant theme of the ways that people's lives bump into one another and affect one another without any plan or intent. The story ranges widely, moving from the Marble Cafe to Australia, by following a chain of characters. A character from each story moves forward to be the main character in the next episode, and so all the stories and people are linked even if they don't know how. And then the story circles back to the Hot Chocolate woman and the cafe manager in the final chapter. 

This was soothing, expansive and I loved the concept. While it is brief and covers a lot of characters, I think that was the point - rather than digging in deeply to one life, it was showing the ways so many lives brush up against one another. I thought it was a delight, and of course wanted hot chocolate even in the midst of my summer! 

 

The Amberglow Candy Store

The Amberglow Candy Store / Hiyoko Kurisu
trans. from the Japanese by Matt Treyvaud
NY: Scribner, 2025, c2022.
208 p.

I enjoyed this unusual read! It falls into the same genre of Japanese novel that I've been reading a lot of lately, but it's a bit different. It features life lessons, a shop, melancholy friendships, for example, like many others, but it also includes a main character who is half-fox - a part of the otherworldly element of Japanese folklore. 

Kogetsu owns the Amberglow Candy Shop on Gloaming Lane, a strange shopping area that humans only stumble upon when they need it. Most of the shops are closed up, and people wander down this street until they find the candy store with its very handsome proprietor. They choose a candy that promises something - luck, confidence, relationship help and so on - and when they return to their normal lives they find that eating the candy really helps them. Most of the time it's a placebo effect, though: the solution has been in their grasp the whole time and the candy gives them the confidence to solve their own problem. 

Like many of these books, it's told in short chapters dealing with each character's encounter and resultant life lesson. It's a bit quirky, with some light humour thanks to Kogetsu's misunderstandings of human behaviour. And the magical element actually felt quite magical and ancient. I thought that this book had more of the feel of Miyazaki films or folklore inspired characters than any other Japanese novel I've read recently. I really enjoyed the feel of this one, it had a great atmosphere. And seeing people learn life lessons softly and without a lot of conflict was nice too. The final chapter gives more of Kogetsu's own story, and was a nice way to tie up this book, with an opportunity for him to also learn more about life. Enjoyable though a quiet and light read. 

 

How to Hold Someone in Your Heart

 

How to Hold Someone In Your Heart / Mizuki Tsujimura
trans. from the Japanese by Yuki Tejima
NY: Scribner, 2026, c2019.
224 p.

Ok, so I enjoyed the first book in this series, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, so much that I immediately found book two in Libby and read it right away! This is a sweet series about 'the go-between', a young man who connects the dead and the living for final meetings. 

This book takes place a few years after the first volume. Ayumi is no longer a teenager; he's a young career man working for a wooden toy company, while still carrying out his duties as the go-between. Just like the first novel, though, he encounters five people he needs to connect with those deceased, and one friend who has sufferered a recent bereavement making Ayumi wonder if he should offer his services unasked for (in the end, no need). 

We have two mothers wanting to see their daughters who died too young, a young film star wanting to get some answers from his deadbeat dad who left their family when the boy was only two, an eccentric academic wanting to meet the subject of his lifelong historical studies, and an 85 yr old chef who has asked to meet a girl from his youth numerous time over the past decades but this time is accepted (with the deciding message Ayumi is asked to pass on to her: "the rascal Hachiya has turned eighty-five")

Each one brings some reflection on life, regrets, love, secrets, and so on -- but also some less emotional topics like what one's legacy will be -- for example, after his experience, the academic ponders if anyone will ask to see him when he is dead. This meeting also questions how truth gets passed down, and how reliable history is. I liked the inclusion of this less emotional meeting to balance out the rest. 

I also liked that this volume focused more on Ayumi and his own life and development, from his acceptance of his role and his place in his family, to his job and a potential romantic interest. It added more of a narrative throughline to this story, and I hope there will be another book in the series, too. I find this author's style thoughtful, mostly easy reading, great for comfort reading. 

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon / Mizuki Tsujimura
trans. from the Japanese by Yuki Tejima
NY: Scribner, 2025, c2010.
256 p.

I'm not sure why there seem to be so many Japanese books about people meeting up with the dead, but there are quite a few that I've read recently. This is one that stuck with me, featuring a "go-between" who arranges meetings between the living and the dead. 

You only find the go-between if you are meant to, and you can then request a meeting with someone you want to talk to one more time. The go-between will pass on the message but the dead person may refuse, or they may have already spoken to someone -- and you only get one chance, either way. The living can only request it once, and the dead can only accept once, so they must be careful to choose wisely. 

In this book, we follow four characters all wanting to speak to someone deceased -- a young woman from Tokyo who wants to speak to a TV star who she didn't actually know, a self-important eldest son who wants to see his mother only to ask where the deeds to a plot of land are; a teenager blaming herself for her best friend’s death; and a sad businessman needing answers about why his fiancée disappeared days after he proposed.

Each story is a bit melancholy, although the one featuring the teen besties didn't go as I'd expected - still so much teen drama even after death! And there is some kind of lesson in each, as they seek closure (not always given). In each we learn more about the teenaged go-between, until more is shared about his story near the end. 

I liked this one; it was unexpected and well developed. The stories weren't predictable or saccharine, there was a bit of darkness, a bit of intrigue. The set-up was good and there is a second volume in this series that I'm going to search out too, and see if this conceit can hold up over another book. But this one is worth trying if you like this genre - pretty well written and good concept! 

 

Hooked

Hooked / Asako Yuzuki
trans. from the Japanese by Polly Barton 
NY: Ecco, 2026, c2015.
400 p.

This is another Japanese novel that looks at unequal relationships and includes social media's unrealities as part of the story. But this is much longer than Idol Burning, which I just talked about yesterday. 

In Hooked, Yuzuki follows Eriko, a young woman working for a fish importing company. She seems to have it all together - her career is successful (she even gets sent to Africa on a mission to find a Nile Perch processing plant for her company), she is well groomed and efficient, but there is something missing. She can not seem to connect with other women, despite really wanting a friend. She can be obsessive and overwhelm others, like her school friend who still lives nearby and seems to haunt her, showing up when least wanted, to remind Eriko of her previous actions. 

But now Eriko has found a friend -- a popular blogger, Shoko, who she's been following for a while, carefully leaving comments and getting to know her online persona. Eriko figures out where this blogger will be at a specific time, thanks to her meticulous study of the blog, and "runs into" her casually. Their friendship starts to grow, with dinners and coffee dates -- but Shoko starts to feel like Eriko is more of a stalker than a friend, and puts her off, starting a new spiral for Eriko. 

This was a great read, with some unhinged characters, and a look at personas and the realities beneath. Shoko's perfect blogging life, and her apparently solid marriage are shaken through these events; she's really not exactly who she says she is. And Eriko's facade is quickly shattered when she feels rejected. Lots of fascinating psychological content in both storylines! 

There are metaphors related to the Nile Perch that Eriko imports (an invasive species) and to social media and self-presentation, and everything kind of twines together. It's a bit of a domestic drama, with frenemies and toxic behaviours in abundance. But still some sympathies for these imperfect characters. It kept moving in directions I wasn't expecting, and I had to pay attention -- I found it compelling reading, with the 400 pages feeling much shorter. I liked her writing style and aesthetic, so will definitely have to go back and read her first book Butter, a best-seller about food and a female murderer.

Idol Burning

Idol Burning / Rin Usami
trans. from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda
NY: HarperVia, 2022, c2020.
144 p.

Another short novella, from a Japanese author interested in fandom and what it can do to a person's sense of self. I listened to this one, which I think worked really well - there are strings of social media comments included in the storyline and the way that the narrator read them made it seem so fresh and immediate. I know some readers haven't enjoyed this structural addition but as an audiobook I thought it was an interesting element.

The story follows Akari, a socially isolated teen with learning disabilities and difficult relationships. She withdraws from life, and from her family who struggles to help her. Her focus is on her 'oshi', Masaki, a pop idol. She writes a blog about him, scouring the internet and magazines for every detail about him, and has a following whose comments seem to give her the approval she needs. But then Masaki tumbles from his pedestal, accused of hitting a woman who is possibly his girlfriend. 

The way that this intense fandom affects both Masaki and Akari is explored in the narrative - they don't know one another but Akari's need to justify his actions and thus her own, is part of the parasocial fixation she has with him. The book looks at mental health, online fandom & its spaces, loneliness, teen alienation from life and many other similar things, all through the lens of oshi culture. 

I found it a good read, although some of the themes could have used a little more length in the narrative to be fleshed out, for more impact. Akari's life is described quietly, but gives the reader a strong impression of the crisis she's going through. Her isolation, partly self created, is dramatic and she finally has to hit bottom to realize it. I felt like the story mostly communicated this, although the reader has to be committed to the story arc as it does move a little slowly for such a short book. Still, I thought it illuminated a corner of life that I hadn't considered much before, and found lots to think about here. 

 

The Woman Dies

The Woman Dies / Aoka Matsuda
trans. from the Japanese by Polly Barton
NY: Europa, 2025, c2016.
160 p.

This was an entertaining read, a collection of 52 short stories (some only a few sentences long, flash fiction, really) all looking at the pervasive presence of sexism in Japanese society. Matsuda is not holding back, and tells her tales with both sharp edges and black humour.  I really enjoyed this book, there were such clever structural elements to admire, and the stories were a bit off kilter, requiring the reader to stop short and sometimes read over a story again to get the commentary clear. I love a read that both amuses and makes you think about your perceptions. 

I also enjoyed Matsuda's earlier collection of stories inspired by Japanese folklore, which I read in 2021 -- Where the Wild Ladies Are. That's a bit more traditional in format but has the same edge. I really recommend her books if you like a feminist sensibility that is both highly intelligent and sarcastic. 

This collection has a couple of longer pieces but mostly there are brief reflections and observations. The title refers to a piece remarking on the normalization of violence against women in film, which is something still seen in many films. The joy in this book was the structure and writing, for me, which added to the sense of social critique and skewed perspective. I thought the style and the content worked together to create a strong thematic line. Really liked this one, and raced through it, although I will probably go back and sit with some of the stories a bit longer to really reflect on them. After all, there are 52 pieces, one a week would be a good start to any intellectual week! 

Taiwan Travelogue

 

Taiwan Travelogue / Yang Shuang-Zi
trans. from the Mandarin by Lin King
read by Sarah Skaer
Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor, 2025, c2020.

I listened to the audiobook of this recent International Booker prize winner. It was pretty good, although some of the narrator's choices for voices of the different characters grated on me a bit. I got used to it after a while - it's long enough that you can become accustomed! 

It's the story of Aoyama Chizuko, a Japanese journalist and novelist who been invited to Taiwan in 1938,by the ruling Japanese government. She wants to get an understanding of this region so plans to stay for a year to get the real feeling of it. As part of this, she is assigned an interpreter - Chizuro is a young woman about her age, who even shares some of the characters in her name. They both love eating, so travel around the country eating local foods, among the official visits and readings that Aoyama must do as part of her contract there. She is delighted with her interpreter and wants to become close friends with her, but there is something that Chizuro always holds back. It takes until the end of the story for Aoyama to grasp why. 

This book was published in Mandarin, presenting itself as a translation of an old Japanese book. This is a clever way to distance the political climate of current Taiwan from Chinese politics but still make a strong point about colonialism and autonomy. It also shows clearly that colonialism is not only political or 'big picture' but that it affects intimate relationships just as much. 

So much for the ideas behind the book. What was my experience reading it? I felt it was a slow burn -- there is so much about food that I found myself getting bored. I think you have to be a real foodie to follow along with Aoyama's culinary experiments with excitement. However, there was enough other detail in the story that I knew there would be a payoff, so continued. I'm glad I did. The last couple of chapters made it all worth it. I can understand how food and regional cooking are also reflections of colonialism, and a visceral, daily way to show its effects. But the lengthy descriptions of food are just not highly interesting to me personally. 

Still, the characters and the relationships were worth following, and the book as a whole was a good read. Glad I was able to find this one to listen to this month! 

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop / Satoshi Yagisawa
trans. from the Japanese by Eric Ozawa
NY: HarperPerennial, 2024, c2011.
176 p.

I couldn't wait, after reading the first book in this set last week - I had to search out book two. Thankfully my library had it, so I brought it home and read it over a couple of days. I had to stretch this one out a little more than the first one, as it is quite melancholy and I needed a break before the conclusion. 

In this novel, Takako is reminiscing; the story is related from her future vantage point. I find this style a bit melancholic by nature, and this story has some sad parts in it for sure. It takes place 3 years after Takako left the bookshop for a design job, but she still comes back and hangs out at the bookshop and the coffee shops in the neighbourhood. She's now dating Wada, from the end of the first book, and along with her friend Tomo, has a life outside work -- something she had to create consciously for herself. As an aside, the description of Takako's romantic relationships seems unusual -- very formal, with not much communication on her part as to what's going on -- I'm wondering if this is a Japanese norm that I'm missing, or just a man writing a woman character. Anyhow!

Uncle Satoru and Aunt Momoko are still running the bookshop, but things are about to change, and Takako has to help Satoru come to terms with the way life is going. There is less talk about specific books and authors in this one than in the first, and more about the lives and relationships of the characters. Once again I was reminded of Banana Yoshimoto's style. 

I liked this one, although marginally less than the first one. It made me cry, and I found some lovely bits in it, though. This ties up the story of the Morisaki Bookshop, but the author has another series set in a cafe. Perhaps I will try that next. I find his style quite appealing and readable.  

 

If Cats Disappeared from the World

 

If Cats Disappeared from the World / Genki Kawamura
trans. from the Japanese by Eric Selland
London: Picador, 2018, c2012.
202 p.

I read this little book last week; I've owned for a long time but have just picked it up now. It's funny how many books like this I have on my shelves - ones that have been patiently waiting their turn, and once I open them I can't stop reading. 

This is a short novel, just 202 short pages. It is loosely in the form of a letter, written by a young man who is all alone in the world aside from his cat Cabbage. He's just found out that he has a brain tumour and only weeks to live. But his week turns surreal as the Devil appears to him and tells him that he can choose one thing to disappear from the world in exchange for another day of life. 

He gets a few extra days but the idea of exchanging things starts to pall. What is life worth living for and what parts make it all worthwhile? When the Devil suggests that cats disappear next, our narrator realizes he has a vital choice to make. 

Throughout this short narrative, told in a confessional, almost offhand style, deep questions are raised. We learn that the narrator's mother has died and that he is estranged from his father; he has a loose connection with an old girlfriend, which is important to the story. But his closest emotional relationship is with Cabbage. And through his reflections, we learn more about his past and his issues with his father. 

I found this a touching story, on the edge of being too sentimental but counterbalanced by the humour and irreverence of the Devil and the narrator's reactions. Even with the brevity and direct style, it causes the reader to think more deeply about what is worth cherishing in life, especially when you're about to leave it. I'm not sure why it hit me right now, but it did have an emotional impact. I thought the ending was perfect, resolving the interiority and isolation of this character's story with a resonant visual image of reconnection. Really interesting read, with some memorable moments. 

 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop / Satoshi Yagisawa
trans. from the Japanese by Eric Ozawa
NY: Harper Perennial, 2023, c2010. 
150 p.

I read this sweet book in a day -- it's short and easy to read, even with some emotional heft to it. It reminded me a lot more of Banana Yoshimoto's style than the more recent "healing fiction" titles I've been reading. There is nothing supernatural or outside of reality here; just people trying to survive bumps in the road and finding healing in books and coffee. 

It starts out with 25 yr old Takako finding out that her boyfriend is engaged to someone else. They work together so it doesn't take long before she quits -- essentially losing her boyfriend and job in the same few weeks. She's at loose ends and nursing her broken heart when she gets an offer from her uncle Satoru (who she hasn't heard from in a few years) to come and live and work with him in the family second-hand bookshop in the Jimbocho neighbourhood of Tokyo. Being awfully short of money she reluctantly accepts. 

This set up is quite lovely, as Takoko has a season of quiet and rest to find herself again. Her uncle says:

It's important to stand still sometimes. Think of it as a little rest in the long journey of your life. This is your harbor. And your boat is just dropping anchor here for a little while. And after you're well rested, you can set sail again. 

And this is what happens: as Takoko finds healing through discovering a love of reading, and engaging with people outside of a driven office environment, she comes to the point where she can find another job and leave the bookshop.  

The relationship between Takoko and her uncle is interesting - she knew him when she was a child, so they are developing a different connection, one between adults. She finds out a lot about who her uncle really is, and about his wife who had left him five years previously (but reappears halfway through). There is a tiny coffeeshop down the street that Takoko frequents, and some of the characters are based there. Some bookshop regulars are found in both places. All of these side characters are an important part of the story, showing Takoko another way to live, and empathy for other people -- just as her reading does. 

I liked the references to Japanese classics, some more contemporary authors, and some Western titles too. It was a charming element and yet the story wasn't overdone. It was light but I found it satisfying and am planning on finding book two of this story as soon as I can -- I want to hear more about the Morisaki Bookshop! 

Dinner at the Night Library

 

Dinner at the Night Library / Hika Harada
trans. from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
NY: Hanover Square Press, 2025, c2023
320 p.

Another Japanese novel that has been on my list for a while! This one is set in a library, one that has a very particular mission. It houses the collections of writers who've passed away (generally), and one that researchers can visit to study what writers read - but it's only open after dark. 

It starts out with a young woman, Otoha Higuchi, who is looking for a job, and stumbles across this one. It doesn't have the cache of a corporate position, and is located out of the way on the outskirts of Tokyo, so her parents aren't overly thrilled, but she thinks it sounds fascinating. 

Having a new employee to follow through the story really makes it easy for the author to explain everything to the reader in a natural way -- Otoha, and by extension the reader, is being introduced to all her coworkers, the purpose of the library and how it works, regular library patrons, and so on. 

We find a two person cataloguing department, front deskégeneral staff, and a manager as well as an ever-present cleaning lady, oh and a chef -- and a mysterious absentee owner. Otoha makes her way through her first few months of employment learning about minor scandals with patrons, discovering that there is a chef on-site who makes meals based on food from books (one chapter is all about Anne of Green Gables and the food choices are...interesting), and finally being involved in going to pick up the collection of a popular female author who has died and whose sister is donating everything. The storyline feels unfinished, like part two is on its way. The exact way this library operates isn't entirely clear either, especially the random food sections. But it was fun. 

I liked this, as another weird fictional library (fan of those) and a look at how a writer's reading can shape their own works. A bit metafictional in that way. There were some engaging characters in this one, all originally involved in books in some fashion, whether as former booksellers, pickers, librarians, literature students or what have you The setting was unusual as well, and although the café sections seemed a bit sudden, I still enjoyed the descriptions of literary inspired feasts - and the books they were drawn from. I wouldn't consider this a plot driven novel, but the vibes were good ;) 

 

We'll Prescribe You a Cat

 

We'll Prescribe You a Cat / Syou Ishida
trans. from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda
NY: Berkley, 2024, c2023.
297 p.

Another light read for this week. This is a book that could easily have been too twee; but as it turns out, it balances the cat tweeness with some real life difficulties that the characters are facing. And it's leavened with some light humour. I really enjoyed it!

It's five connected stories set in Kyoto, featuring different individuals who hear about an odd mental health clinic that is found down a narrow alleyway, with a doctor and nurse who prescribe cats. The patients are often taken aback when they have a cat handed to them, but the 10 day course of "treatment" usually does work wonders. Some of the characters bond and don't want to give their cats back; others feel ready to move forward in life which will include finding their own cat later on. 

The issues that the characters face include a young girl in the midst of school drama (and her rigid mother), a middle aged businessman feeling edged out at his workplace by an energetic new female supervisor, a young salesman facing a career crisis, a work focused designer with no bandwidth to recognize her own needs, and a geiko (Kyoto geisha) who is trying to get over her lost cat. 

I loved the setting - so often these books are set in Tokyo but this one really uses its location of Kyoto beautifully. I felt like I learned about the city and culture as well as the characters. The clinic itself is unusual; it's only there for people who really need it. And the secret of the nurse and doctor's presence is hinted at, becoming clear to the reader (and only the reader) by the end. Definitely leaving you set up for the next one! 

I thought this was a delight. Meaningful, not too sentimental, but light and uplifting as well. I really liked the unusual characters and the way the author drew out their dilemmas, everyday ones but so important to the person going through it. I felt that there was a clear love of both animals and people shown by this author's writing, and that the balance in each story was finely drawn. I'd definitely recommend this one when you need some Uplit! 

Diary of a Void

 

Diary of a Void / Emi Yagi
trans. from the Japanese by David Boyd and Lucy North
NY: Viking, 2022, c2020.
213 p.

Another workplace novel, of sorts - this one is about women's roles in the workplace, maternity, and expectations of all kinds. 

At age 34,  Ms. Shibata leaves one workplace because of sexual harassment, and finds a new role at a cardboard tube manufacturer. She is the only woman in the office and discovers that all the little niceties fall to her, simply because she is a woman. Coffee, keeping the office tidy, distributing any vendor gifts, and so forth -- all just left for her, because she is female. And if these things aren't done, she is directly asked. She has had enough. 

So one day, asked to clear the coffee cups and cigarettes from a meeting, she refuses, saying that she is pregnant and the smell makes her sick. Bang! She no longer has to do so many things. But she is not, in fact, pregnant. 

But one said, this becomes a fact - she is treated differently because of the belief that she is pregnant. She doesn't have to do so many of the tedious chores at work. How is she going to maintain this fiction, though? She comes up with some ideas. Eventually she convinces even herself that she is pregnant, joining a maternity yoga class, finding a doctor, thinking about names...and going on maternity leave. 

It was  a compelling read, one that highlights so many nuances in women's experiences of the workplace, in particular. The way that single women in their thirties are treated differs from mothers, even single mothers like Ms. Shibata. This is key to the book, and while it started getting a little weird for a while, the ending draws everything together. It leaves you thinking. 

The Woman in the Purple Skirt

 

The Woman in the Purple Skirt / Natsuko Imamura
trans. from the Japanese by Lucy North 
NY: Penguin, 2021, c2019.
216 p.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is noticeable. She has a routine; sits on the same park bench at the same time of day, to eat the same cream bun. Except for when she is working, at one of the many temp jobs she gets. We know this because The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan is watching her, and telling us. 

The narrator is obsessed with this stranger; she watches her, notes down her movements and habits, and decides to find her a steady job at her own workplace, as a hotel cleaner. Through some oblique efforts (ie: leaving the jobs magazine open to the right page where she knows the Woman in the Purple Skirt will pick it up) she manages to do this. Now she can observe her closely and will obviously become her friend. 

But we know that this isn't going to work out as the narrator thinks it will. The Woman in the Purple Skirt has a mind of her own, and her own goals here. She behaves as she needs to to be accepted by the new work team, but begins to take advantages where she can, eating food from the rooms, taking the complimentary shampoos and so forth. But she really goes for it when she begins an affair with the owner. 

This doesn't end well, and the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan sees her opening. But even that careful plan goes awry. 

This is a strange little book, full of both personal obsession and the particular behaviours of a female workplace. It was fascinating to read, with a style that is surprisingly suspenseful considering it is mainly talking about the narrator's obsession with the other woman. Her goal, to bring herself into the orbit of this woman that people notice, is a lost cause; her own desire to be seen goes unfulfilled. 

Another note: I appreciated the book design for this one as well; the dust jacket incorporates yellow and purple, as well as a set of stairs dividing two women (appropriate to events in the book). Even the actual hard cover of the book is in yellow and purple. Great attention to detail by the designers! 

Mina's Matchbox

Mina's Matchbox / Yoko Ogawa
trans. from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder
TO: McLelland & Stewart, 2024, c2006.
288 p.

I picked up this one recently when it came into my local library. Even though I haven't really enjoyed the other books I've read by this author, I thought this one was appealing enough to give it a try. It was fairly good -- I did like it better than her other work -- but in the end I thought it was pretty forgettable. 

It's 1972, and Tomoko is being sent to live with her aunt's family in coastal Ashiya when her single mother needs to go back to school full time. Tomoko is telling us this nostalgic story from a later viewpoint, and the experience is filtered through a haze of memory. She finds a house of women: her cousin Mina, her aunt, German grandmother, and housekeeper Yoneda, not to mention the pygmy hippo Pochiko who lives in the yard. Her charismatic uncle and older male cousin are only there intermittently. She tells the reader about the year in this magical house with her cousin who is strange but perfect, beautiful, a reader, creative, and imperious, all while also treated with kid gloves because of her illness. All of Tomoko's memories are glazed over with how wonderful everything about this year is for her; it's interesting while you're reading the setup, but then nothing really happens. Everyone is one thing and keeps on being that one thing. The title comes from Mina's collection of matchboxes; she is desperate for more, and Tomoko finds out that Mina keeps them all and creates tiny narratives to match the pictures on the boxes, inscribing the tiny stories inside each one. 

The inclusion of a pygmy hippo and Mina's fixation on matchboxes give this story the odd features that are supposed to make it stand out. I thought the tiny stories that Mina created for each matchbox were unique, and would have liked more of them. I could have existed quite happily without the hippo. Or the strange chapters about Mina and Tomoko's obsession with volleyball, which seemed to come out of nowhere and go on forever, maybe as a way to include Ogawa's commentary on the Munich Olympics. I felt this element was shoehorned in, it didn't feel congruent with the rest of the story and also a bit tone deaf in light of current events. 

While the book started out with a lot of potential, I found it dragged a bit and like I've noted, included set pieces that seemed to be there just for an authorial comment, or to pad out the length perhaps. There were a number of elements that reminded me strongly of Banana Yoshimoto's 1989 novel Goodbye Tsugumi: Mina's sickly nature, Tomoko only having a mother and so having to stay with family in a house near the ocean (and in both the house itself is an important character), the relationship between cousins, and a few more vague feelings of similarity, although much of the plot differs. 

In any case, while I thought this had appeal, particularly around the older women in the book, it didn't quite do it for me. While I did like it more than previous titles by Ogawa, I'm not sure it has convinced me to keep reading her future work. 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop

 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop / Mai Mochizuki
trans. from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
NY: Ballantyne, 2024, c2020.
228 p.

This was brand new to my library so I quickly read it as a lighter pick for the end of Women in Translation Month. It was quirky and amusing as a whole. The cover is lovely, and if you look closely you will see a major theme in his book: the moon is an astrological chart. 

I didn't know much about it except the quick summary in my library catalogue, so I went into it open to anything. It feels like it's trying very hard to be a Studio Ghibli film - so many recent Japanese books feel heavily influenced by that body of work. Maybe there is a flood of Japanese authors writing in this style, or maybe it's just the ones getting translated! I felt that this book reminded me of the recent translation of The Kamogawa Food Detectives (written by a man) that I've been hearing lots about - then I realized that it's the same translator. 

Anyhow, this book was entertaining. It's short and a quick read, especially if you skim the complicated astrology parts like I did ;) The concept is that a group of loosely connected Japanese people are all stuck in their lives somehow, and their lives are changed and set onto new paths when they encounter the mysterious Full Moon Coffee Shop, a food truck that sets up in random places and serves customers what they need (no orders allowed). 

As our first character finds the shop, in a park under the stars, she is surprised to be served by cats. And talking cats who walk on two feet and wear an apron, too. I could picture the animated feature! These cats are forms taken by greater beings, who then explain the stars and planets to the customer, showing them their astrological charts and pointing out why they are stuck and the attitudes to take to move on to the next phase of their lives. This was interesting to a point, and it made me wonder about my own natal chart -- but the details were a bit thorough. I think if you already know something about astrology or if you're very interested in it anyhow, you'll get a bit more out of these sections. 

The book follows five characters who are all changed by their individually crafted desserts at the Full Moon Coffee Shop. And as the book progresses, we are shown the links between the characters and why they might have been lucky enough to have received this guidance at the right moments of their lives. It goes back to childhood and kindness to cats. 

This wasn't as twee as it sounds; there were good characters facing trials in their lives, and the coffee shop (sometimes experienced in a dream) is a way to make sense of what's happening to them - I can see the appeal. Mixed in to the novel is some solid life advice, no matter what house your rising planet is in. Receiving life advice from unexpected sources reminds me of What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama, which even has the same episodic structure and loose connections between characters. They might be good companion reads, if you can take that high a dose of quirkiness all at once! 

The Premonition

The Premonition / Banana Yoshimoto
trans. from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda
Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2023, c1988.
144 p.

I really love Banana Yoshimoto. So I was delighted when I saw that there was a new translation of one of her earlier books. I got it from the library as soon as I could, and started in.

It's a very Yoshimoto book - disaffected main character, odd family configurations, intense melancholy/nostalgia, slow moving with lots of quiet moments. I enjoyed much of that. 

The main character, Yayoi, is 19, from a stable nuclear family, but starting to feel like she's missing something. She feels more connected to Yukino, her odd recluse aunt, recently, and decides to go stay with her. Maybe in her aunt's odd way of living, Yayoi will find the peace she's looking for. 

Things start to shift, and Yayoi discovers that her family isn't quite what she thought it was. Then Yukino disappears, and Yayoi and her ever-cheery brother head off to look for her, encountering Yukino's love interest along the way. 

And this is where it got weird and lost me. There are two taboo relationships that appear here, the student-teacher one with Yukino and the "not really" incest relationship between Yayoi and her so-called brother. Not sure how this went over in 1988 in Japan, but it made the story too much for me now. There have been relationships on the edge in some of Yoshimoto's other books, but with this one there isn't much else to the story, so there's nothing to balance it out. I found the book a bit vague and forgettable in many ways. Definitely not my favourite Yoshimoto. Waiting for the next translation, to see if another story might live up to Kitchen or Moshi Moshi for me! 

The Goodbye Cat

 

The Goodbye Cat / Hiro Arikawa
translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Toronto, ON : Viking, 2023, c2021.
278 p.

Starting off the year with a review for the January Japanese Literature Challenge, with the second book I've read by Hiro Arikawa, the author of The Travelling Cat Chronicles. In this charming collection of seven stories, we encounter seven distinct cats and their varied owners. If you’re in the mood for domesticity with a touch of the fantastic, you’ll enjoy these tales, full of both wry talking cats and touching family stories.

There have been a number of Japanese translations in the recent past which feature cats. This one has ties to the author’s very popular first book – the final story in this collection features the original characters from The Travelling Cat Chronicles, which I really enjoyed. 

In these varied stories, there are many different kinds of families represented, with the cats often strays that are taken in. There are young children who bond with their cats, grumpy dads who soften up a little thanks to the feline influence, and moms who seem to be doing a lot of the caretaking. Having a cat commenting on family dynamics gives a bit of an outsider’s view, pointing out all the unusual things that people do – which can be amusing!

Reading this is also like a quick trip to Japan. Details about food, neighbourhoods, and social relationships make these stories richly evocative of place. But these stories are also sweet and sad, uplifting and moving. If you’re ready for some suspension of disbelief and want to hear stories from a cat’s perspective, this book might be just right for you. It's not a challenging read, with a gentle tone to most of it, just on the right side of twee. Definitely a hit for cat lovers!