Tag: Tokyo setting

Mieko Kawakami’s—Sisters in yellow

Hana is a teenager determined to escape her hand to mouth existence while living with her often absent mother in a small apartment in a Tokyo suburb. When not at school, she works in a local restaurant saving her earnings. But when one of her mother’s boyfriends steals her savings, she is devastated until she runs into her mother’s friend Kimiko whom she remembers from earlier, who befriended her. Hana moves to another part of Tokyo where Kimiko opens a bar. Although underage, Hana works hard and drinks hard to make a successful life with Kimiko. Hana befriends clients while working, pays the bills and saves the profits. Life is looking up with Kimiko and her living in a small apartment, but everything is about to change.

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Haruki Murakami’s—Kafka on the Shore

During the WW11 a teacher takes a group of children on an excursion into the forest to pick mushrooms. When the children collapse in a comatose state with eyes open, she races back to the school for help. The children eventually recover, all except one boy who is taken to hospital. Decades later, Mr Nakata is that boy who eventually wakes up from the coma, but he’s forgotten everything, including how to read. The only thing he’s capable of is speaking to cats.

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Haruki Murakami’s—The city and its uncertain walls

As a teenager, the boy fell in love with the girl who eventually confessed that the real her came from a different reality. When the girl disappeared from his life, his world crumbled and he plodded through his existence wishing he could find the strange world she claimed she came from. Her strange world became so real to him that he wondered if he was his real self or only his shadow.

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Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams’—Falling Blossom *****

With Japan’s success at invading China and Korea, and Britain afraid a rising superpower might take over their jewel, India, the British government makes a pact with Japan. In the early 1900s a group of British soldiers are then sent to Japan to learn Japanese and war tactics. In Tokyo, Arthur meets Masa, a Japanese woman who has been rejected by her husband and sent back to her family. The pair fall in love and even though Arthur is transferred to other destinations, their connection doesn’t end until forty years later with the outbreak of the second world war.

This memoir is based on research and the hundreds of letters from Arthur discovered in Masa’s trunk after her death. These letters reveal an in-depth insight into their lives and the dramatic changes that took place in both countries—a book I couldn’t put down.