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July 25, 2010

unbelievably, reading books about Japan





Good heavens…you may or may not be wondering what I have been up to lately…

I have been traveling around Japan in my “areas” as a sales representative.  On my days off I have finally gotten back “my groove” and am reading, listening to music and watching movies again…
So, what have I been reading?  Well, I finished reading Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s “Picking Ash From Bones”.  In a nutshell: it was great!
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I usually freak out when someone writes about Japan in English. There are often quite a few errors.  Names are irritably non-Japanese, foods are mixed up with other Asian countries and the Japanese tendencies are nothing but stale stereotypes.

However, Marie’s book gives you a REAL sense of time and space in Japan, both old and new.  Her mother is Japanese and father is American, just like me so it is not too much of a wonder that she gets everything right;-)

The story starts with a mother and daughter and how their lives are constricted because they are a family of two. Japan still holds a bit of prejudice towards single parent families, although not as harsh as in the 1950s, when the story begins.
 (You can get a short synopsis of the book here: http://www.pickingbonesfromash.com/)
As time goes by the story gets passed on to the next generation.  The new central figure Rumi, is raised in the US and has a chance to visit present time Japan.  The reason Rumi flies to Japan is unique from a western point of view.  Maybe even mystical since it has to do with a ghost, but being half Japanese myself, it actually seemed natural. 
Along with snapshots of homes, schools and society you will learn a bit about the Japanese version of Buddhism and the indigenous religion of Shintoism as well.

For someone who know Japan the way I do (because I live here and like the author am half Japanese) it made me want to give my mom a big hug for raising me up in two cultures.

So what am I going to read next???  Marie seems to have unlocked my ability to read about Japan in English so I think I will follow up with the following titles: 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (because one of the characters has the same first name as I do!) and…
 the new book by David Mitchell “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (my husband is from Nagasaki, which is the stage for this novel)…so many coincidences….
Also:
I am almost finished with “At Home in Japan” a non-fiction by Rebecca Otowa.

This book also is a lovely one to flip through in between stuff as I sip tea and fan myself on the hot summer nights…
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“Shojo no Tomo” (the girls’ friend) a magazine for girls that is no longer in print but was loved by girls in Japan during the 1950s…right around the same time Marie’s novel starts off!


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Ooooh, look at the hairstyles!