Tags
After Dark, akira, anime, gackt, ghibli museum, ghost in the shell, hanami, hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, Haruki Murakami, in the miso soup, japan, okinawa, ryu murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart, Tokyo, tokyo tower, wind up bird chronicles
NOVEMBER MINI-CHALLENGE: Five Questions
Hello Japan! is a monthly mini-challenge focusing on Japanese literature and culture. hosted by ‘In Spring It Is The Dawn’. Each month there will be a new task which relates to some aspect of life in Japan. Anyone is welcome to join in any time. You can post about the task on your blog. Or if you don’t have a blog, you can leave a comment on the Hello Japan! post for the month. Everyone who completes the task will then be included in the drawing for that month’s prize.
This month’s challenge is a good one. We get to answer five questions relating to Japan and Japanese culture. Here goes!
1. My favourite Japanese tradition is manga because:
I just love art, and manga is probably the first contact I ever had with Japanese culture. A person can learn so much about a country and it’s people by studying its various art forms and manga is so uniquely Japanese that no other culture can copy it. Cult classics like ‘Akira’ made me a firm fan of cyberpunk literature and made me more aware of the dangers of technology, social isolation, corruption and power. This, and a wonderfully complex storyline between Tetsuo and Kaneda led me to look for similar stories like ‘Ghost in the Shell’.
‘Zatoichi’ starring Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano. It’s an excellent version of the blind swordsman who comes into a small Japanese town to kick gangster butt. It also stars the awesome Tadanobu Asano. It’s set during the feudal Edo period. It has ronins, geishas and lots of great sword-fighting, so its well worth a look at if you get the chance.
3. What Japanese author(s) or book(s) have you enjoyed that you would highly recommend to others?
Nothing comes close to Haruki Murakami. 2010 has been a good year for reading his books as I’ve got to know him better as a writer. I would recommend ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’, ‘After Dark’ and ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ as an introduction to his work. I am currently reading ‘Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ and ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles’. So far, they are both turning out to be excellent!
4. What is something Japanese that you’d like to try but haven’t yet had the chance?
I’d love to try Miso Soup ever since I read the novel ‘In The Miso Soup’ by Ryu Murakami. I would also love to try on the traditional Japanese costume and go through the tea ceremony. I’m a teaholic, and Japan is THE place to do some serious tea-tasting! Just thinking about it is putting a smile on my face!
5. You’re planning to visit Japan next year. Money is not a concern. What is on the top of your list of things you most want to do?
This is a VERY long list. First off I’d probably stay a few months (considering how long the journey is) so I’d start off with ‘Hanami’ or the cherry blossom viewing in March. It would be a perfect time to go as I’d also celebrate my birthday there. We’d pack our bento lunches and go sit in the park with all the other watchers. Then I’d visit Tokyo’s various districts: Ginza (shopping), Akihabara (electronics), Harajuku etc and some of the old temples that are located in the capital. Something tells me praying there would do me some good. There is also the Ghibli Museum I’d like to see. It’s very hard to get tickets, but because I’m such a fan of Ghibli films it’s an absolute must. I’d also go and visit the Tokyo Tower. I heard that young couples go there and sit under it. If you stay long enough and the lights go out, then its a sign that you’ll stay together forever.
Finally, towards June (I said I was staying a few months), I’d go over to the Okinawa islands as I’ve heard it’s a sub-tropical paradise. A bit of swimming, some fishing; perfect. Nothing like rounding up my Japan pilgrimage by visiting the birth place of my Japanese rock hero Gackto-san!
That’s my questions answered. What about you?
Wordly Obsessions 
I vividly recommand Musachi by Eiji Yoshikawa, about a samurai living in the 17th century. Almost 1000 pages overall but it feels like 1/2 page from Ulysses… ;o)
I should read more Japanese literature.
I agree about Zatoichi. Great movie.
I wish I could turn back time to visit the Japan before the Convention of Kanagawa. It’s a little late now.
Ooo, thanks for the recommendation. I hope I can find that over here. Yes, we should all read more Jap lit, but that will only happen if there are more translations. I’m still waiting for ‘1Q84’ … it’s gonna be a LONG wait.
I’m embarrassed to say that I *have* 1Q84 (since June) but still haven’t picked it up!
Please do not hit me?! LOL
I’ll give my #3: Musui’s Story by Katsu Kokichi. It’s an actual autobiography of a samurai who could not have been further from our idea of the noble swordsman. He drank, brawled, gambled, and was such a debauched patron of the Yoshiwara district that his angry family put him in a bamboo cage as a grown man. It’s as if Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai existed and wrote a book.
I’ve yet to see Zatoichi but as you can tell from the previous sentence I’m a total Kurosawa guy.
That’s a fascinating story. Another samurai autobiography goes on my list then! It’s great how these accounts still survive. It would have been so easy for them to disappear into nothingness. And to think how paper and ink was quite hard to come by. And yeah, Kurosawa rocks.
I love Zatoichi!! It was a great movie. you make me want to see it again.
Ow…so you like Gackt. I want to watch Larc en ciel is on my top list
Yeah, I’m a Gacktoid lol. But if it wasn’t for him, I would never have discovered Hyde. Hyde is by far the better musician… Gackt is more of an interesting personality and an great mass entertainer. I’ve heard that his concerts are visually stunning.
Whereas Hyde; you could put him on a wooden crate with just a guitar, and he could make you swoon!
I haven’t read Sputnik Sweetheart yet, but it’s on my list. I really enjoyed After Dark.
Domo arigatou gozaimasu for coming over to my blog to read my 5 questions Japanese challenge! So glad you are reading all of my favourite Murakami’s books, and your plans to visit those interesting sites in Japan, that just add more to my long list of things to do in Japan! 😀
Sam – After Dark was great. I really enjoyed the creepy atmosphere, you’ll love Sputnik Sweetheart.
JoV – You are most welcome! There’s so much to do in Japan. I would need a few years to really feel like I’ve explored it. I hope we get to do all these things one day. Viva Nippon!
I would love to do Hanami too – perhaps I need to convince my hubbie to take me there for our wedding anniversary one March! And I’m with you on the tea-tasting!
That’s a great idea. And you could take many lovely pictures of the blossoms too. It would be a most cool way to celebrate a wedding anniversary. But if you do go, I want some authentic Japanese tea leaves! That way when you get back we can put the kettle on you can tell me all about your trip over a nice cup of steaming chai.
Hi Zee, I’m quite ambivalent about your choices..! I’d love to go and watch the cherry blossoms with you in Japan, enjoying our bentos 🙂
But South of the Border and Sputnik Sweetheart are not my favourite Murakamis (I read the first only last year and can’t recall what it was about…) and I’m not sure about reading In the Miso Soup either — Mr Gnoe thinks I won’t like it.
Still, Zaitochi has been on my list of movies to watch for a while now and although I didn’t manage to participate in the Hello Japan manga mission, there have been one or two titles on my list since that month.
It is very interesting to get to know you this way! 🙂
It’s a very nice way to get to know other fellow Japanophiles. ‘In The Miso Soup’ is quite creepy. It’s similar to Natsuo Kirino ‘Out’ in the level of violence. So if you don’t like that kind of thing then it’s best not to read it.
I think I’d learn a lot of Bento-knowledge from you. Zatoichi is great, watch it when you have the time you won’t regret it.
Thanks for taking part in the mini-challenge, and sorry I’m so late to stop by to comment. Zatoichi is such a fun movie, you mentioning it is making me want to watch it again! And you definitely must try miso soup and all the varieties of green tea. Such Japanese staples. 🙂