Book Review Monkey Brain Sushi New Tastes in Japanese Fiction

Book Review 

Monkey Brain Sushi - New Tastes in Japanese Fiction

Edited by: Alfred Birnbaum

Publisher: Kodansha International, Tokyo.1991

ISBN: 4-7700-2890-3

Pages: 304

An anthology of eleven modern Japanese writers



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Monkey Brain Sushi is an anthology of eleven up and coming Japanese writers and artists. It includes work by Haruki Murakami, Eri Makino, Genichiro Takahashi, Masahiko Shimada, Michio Hisauchi, Amy Yamada, Osamu Hashimoto, Yoshinori Shimizu, Mariko Ohara and Masato Takeno.





Each writer has a different style which makes the book a collection of themes and stories across a wide range of topics.





Favourites included The Yamada Diary, Japanese entrance Exams, Peony Snowflakes of Love, Kneel Down and Lick my Feet and Momotaro in a Capsule but each brings new information to the reader and shouldn’t be missed.





A handy read that puts you at the front seat of modern writers that have been translated into English. Enjoyable, informative and an entertaining read of short stories.

Book Review

Monkey Brain Sushi - New Tastes in Japanese Fiction

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Book Review: The Wayfarer by Natsume Soseki

Book Review: The Wayfarer by Natsume Soseki

A period novel set in the early 1900’s with four distinct sections. for example the first section deals with a friend who enters hospital with a stomach complaint but then unravels as a love story gone wrong as we learn Misawa forced his companion to drink even though she had a bad condition and it forced her intoto hospital, he felt guilty and followed her there.

The novel reveals the lifestyle of the period that shares clothing, food, people’s daily routines, rickshaws, street cars, telephone, ice box, the seasons and rooming in a boarding house. We learn about places in Tokyo, the minutiae of family life and communication, the insights of how an arranged marriage comes about

An interesting insight to the period and family relationships

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Book Review: The Wayfarer by Natsume Soseki

Book Review The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe

Book Review – The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe

Author: Kobo Abe

Translator: Juliet Winters Carpenter

Publisher: Martin Secker and Warburg Limited, London.1988

ISBN: 0436000237 

Pages: 336

The gaze of a girl changes everything

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A classic novel by Kobo Abe who uses a range of techniques to inform, entertain and educate the reader. Set in the 1960’s in Japan we meet the man character Mole (a self-given nickname) who goes to a department store roof top sale to find a bargain. Little did he know that his life was about to change and his long term plan about to come into play?

A range of characters are introduced including the insect seller, the shill and his companion, a young woman who seems to captivate everyman who meets her. The Broom Brigade and the sweet potato pie maker.

Set by the coast we learn the Moles plan for the end of the world and how he will survive. The harsh environment in which he was raised has set him on a path to preserve life not to harm it.

The writer of Woman in the Dunes, shares a story of hope, relationships and loneliness.

Book Review – The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe






















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the ark sakura, book review

Book Review The Face Of Another by Kobo Abe

Book Review – The Face of Another by Kobo Abe

Author: Kobo Abe

Translated by: E.Dale Saunders

Publisher: Charles. E. Tuttle, Tokyo, Japan 1967

ISBN: 4-8053-0120-1

Pages: 237

A mask that creates another world

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A detailed novel that shares the pain of a man whose face becomes disfigured due to a work accident and the steps he takes to heal the enormous physical and emotional scars that impact his relationships, work and self esteem. Classic Kobo Abe in that he has a clearly defined topic and pours 200 percent focus into it to place himself in the role. The book is from the narrators perspective , so we get inside the head of the man as he processes a wide range of new circumstances after the accident.

We also learn of the difficulties he faces having a disfigured face and the shame it brings when strangers ignore him and the change in people’s reactions to him, including his wife.

The man skillfully sets out to rebuild his life by making a lifelike mask that will cover his face and scars in the hope that he can reconnect with his old life including his relationships. That he can go out in public and be normal again. He takes great pains to make a mask and draws on his scientific knowledge to research, plan and build it. In the process he desperately wants to win his wife back.The mask once worn brings out a range of new personality traits that the man becomes afraid of, a kind of alter ego and he must challenge the mask to regain control.

Classic Kobo Abe, detail, introspection and a deep focus on his characters.

Book Review – The Face of Another by Kobo Abe

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Review: Japanese Student Success High School to MBA Australia by Rawdon Dalrymple

 

Review:

Japanese Student Success -High School to MBA- Australia

                                            

Reviewed by Rawdon Dalrymple, AO. (Order of Australia)

Rawdon Dalrymple is visiting Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Sydney where he teaches courses in International Relations. He is also Chairman of the ASEAN Focus Group Pty Ltd. He has published articles in journals in Australia and the United States and writes a monthly column in a leading Japanese newspaper. He was the Australian Ambassador to Japan 1989 -1993

"There is paucity of research that examines the positive experiences of international students...Research that throws light on how students benefit from their experience, and then subsequently apply that experience, is therefore very welcome...

" is useful in helping to fill a substantial gap in our understanding…It is also useful to learn more about the factors that motivate individual Japanese students to study in Australia"

Book review: Bedtime Eyes by Amy Yamada

Book Review

 –  Bedtime Eyes by Amy Yamada

Author:  Amy Yamada 

Translated by: Yumi Ginji and  Marc Jardine 

Publisher: St Martin Press, New York. 2006

ISBN: 978-0-312-35226-4 

Pages: 218

Lust, sweat and longing

© Copyright. 2015.  All rights reserved.

Fresh and powerful. A series of three short novellas that explore a Japanese woman’s view of relationships with foreigners (African – American men).

“ I had always been able to turn heads, but not like this, so whenever we went out together I felt so uncomfortable” p81

Each story shares a different relationship and different insights. Pleasure, loss, lust, sex, communication issues, power, roles, longing, the culture gap, misunderstandings, learning new things from a partner that then become part of your life (places, people, food, objects, mannerisms, sayings, music, scents, clothing, etc), and the fragileness . 

Book Review

 –  Bedtime Eyes by Amy Yamada

www.japanesecustomer.com

Book Review: Audition by Ryu Murakami

Book Review: Audition by Ryu Murakami by Japanese Customers

Movie: Like Someone in Love - Trailer. A love story set in Tokyo, Japan.

Source: Asian Trailers, You Tube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pldnaSGSyY

Source: Megatrailers, You Tube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weYSTTvt1Lk

Movie: Overview

"An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter."

"Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2012

Directed by: Abbas KIAROSTAMI

Starring: Tadashi OKUNO, Rin TAKANASHI, Ryo KASE"

Review: 

The AGE Newspaper

Melbourne film listings

July 7, 2013

Reviewed by Philippa Hawker and Jake Wilson

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/about-town/melbourne-film-listings-20120927-26nvh.html#ixzz2VlqhVBdJ

"LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

(109 minutes) Unrated 18+

★★★★★

"Though the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is sometimes mistaken for a social realist, he's always been a trickster at heart, as cunning in his way as a writer such as Vladimir Nabokov. This companion piece to his ersatz European art movie Certified Copy again puts the notion of fakery front and centre: the film is a prism that can be examined from many angles, even if the plot barely qualifies as anecdotal. Akiko (Rin Takanashi), a pretty, young sociology student who moonlights as an escort, is asked to spend an evening with Takashi (Tadashi Okuno), a courtly professor living in the suburbs of Tokyo. Whether or not Like Someone in Love is ultimately ''about'' Japan, it pays homage to the Japanese tradition of art that relies on implication. Voices are detached from their owners and images are visible only as reflections, while truth, if it exists at all, remains offscreen." JW

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/about-town/melbourne-film-listings-20120927-26nvh.html#ixzz2VlqLLncB

Review of "Motorcycle Japan - A Riders Diary " by Mark Dulhunty

Review of "Motorcycle Japan - A Riders Diary" by Mark Dulhunty 

Book Review: The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki

Book Review: The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki

The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki

"This is the story of the extinction of a great family through pride and over - refinement. It is a loving re-creation of the sumptuous, pleasure - filled upper class life of Osaka - the Hamburg of Japan - just before the war. As Tanizaki intimately and sensitively dissects the complex affairs of the once rich and haughty sisters, his surgical realism lays bare the tissue of true pride and false hope. Yet this realism is without harshness, for it is fused with nostalgia for a vanished era. The most important of the four sisters is Yukiko, the third, and the central theme is the finding of a husband for her. She has all the accomplishments of an elegant Japanese lady. Passive, delicate and gentle, she is versed in the tea ceremony, flower- arrangement, calligraphy and poetry.

Yet she somehow finds the strength to refuse a long line of suitors. In Taeko, the younger sister, there are uneasy signs of the future. SHe is a modern girl who tries to break away from the family and to establish herself in a career. She experiences a series of hectic love affairs bears a child before she is married, and ends up as the wife of a bartender. The second sister, Sachiko is a woman of rare kindness and good sense, who tries by every possible compromise to hold the family together and to preserve the wonderful life they knew as children. The truly tragic figure is Tsuruko, the oldest sister, uncompromising, inadaptable, worn down by money troubles and a large family, and finally driven by the exigencies of her husbands work to move from her beloved home to the frantic competitive world of Tokyo, where the Makioka name means nothing"

Book Review The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanazaki reviewed by JapaneseCustomer.com by jcustomer

book review, japanese literature, junichiro tanizaki, non fiction, japan, japanese, japanese customers, www.japanesecustomer.com, makioka sisters, #japan, #japanese, #customer, #consumer

Video: JapaneseCustomer.com

Video: JapaneseCustomer.com 

 Source: JapaneseCustomer.com 

You Tube Channel 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnOfRiJQsY

Nikon Coolpix A - Camera review - A camera made in Japan with Japanese quality

"The austere, beautiful body, made in Japan, marks this as serious gear.....High ISO shooting in RAW produces excellent images...Mechanically, optically and electronically it is professional standard"

Source: Review: Nikon Coolpix A

Reviewed by Terry Lane

The AGE

July 11th 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/cameras/review-nikon-coolpix-a-20130710-2powx.html#ixzz2YhPkF4Es

Get ready for the rainy season in Japan with a samurai style umbrella

"samurai sword umbrella ..... boasts high customer reviews on Amazon. With a length of 91 cm and a diameter of 105 cm this umbrella will surely keep you dry from rain and the blood of your fallen enemies."

Pictures here

Source:Warriors, Thieves, and Weathermen: 5 Weapon Umbrellas To Fend Off The Rain

Jun 11, 2011

By Steven

Rocket News 24

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2011/06/11/warriors-thieves-and-weathermen-5-weapon-umbrellas-to-fend-off-the-rain/

Video

Source: SpendingMachines, You Tube Channel

Accessed June 16th 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lZIY-jIgsY

Book Review: The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata

Book Review: The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata 

Book Review: Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo - Japanese Literature

Book Review: Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo

Book Review: IQ84 by Haruki Murakami

Book review IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. Reviewed by JapaneseCustomer.com

Launch of Cinnamon Melts in Japan

Case Study: The Launch of McDonald's Cinnamon Melts in Japan

Wednesday 19th September, 2008








Video: Cinnamon Melts in Japan


"Cinnamon Melts" debut at McDonald's Japan today which is a new product that adds to the current "Premium Roast" coffee strategy


"Cinnamon Melts" a deliciously addictive sweet dessert first launched in the USA in 2006 debut today in Japan. The new sweet dessert will add weight to the new premium roast coffee strategy adopted earlier in the year. Recent additions to the strategy include the McBakery line of three pastry products (sugar croissant, melon pan and Choco Danish). The addition of Cinnamon Melts boosts the line and makes it more robust.




The new sweet dessert is clearly aimed at making McDonald's a new destination for Japanese coffee drinkers and sweet dessert eaters who in the current economic climate are looking for value anywhere they can get it.



Before the launch we considered if the product may be altered to adjust to Japanese palates, for example: reduced sugar content and reduced calories.



I purchased a Cinnamon Melt in Tokyo this morning and by all accounts the product seems to be an exact replica that is of the USA product from our taste test, we may be corrected on this but this is our initial assessment. The taste is rich, full bodied and takes the eater on a dreamy cruise. It seems to have a more stronger flavor than a "Cinnabon". The difference between the two products, Cinnamon Melts and Cinnabon is that Cinnabon is a dry pastry, whereas Cinnamon Melt is a wet pastry that is it is served hot and has a runny sauce. The sauce seems to accentuate the taste.



When you eat a section of a Cinnamon melt and dip it in the sauce that collects at the bottom of the container the strong tasting sauce adds to the pastry content and makes the taste a very deep flavour experience.



A real surprise here with the new "Cinnamon Melt" it is full taste and a real bonus for coffee drinkers who enjoy the bitter taste of coffee with a balancing sweet dessert taste. If this theme takes off in Japan it will be a success. Also as we are coming in to the autumn season and the weather cools down, a warm product could be just what customers want when they take a break.



Will the new product impact major competitor Starbucks Japan? The new pastry adds to the premium roast coffee strategy by offering depth to the product line up, image and range. Priced at 290 yen, it is well placed to please coffee drinkers. A premium roast coffee costs 120 yen, up 20 yen with a recent price rise and when the Cinnamon Melt is added the order the total experience adds up to 410 yen.


It seems a pretty clumsy price combination but it still comes in under 500 yen which is an important consumer price point in Japan.


Starbucks Japan has new coffee offers for drinkers through with two new initiatives, namely afternoon discounts and a new range of banana based products. No new coffee initiatives (cold pre-made Starbucks branded products available in some convenience stores) yet in Japan except for the recent launch of the new sandwich range "Filone" which adds to foods that complement their coffee products.


It is a shame that the recent coffee price increase took premium roast coffee off the 100 yen menu. In one sense it is a negative in that it could lose some customers who refuse to pay the increase or it could help to take the brand out on its own as a stand-alone product with its own team (McBakery and Cinnamon Melt) which could later be re-launched as a family brand particularly when McCafe rolls out further in Japan.


In summary, the new "Cinnamon Melt" is a good addition to the existing menu, it adds a reason for new customers to visit the store, adds a new product to the menu just as the season changes and the weather cools, it rewards existing coffee drinkers, adds a full tasting "western product" to the menu, adds a brand new taste to the menu, adds a new product to the existing and well branded premium roast coffee strategy, acts as an enticement for those who watch American TV dramas and have heard of cinnamon sweets such as Cinnabon (mums and kids) and finally keeps attention on McDonald's as a coffee provider.

japan, japanese, customer, consumer, case study, launch, cinnamon melts, mcdonalds, news, new, www.japanesecustomer.com, @jcustomers, #japan, #japanese, #new, #video, #cinnamon, #mcdonalds, #video