Morgan Giles is a Japanese-to-English literary translator based in Tokyo. And, for her, 2019 is off to a fantastic start; Tokyo Ueno Station, a novel she has translated from the original Japanese by Yu Miri, was published in 2019 by the awesome folks over at Tilted Axis Press. You can read our review of Tokyo Ueno Station …
Willow Heath
Stroud is a small Gloucestershire market town at the edge of the beautiful and historic Cotswolds. In this quaint and idyllic town, you’ll find farmer’s markets, old manor houses, and endless countryside walks across rolling hills. The town boasts Victorian homes, some charming cafes, and two delightful independent bookstores: one of new books, one of …
Fairy Tales selected and introduced by Cornelia Funke When you stop to consider it, it’s frightening how many things set in at a young age. Gender roles is a scary one. Manners and etiquette are arguably a positive one, though they can be restricting. Stop and think a little longer and you’ll start to consider …
It is very easy for people to believe that their way of thinking is the right way. This can stretch from something as simple as a husband and wife debating the best time to eat dinner all the way to debating the existence of a god or gods, and to every subtle and complex concept …
Fuzhou Lu is one of the main arteries that lead into the beating heart of Shanghai: People’s Square. The road is lined with interesting stores, cafes, barber shops, and more. Its crown jewel: the Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore, located a ten-minute walk down Fuzhou Lu from People’s Square station. Part of our Bookstores Around the …
When it comes to adaptation, book-lovers often feel divided. Some welcome film adaptations; others don’t see the point. Some spend hours debating which is better. I am of the opinion that a book and a film are too far apart to be compared clearly and fairly. But graphic adaptations exist in the gap between literature …
What makes Sega’s Yakuza games the kings of the living, breathing open world? A pinch of love, a dash of passion, and the fascinating real-life counterpart Kabukicho. As has been mentioned previously by the greatest showperson in games media, James Stephanie Sterling, open worlds in this generation of video games have gotten bigger and bigger, …
The subject of history is one that concerns politics, economics, and philosophy. Lessons from the past teach us how to proceed into the future. And yet, for so long, books on history have been simply that. Recently, however, a trend has emerged amongst historians: experts in world events of the past have taken to writing …
Kamakura is a small, historically-rich, quaint little town that sits an hour south of Tokyo, on the other side of Yokohama. It is one of the most popular day-trip destinations for residents of Tokyo (see our other favourite day trips here) and tourists hoping to see more of the old ‘samurai Japan’ that we often …
Even if The Underground Village were to be underwhelming, it is worth attention for being perhaps the only collection of stories to come out of Japanese-occupied Manchuria (written by a lower-class female Korean communist born in what is now North Korea) that you’ll ever read. Fortunately, thanks in no small part to some witty and …