Japanese Book Review: The Tropics by Morimi Tomihiko

(熱帯　森見　登美彦）

I don’t normally write in-depth summaries of the books I read, but this one had an intricate enough plot that I wanted to do it for myself, and hopefully, someone else will come across this and find it helpful. This book has the most complicated plot I have read. Early on, we learn that one of the characters carries around a notebook to keep track everything that happens, a lesson he learned after his copy of The Tropics, a mysterious book that no one has ever finished, disappeared.

I took this as a hint and began writing down what happened as I read. If you plan to read this book I would suggest doing the same, or to save time, you can use my summary as a map.

Obviously, this includes spoilers, so if you plan on reading the book come back when you’re finished. Here goes:

Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part II b]

“Edgelands”（さいはての地 ), a short story by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) is part of a fantasy/adventure series, which includes “Rainlands“, of which a translation is published at SelfTaughtJapanese.com. I have the author’s permission to publish the translation of this two-part story. This is the second half of the second part, the end of the story. The beginning of the story is posted here. I would like to thank Locksleyu from SelfTaughtJapanese.com for help with translation checking and proofreading.

Synopsis

They call this place Edgetown—a small mountain village overlooking a vast, blazing wasteland. They say that no one can survive beyond this point, but young Noi can see the faint outline of a mountain in the distance.

Does anyone really know what is on the other side, or is it just that no one has ever dared the perilous journey?

Noi, refusing to accept baseless rumors, waits for nightfall to begin his journey…

“Edgelands”, set in the same universe as “Rainlands”, is a testament to the yearning of a human soul.

Continue reading “Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part II b]”

Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part II a]

“Edgelands”（さいはての地 ), a short story by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) is part of a fantasy/adventure series, which includes “Rainlands“, of which a translation is published at SelfTaughtJapanese.com. I have the author’s permission to publish the translation of this two-part story. This is the first half of the second part. The beginning of the story is posted here. I would like to thank Locksleyu from SelfTaughtJapanese.com for help with translation checking and proofreading.

Synopsis

Does anyone really know what is on the other side, or is it just that no one has ever dared the perilous journey?

Noi, refusing to accept baseless rumors, waits for nightfall to begin his journey…

“Edgelands”, set in the same universe as “Rainlands”, is a testament to the yearning of a human soul.

Continue reading “Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part II a]”

Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part I b]

“Edgelands”（さいはての地 ), a short story by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) is part of a fantasy/adventure series, which includes “Rainlands“, of which a translation is published at SelfTaughtJapanese.com. I have the author’s permission to publish the translation of this two-part story. This is the second half of the first part. The beginning of the story is posted here. I would like to thank Locksleyu from SelfTaughtJapanese.com for help with translation checking and proofreading.

Synopsis

They call this place Edgetown—a small mountain village overlooking a vast, blazing wasteland. They say that no one could survive beyond this point, but young Noi could see the faint outline of a mountain in the distance.

Does anyone really know what is on the other side, or is it just that no one has ever dared the perilous journey?

Noi, refusing to accept baseless rumors, waits for nightfall to begin his journey…

“Edgelands”, set in the same universe as “Rainlands”, is a testament to the yearning of a human soul.

Continue reading “Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part I b]”

Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part I a]

“Edgelands”（さいはての地 ), a short story by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) is part of a fantasy/adventure series, which includes “Rainlands“, of which a translation is published at SelfTaughtJapanese.com. I have the author’s permission to publish the translation of this two-part story, and I will begin by posting the first half of Part I of the original. I would like to thank Locksleyu from SelfTaughtJapanese.com for help with translation checking and proofreading.

Synopsis

Does anyone really know what is on the other side, or is it just that no one has ever dared the perilous journey?

Noi, refusing to accept baseless rumors, waits for nightfall to begin his journey…

“Edgelands”, set in the same universe as “Rainlands”, is a testament to the yearning of a human soul.

Continue reading “Short Story Translation: “Edgelands” by Haruka Asahi [Part I a]”

Japanese Audiobook Review: Mr. Tsubakiyama’s Seven Days

I recently listened to another audiobook from Audiobook.jp called Mr. Tsubakiyama’s Seven Days by Asada Jiro (椿山課長の七日間 – 浅田次郎). I didn’t know much about Asada or this book beforehand, but I noticed excellent reviews on Amazon, so I thought it was worth a try.

I wasn’t into the style at first. After thinking about it a while, I realized it had to do with the setting, which I didn’t find engaging. Primarily, the setting is what draws me into a book—The windowless programmers’ compound on an isolated island, housing an imprisoned evil genius, in All Become F. The dizzying maze of midnight Pontocho and Kiyamachi in The Night is Short, Walk on Girl.—This book’s opening, with flower-lined, calm and nearly empty streets leading to an administrative building, didn’t have enough of an edge to draw me in.

Continue reading “Japanese Audiobook Review: Mr. Tsubakiyama’s Seven Days”

Translation of a scene from Morimi Tomihiko’s “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl”

夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見登美彦 has been popular for a long time, and has recently gained in popularity based on its rankings in bookemeter.com. I think this is because an animated movie based on the book came out in theaters this month in Japan.

I have read a couple of novels from Morimi Tomihiko, and his writing style is my favorite I’ve encountered so far. The extensive and out of the ordinary vocabulary he uses, and his roundabout ways of expressing things makes his writing very interesting to read. His books are also a treasure trove of new (to me) and interesting, but not necessarily common, vocabulary to learn.

I haven’t been too drawn to the plots and settings of the Morimi books I have read so far. It’s not that they’re bad, but they’re just not quite my taste. I find that the writing style is so interesting, that I’m not too worried if the plot and setting are not my favorite and look forward to reading more of his books.

I will translate a strange scene from the middle of this novel. I’m not able to do the writing style justice in translation, but I try to get the meaning across. The section I translated was not actually too dense with challenging vocabulary.

Continue reading “Translation of a scene from Morimi Tomihiko’s “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl””

Japanese Book Review: 有頂天家族 – 森見登美彦

(uchoten kazoku – Morimi Tomihiko)

Most of the characters in this book are tanukis, of which the standard English translation seems to be “Japanese racoon dogs.” Tanukis can shape shift into quite a range of things, people, or even places in this book. The story is about the interaction between humans, tanukis, and tengus, who can fly and create massive winds. The story is told by Yasaburo, the 3rd son in a family of tanukis made up of a mother and 4 sons who are struggling to fill the shoes of their late father, who was the leader of the Tanuki world.

The rules for this fantastic world are a bit crazy and hard to understand, but it is grounded in the actual geography of Kyoto. It contains lots of detailed and excellent descriptions of real places, and almost acts like a travel book. You’ll find yourself wanting to walk around Kyoto and see the book’s setting in person.

Continue reading “Japanese Book Review: 有頂天家族 – 森見登美彦”