A Trip Around the World, Part 4

by with 6 Comments JapanMarriageParentingPoetryResearchRussiaTravelWritingYosano Akiko
[caption id="attachment_2568" align="alignleft" width="300"] Writing on train. (Photo by Chris)[/caption] It’s Sunday, July 2, as I begin this new entry, and my friend Chris and I are back on the Trans-Siberian Railway, having traveled from Vladivostok to Irkutsk and spent a day and a half in the town of Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal. It seems like we’ve been traveling for days, yet we’re not even halfway between Vladivostok and Moscow. We’ll pass that milestone sometime this afternoon. Akiko didn’t write that many poems about her train trip from Vladivostok to Moscow. But we do know about her Trans-Siberian journey from her account Pari made [パリまで、To Paris], which was published in four installments in the Asahi shimbun newspaper.* And I’m really struck by the differences between our two journeys. ...

Around the World in 35 Days, Part 3

by with 8 Comments JapanTravelWritingYosano Akiko
[caption id="attachment_2531" align="alignleft" width="300"] Sea of Japan at dawn, seen from ferry window[/caption] I’ve started composing this installment of my travel report aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, late at night, someplace between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. I hope in a few days to be able to post something entertaining about this train trip, but tonight I’m going to tell you about the two-day/two-night ferry trip between Japan and Russia. This was the segment that occasioned the most anxiety for me before I set off from landlocked Davis, California. ...

Around the World in 35 Days, Part 2

by with 9 Comments JapanPoetryResearchTravelYosano Akiko
[caption id="attachment_2510" align="alignleft" width="169"] Yosano Akiko birthplace, Sakai, Japan[/caption] By the time you read this, I will likely already be in Russia. But I started drafting this post in Japan, on the shinkansen (bullet train) after leaving Osaka on Thursday, June 22, to wend my way north and west toward the port town of Sakaiminato. I included Osaka on my itinerary because Yosano Akiko, the subject of my next novel, was from the nearby city of Sakai. The house where she was born in 1878 is no longer there, but there’s a site on one of the main thoroughfares in the city that indicates where it used to be. I paid my respects on a rainy afternoon. ...

Around the World in 35 Days, Part 1

by with 5 Comments JapanTravelYosano Akiko
[caption id="attachment_2472" align="alignleft" width="203"] Yosano Akiko[/caption] The subject of my next novel, another historical project about an epic journey, is the Japanese poet and feminist Yosano Akiko (1878-1942). In 1912, at the age of 33, Akiko left her home in Tokyo and traveled by herself to Paris. This alone was unusual enough. Ever since the 1880s, a stream of Japanese artists and intellectuals had been making their way to the West, some to Europe, some to the U.S., but very few of those travelers were women. And fewer yet traveled alone.  ...

Our Year in Reading 2014

by with 2 Comments Book ReviewJapanNon-fictionReadingWriting
[caption id="attachment_1723" align="alignleft" width="190"] A long, mesmerizing read about a really dysfunctional society.[/caption] This was the year of long books for me and my spouse. Dan read Don Quixote and The Brothers Karamazov. I read The Goldfinch and The Tale of Genji. Needless to say -- but I'll say it anyway -- those books not originally written in English, we read in translation. In fact, most of Dan's reading for the year was work in translation. I actually attempted to read Genji in a modern Japanese version, an attempt that lasted two hours and one paragraph. This year my family did a new thing, which was reading a summer book that all four of us agreed to read. We selected One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was, needless to say -- but I'll say it anyway -- an inspired choice, and a fitting tribute to the author, who died in April. Another new thing: I'm giving Goodreads a try. ...

Making Japanese Plum Wine

by with 30 Comments Eating & DrinkingHomeJapan
[caption id="attachment_1389" align="alignleft" width="300"] Perfect use for excess plums[/caption]   My mother’s visiting from San Francisco this week, and we celebrated Mother’s Day and the abundance of spring by bottling up six quarts of Japanese plum wine. When I posted a photo of the finished product online, several people asked for the recipe. So here it is, for all to enjoy. ...
persimmons, Fuyu persimmon

In Praise of Persimmons

by with 7 Comments Eating & DrinkingGardeningJapan
[caption id="attachment_842" align="alignleft" width="300"]persimmons, Fuyu persimmon ripe Fuyu persimmons[/caption] Ah, persimmon season: my favorite time of year to be in Davis, California, and to live in my house. Nine years ago, when we left San Francisco and bought this place, I disliked almost everything about it (especially that it was not in San Francisco), and really liked only one thing: the mature Fuyu persimmon tree in the northeast corner of our otherwise unremarkable backyard. Over the years we’ve made a few changes to the house and property so that, if I don’t exactly love the place, I have at least developed some fondness for it. And the persimmon tree remains one of its abiding delights. ...
My husband and me in Kyoto (Jan. 1988)

On Being Mistaken for the Other Japanese-American Writer in Town: Not the Rant You’re Expecting

by with 13 Comments IdentityJapanTeachingWriting
The other day I ran into an acquaintance in town. We don’t know each other well and hadn’t seen each other in several months, so I reminded her of my name. “Yes, of course!” she said. “Didn’t your book just come out?” I laughed. “No, not yet.” And then it clicked. “You’re thinking of Brenda Nakamoto,” I said. “Oh, you’re right!” she said. We both laughed, then shared a few pleasantries before going our separate ways. I know people who would have been offended by this encounter. There goes another white person thinking all Asians look alike and are interchangeable, etc. ...

On Pride, Identity, and Watching the Women’s World Cup

by with 3 Comments FeminismIdentityJapanSports
My friends are often surprised to learn that I love watching sports on television. I can’t blame them. I’m pretty aggressively nonathletic. My idea of exercise is biking to the Farmer’s Market. My notion of a competitive good time is kicking your butt in Scrabble. But I do love watching sports, and not just the conventionally “girly” stuff like figure skating and gymnastics, although I enjoy those too. I love the World Series. I love the Olympics, winter and summer. I love the World Cup. This summer I’ve squandered hours of what was supposed to be prime a.m. writing time watching the FIFA Women’s World Cup with my family. ...