J-Horror Watchlist for Halloween 2021

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Any true horror fan will be at least partially familiar with J-horror and even those who spend Halloween night behind the couch crutching a torch and a crucifix may still be aware of the yuurei, the quintessential and internationally recognised image of a Japanese ghost; female, long black hair and dressed in a white burial kimono. To celebrate this, the spookiest time of the year, I've put together a suggested watch list to enjoy the very best of modern Japanese horror cinema. 

The Ring Franchise (1996-2019)

Based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel of the same name, the original Ring movie was was released in 1998 as a generally faithful adaption of the novel, although there were a few slight differences. The male lead, Kazuyuki Asakawa, was changed to a woman, Reiko Asakawa, and the lead's assistant was changed from a male lead to an ex-husband. Other than that, the main plot remained virtually identical; after watching a curse video tape containing the spirit of a vengeful ghost, Sadako Yamamura, a person receives a phone call telling them they will die in seven days. It is then up to Reiko to find Sadako's remains and give her a proper burial in order to appease her spirit. A sequel to Ring, Spiral (1998), was adapted from Suzuki's second book but was released to generally negative reviews. A sequel, Ring 2 (1999), was then created but it's plot was completely separate from the original novels. This split led to the creation of two separate timelines. One, independent from the books, that contains Ring 2 and Sadako (2019) and another, adapted faithful from the novels, containing Spiral, Sadako 3D (2012) and Sadako 3D 2 (2013). A prequal to the original film, and therefore applicable to both timelines, Ring:0 Birthday, was released in 2000. Three television series based on the first and second books were produced. The first, pre-dating the original film, in 1995 and the other two both in 1999. Outside of Japan, Ring has been remade for both Western and Korean audiences. The Ring Virus was released in Korea in 1999. The Western Hollywood series contains four films. The Ring (2002) is similar to the Japanese original as Hollywood kept the female lead, but the main difference is that Sadako, who was always a groan woman, was replaced by Samara, a ten year old girl. Young Samara remained constant through out all the Western remakes. The Ring was then followed by a short film, Rings, and a sequel, Ring 2, both released in 2005. The last and and most recently released entry is the vaguely related sequel Rings, released in 2017. 

The Ju-On Franchise (1998-2020)

If the Ring is not the most famous J-horror franchise, then this is the next strongest candidate. Unlike the Ring, however, Ju-On, or 'The Grudge' as its known in English, is not based on a book. However, novelisations of almost every film have been written retroactively. The plot revolves around a cursed house inhabited by the spirits of a young wife, Kayako Saeki, and her son, Toshio, who were killed by their abusive father/husband. The fact that Kayoko's death rattle has become one of the most famous noises in the whole of horror, is a testament to the fame and success of the series. Like the Ring, the series contains multiple timelines. The first timeline can be traced back to the two short films Katasumi (Corner) and 4444444444, both released in 1998. This was followed by Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On: The Curse 2, both released in 2000 and then Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) and Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003). These six were followed by two ten-year-anniversary specials, Ju-On: Black Ghost and Ju-On: White Ghost, both released in 2009. The second timeline consists of two films, a 2014 reboot of the series, Ju-On: The Beginning of the End and it's 2015 sequel Ju-On: The Final Curse. The third timeline is currently only one film; the crossover movie with the Ring Sadako vs Kayako (2016). All three timelines were followed by an exceptional prequal series, Ju-On: Origins, that was produced by Netflix and released in 2020. It consists of six episodes set between 1988 and 1997 and functions as a prequal to the original timeline. Like the Ring, Ju-On was adapted by Hollywood for a Western audience. The Western series currently consists of four films: The Grudge (2004), The Grudge 2 (2006), The Grudge 3 (2009) and, most recently, The Grudge (2020). One difference between the Western Ring and the Western Grudge is that, in The Grudge, the antagonist ghost, remained Japanese. Unlike in the Ring, were Sadako was replaced by Samara. Given the prevalence of the stereotypical 'ghost girl' in Western horror since the early 2000s, both the Ju-On and Ring franchises can be credited with introducing the yuurei to the West.

Uzumaki (2000)

Adapted from the Junji Ito manga of the same name, Uzumaki, literally 'Spiral', takes place in a fictional town that is plagued by a curse causing people to become obsessed with spirals before eventually succumbing to madness and eventual suicide. The film is quite gory at parts and includes a scene where a woman commits suicide by jumping into a washing machine. An anime adaptation of the original manga will be released in October of next year. 

Suicide Club (2001)

One of two more philosophical novels on this list, Suicide Club, known as 'Suicide Circle' in Japan, tackles a serious sociological problem particular to Japan. Following the release of the fictional J-pop group's new song Mail Me, Japan is hit by wave after wave of mass suicide amongst the nations the youth. The most poignant and infamous scene being a moment where 54 schoolgirls commit suicide en masse by throwing themselves in front of a train. The police are left with almost no leads until they find rolls of skin made from the victims. This, as well as a call-in by an anonymous hacker leads them to a strange underground glam-rock group lead by a man known as 'Genesis' who is thought to be linked to the suicide craze. The main theme of the film is obvious, however, the prevalence of J-pop groups and music may be alluding to either a) how prevalent suicide in Japanese society, or b) how copycat suicides can spread easily in the modern world due to the increased power of the media. Unsurprisingly, this film is extremely disturbing as it contains numerous scenes of suicide as well as an extremely graphic rape scene. A novelisation was written in 2002 and a prequal, Noriko's Dinner Table, was released in 2006. 

Dark Water (2002)

Based on one of the short stories from Koji Suzuki's anthology of the same name, Dark Water follows a single mother and her daughter as they move into a run-down and dilapidated apartment building. Before long, a leak appears on the celling from which water from the roof's water tank begins to drip through. The daughter, Ikuko Matsubara, begins to see the ghost of girl, Mitsuko Kawai, who disappeared mysteriously the previous year, before she herself vanishes. It is up to her mother, Yoshimi, to find her daughter before its too late. A Western remake of the same name was released in 2005. 

Kairo (2001)

As the other of the two more philosophical films on this list, Kairo, literally 'Pulse', contains two parallel story lines where the characters must deal with a seemingly unstoppable number of ghosts that are bleeding over into the physical via the internet. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who served as both director and writer of the film, deserves enormous praise for predicting, more than 15 years before the true rise of the social media, that the internet, something that designed to bring people together, would have the opposite effect and up making the world a lonelier and emptier place. 

Battle Royale (2000)

Based on the 1999 novel of the same name, Battle Royale takes place in an alternate Japan controlled by the dystopian Republic of Greater East Asia regime where, every year, in order counter act increasing anti-social behaviour amongst the nation's youth, a high-school class is picked to fight to the death until only one student remains. When both the film, and the original novel, were originally first released, they were extremely controversial, as the Japanese diet was concerned about the impact that showing such graphic student-on-student violent could have on Japanese society. The diet was partially proved right in 2004 when a 12 year old girl, Satomi Mitarai, murdered her classmate with a box cutter after having both read the book and seen the film. It took 10 years for the original un-edited version to be shown in the West. A sequel, Battle Royale 2: Requiem, that further expanded the lore, was released in 2003. 

Noroi (2005)

Noroi, literally 'curse', is the only found-footage film on the list, a trope taken from the West that does not appear to be as popular in Japan then it is in its homeland. The film is presented as a documentary, fictional of course, and follows an director who wants to produce a documentary on the paranormal. His discoveries and investigations into the supernatural lead him to a cursed remote village being terrorised by a demon that had accidently been set loose in a Shinto ritual that went wrong. 

Japanese Horror Novels for Halloween 2021

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble 

Horror has long has a strong presence in Japanese literature. The kaidan, literally 'strange narratives' originate from the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with other specific legends, such as yuki-onna, going back even further. To celebrate this, the spookiest time of the year, I've put together a suggested reading list to enjoy the very best of modern Japanese horror. 

The Crimson Labyrinth (Yusuke Kishi, 1999)

A  sort of survival horror mixed with battle royal, The Crimson Labyrinth stars with a group of nine strangers wakening up in an unknown desert landscape with no knowledge as to how they got there. Though at first believing they are on Mars, the group eventually discover they have been drugged and taken to the Australian outback where they where they must complete a series of tasks before fighting each other to death for the amusement of their captors. 

Parasite Eve (Hideaki Sena, 1995)

As the only true sci-fi horror on this list, Parasite Eve follows a scientist, Toshiaki, who's wife, Kiyomi, is killed in a car crash. What he does not know, however, that Kiyomi's cells have been infected with a conscious life-form, known as Eve, that is composed of mitochondria. Eve attempts to manipulate Toshiaki so that she can take over the world.  Interestingly, the author, Hideaki Sena, had a background a pharmacologist and so had considerable knowledge of biology that allowed him to write such a scientifically accurate book. The novel has been adapted quite extensively as a series of three video games, two manga series and a film. 

The Graveyard Apartment (Mariko Koike, 1986)

The token haunted house style horror of the list, The Graveyard Apartment is a horror/suspense novel about a young family who move into a new apartment building that was built next to a graveyard. Their new life seems to going well until strange noises start coming from the basement and the other tenants start moving out. Before long, only the family are left in the entire apartment building, left alone with whatever lurks in the basement. 

The Ring Series (Koji Suzuki, 1991-2013)

It is interesting to speculate if Suzuki could have predicted that his original 1991 novel Ring would become the genesis of one of Japan's most famous franchises, a franchise that spawns countless novels, movies, spin-offs, sequels and prequels and even international adaptations. The novel series contains an original trilogy that was followed by a collection of in-universe short stories as well as two sequels written in the 2010s. The novels shares the same general premise as the films; after watching a curse video tape containing the spirit of a vengeful ghost, Sadako Yamamura, a person receives a phone call telling them they will die in seven days. Unlike the films, however, the novel series goes deeper into the lore of Sadako's past and the exact nature of her curse. 

Out (Natsuo Kirino, 1997)

If you're interested in how women are depicted in horror, then this is the novel for you. Though perhaps more of a crime than a true horror, Out follows four women, all factory workers, and their attempt to cover up a murder after one of the group, Yayoi, strangles her abusive husband to death after suspecting him of having an affair with a hostess at a bar in which he regularly gambles. The novel has been adapted into a 2002 film of the same name. 

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales (Yōko Ogawa, 1998)

Revenge is the only anthology book on the list and contains a collection of eleven different short stories. The stories are generally distinct from each other but some have over lapping setting or motifs. For example, kiwi fruits are mentioned in a couple of stories. The book is noted for being quite gruesome at times and contains stories from genres ranging from crime, the supernatural and body horror. 

Goth (Otsuichi, 2002)

Goth follows two death-obsessed high school students who discover in a café the diary of a local serial killer who mutilates his victims bodies by removing their hands. The novel is split into six short stories, each of which follows a different case linked to the serial killer. Goth has been adapted into a film and a manga series, both of the same name.

Audition (Ryū Murakami, 1997)

Audition is a novel that places women in the centre of the horror. The story follows a forty-two year old widower who, under the guise of auditioning for a non-existent film, attempts to find a new wife. Aoyama, a young aspiring actress, catches his eye and he instantly falls in love her. What he doesn't know, however, is that Aoyama is hiding a dark and unstable past. The novel was adapted into a 1999 film of the same name. 

Dark Water (Koji Suzuki, 1996)

Known in Japanese as From the Depths of Dark Waters, Dark Water is a short story anthology collection. As well as the titular Dark Water, of which the 2002 film of the same name was adapted from, the book contains six other stories, all in which water appears as a motif. Interestingly, the anthology contains some historical value as every story is set in the 1990s and so contains references to the asset bubble crisis and how ordinary people dealt with the economic instability that was sweeping Japan at the time. A manga adaptation of the collection was released in 2004. 

The Another Series (Yukito Ayatsuji, 2009-2020)

A mixture of horror and mystery, Another takes place in 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara and the class pariah Mei Misaki in their attempt to rid their school of a terrible curse known as 'The Calamity'. The curse presented in the novel is quite complicated. In 1972, a student died tragically in a house fire. To remember him, the rest of his class and teacher pretended that he was still alive; talking to his empty desk, pretending to walk home with him, and left a space where he would have stood in their graduation picture. Next year's class find that they are short desk, and there seems to be one extra student in the class then there should be. That extra student, yet no one can tell who it is is, is the 'extra' a dead soul who doesn't know they're dead. For as long as the extra remains unknown, the curse will kill members of the class and people around them indiscriminately. The series consists of the original novel, a spin-off novel 'Another: Episode S/0' and a sequel 'Another 2001'.

The Summer of Ubume (Natsuhiko Kyogoku, 1994)

The Summer of the Ubume is both  a mixture of mystery and horror as well as the first novel in Natsuhiko Kyogoku's series about the amateur investigator Akihiko Chuzenji. Chuzenji is tasked with investigating the mysterious case of a woman who has been pregnant for twenty weeks and still hasn't given birth. This seemingly impossible case is believed to be connected to the Ubume, a creature in Japanese folklore that is created by the spirit of a woman that had died in childbirth. It was adapted into a 2005 film of the same name. 

In the Miso Soup (Ryū Murakami, 1997)

The only the book on this list to properly involve people from outside of Japan, In the Miso Soup is an interesting look at how foreigners, specifically Americans, are perceived in Japan. The book follows Kenji, a tour guide working in Tokyo's red-light district of Kabukichō during the midst of a serial killer spree. One day, he is contacted by a suspicious American tourist, Frank, to show him around the underbelly of Tokyo's nightlife. Kenji begins to wonder if Frank has any connection to the on-going killings.

Confessions (Kanae Minato, 2008)

After the traffic death of her daughter, the life Yuko Moriguchi, a mother and middle school teacher, begins to fall apart. She breaks of her engagement to her husband and becomes obsessed with tracking downing and getting revenge on the group of students in her class that contributed to her daughter's death, The book was adapted into a film 2010 with the same name. 

Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse (Otsuichi, 1996)

Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is, technically, an anthology collection and contains two stories. The first story is similar to the Western novel 'The Lovely Bones'. It's set in the POV of a dead girl who's killer are attempting to hide her body. The second story is about a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. In this new eye, however, she can see experience the memories of its previous owner. This story is possibly the basis for the 2002 Hong Kong horror film 'The Eye' and it's many sequels and remakes. 

Battle Royale (Koushun Takami, 1999)

As the progenitor of the entire battle royal genre, Battle Royale might be one of the most important books in, not just within the horror horror, but in the whole of Japanese literature in the last 25 years, especially when considering the impact that the genre has had on world-wide media since its release. Interestingly, though published in 1999, Takami actually finished writing the book in 1996, but delayed publication due to the novel's rejection from a horror fiction contest due to its graphic subject matter. The book follows a middle school class who are sent to a deserted island and ordered to fight each other to the death until only one student remains. This creates a scenario where middle school issues that may seem trivial to adults, such as teenage relationships, friendship groups and bullying, are resolved extremely violently as student take revenge on each other during the game.

The Classic Literature Club Series (Honobu Yonezawa, 2001-2017)

Though less of a true horror and more of a mystery, the Classic Literature Club Series, also known as the Hyouka Series, follows the members of a high school literature club and their amateur detective work. The club has tackled a wide range of mysteries ranging from their schools troubled past during student protest movement of the late 1960s as well as more supernatural incidents like the case of a supposed ghost haunting a rural hot spring. The series has been reproduced as both an anime and a manga and contains six main books and one collection of short stories. Yonezawa has confirmed on social media that a seventh novel is currently being worked on. 

2021 Cultural Festival

A big thank you to everyone who came and visited or helped out with us at the Cultural Festival yesterday. I hope enjoyed getting a deeper insight into Japanese culture; kimono, yukuta, kendama, oni masks, koma and lots of great snacks! Below is some of the great pictures from yesterday. We look forward to seeing everyone again after reading week!

- Tom Wilkinson-Gamble (Vice-Chair)

Four Books for Japanese Reading Practice

 By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Are you looking to improve your Japanese reading skills but don’t feel confident enough to jump headfirst into that volume of manga you bought from eBay or that novel you scoured Amazon for? Then this is the list for you. 

Japanese Stories for Language Learners (2018)

As probably the easiest of the four books, Japanese Stories for Language Learners is one in a series of Asian-language study books published by Tuttle. The others being Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese. The book contains numerous extras to help you with your studies. Every story has not just an English translation but translation notes, a vocabulary list and reading comprehension and discussion questions. As an added bonus, it also comes with a CD containing audio versions of all five stories. This means that, if you want to practice both your reading and listening comprehension together, you are able to try a sort of audio-assisted reading using the CD. If you have an interest in Japanese mythology, it is worth noting that this is the only book to contain stories written before the 20th century. The introduction contains a brief overview and analysis of each story. 

This book contains five stories:

• Urashima Taro (Unknown, c. 8th century)
• Snow Woman (Unknown c. 14th century)
• The Spider's Thread (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1918)
• The Siblings Who Almost Drowned (Takeo Arishima, 1921)
• Gauche the Cellist (Kenji Miyazawa, 1934)

Breaking into Japanese Literature (2012)

The first of the two Giles Murray books on this list, Breaking into Japanese Literature contains four stories in seven chapters. One of the stories, Natsume Sōseki's Ten Nights of Dreams is in four parts. Each of the seven chapters contains an introductory page explaining the story and its relation to the rest of the author's work. Both writers, Natsume Sōseki and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, receive their own biographies, containing information about both their professional lives as writers and their personal lives. In terms of educational value, it does not contain any comprehension questions, but every chapter is followed by a vocabulary table, allowing you to revise the words you've just practiced. It also uses furigana in a way that forces the reader to memorise the readings of kanji by showing every reading only once.  

This book contains four stories, one of which is in four parts:

• 1st, 3rd, 5th & 7th nights of Ten Nights of Dreams (Natsume Sōseki, 1908)
• In a Grove (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1922)
• The Nose (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1916)
• Rashōmon (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1915)

Exploring Japanese Literature (2013)

The second of the two Giles Murry books is almost identical to its predecessor in every way other than its different selection of stories. Exploring contains works from Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata, a change from the same late-Meiji/early-Taisho era seen in the previous two books. Like Breaking, it contains the same biographies and vocabulary lists. 

This books contains three stories:

• Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata, 1948)
• Patriotism (Yukio Mishima, 1960)
• The Secret (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 1911)

New Penguin Parallel Texts; Short Stories in Japanese (2011)

As what is probably the most challenging of the four, this book is a part of a much larger series of parallel texts by Penguin that includes Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, French and Soviet/Russian. Short Stories in Japanese does not contain any of the more education aspects of the other three, other than an English translation; there are no reading comprehension questions, discussion questions or vocabulary lists. The book, however, does contain a very interesting introductory chapter discussing how the book was put together as well as an overview of each of the stories and their position with modern Japanese literature. Given the highly complex and philosophical nature of some of the stories selected, this is almost certainly the most difficult of the four. Yet, for for the same reasons, it is also possibly the most rewarding. 

This book contains eight stories:

• On the Efficacy of Fiction (Haruki Murakami, 1995)
• A Little Darkness (Banana Yoshimoto, 2000)
• Genjitsu House (Masayo Koike, 2004)
• The Silent Traders (Yūko Tsushima, 1982)
• Mogera Wogura (Hiromi Kawakami, 2001)
• The Maiden in the Manager (Kazushige Abe, 2004)
• Where the Bowling Pins Stand (Shinji Ishii, 2005)
• Love Suicide at Kamaara (Sueko Yoshida, 1984)

Amazon Links

• Japanese Stories for Language Learners (2018): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Stories-Language-Learners-Bilingual/dp/4805314680
• Breaking into Japanese Literature (2012): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-Into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568365896
• Exploring Japanese Literature (2013): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/477003041X
• New Penguin Parallel Texts; Short Stories in Japanese (2011): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Stories-Japanese-Penguin-Parallel/dp/0143118331/

Authors of Japan: Haruki Murakami

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble 

On April 1st 1978, a young jazz bar owner from Kyoto stood in the stands of the Meiji Jingu Stadium watching his beloved Yakult Swallows take on Hiroshima Carp. This baseball match launched the careers of two men, both 29 years old. One of the men was Dave Hilton, a third baseman from Texas, and the other was the young bar owner from Kyoto. That bar owner was Haruki Murakami and watching Hilton play would inspire him to write a novel that would launch him into a highly successful writing career and make him a known around the world by the end of the century. 

Murakami went home that night and began writing immediately, although, he could only afford to work for an hour each night as he had to maintain the bar he ran with his wife, Yoko. It took him four months, but he completed his first book, Hear the Wind Sing (1979) and published it a year later in 1979.  First, in the monthly literary magazine Gunzo in June and then again, as a book, in July. The book was received well; it won the 1979 Gunzo Prize for New Writers and was nominated for an Akutagawa Prize in the same year of it's release. Within Japanese literary circles, Hear the Wind Sing is understood as being an example of an 'I-Novel'. I-Novels are, unsurprisingly, always written in the first-person, and are usually a mixture of fictional prose and an autobiography. Many I-Novels are often grounded in reality; usually a fictional adaption of real events and real people, normally based to some extent on the author's own life. Murakami, however, seems to present completely fictional stories as he merges surrealist themes of the supernatural within the frame of supposedly 'real' I-Novels. Murakami followed Hear the Wind Sing up with two sequels: Pinball, 1973 (1980) and A Wild Sheep Chase (1982). A fourth sequel, Dance Dance Dance (1988), was released four years later, but it's status as a part of the 'Rat-Trilogy' is debated. These three, or four, books got their name by all revolving, in some way, around a young man called 'Rat'. In Hear the Wind Sing, Rat is a fellow student and close friend of the protagonist as they often go drinking together. In Pinball, 1973, he is recalled in the memories of the protagonist as friend back when they were students in the early 1970s. In A Wild Sheep Chase, Rat is a friend of the protagonist, who this time is a detective not a student, who sends the protagonist a letter explaining that he has accidently unearthed a conspiracy exposing the Japanese economic and political elite. 

Three themes can be seen in this trilogy; youth and the student movement, surrealism and the supernatural and a combination of both into historical fiction. The protagonists of Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball are both students and they both take place, specifically, during the Japanese student protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both of these themes are found in another famous Murakami novel; Norwegian Wood (1987). The plot of all three novels revolve around the lives of the main characters during those relatively unstable times. The past remains an important theme in two other pieces of Murakami's work; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995) and 1Q84 (2010). In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the main character explains to a young girl his actions in China and Mongolia during the war in the 1930s and 1940s. 1Q84 is set in an alternate version of 1984 where the protagonist, a killer-for-hire must defeat an evil cult to get back to her own timeline. Despite being set in an alternate timeline, 1Q84 still falls within the theme of the past as there are still numerous references to historical events and figures from the 'real' 1980s. 

It is in the last of these five books, however, that another of Murakami's favourite themes is most clear; surrealism and the supernatural. That which is real and that which is is not becomes extremely blurred in 1Q84. Partially because of the protagonist's struggle to return to her own timeline, the 'real' 1980s, but also because of the references to evil cults, mysterious disappearances and magical powers. Though discussing much about the past, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle also references the supernatural as a curse is suggested as an explanation for the main characters missing cat, and a clairvoyant is consulted to help find it. Whether it's mysterious disappearing twins, clairvoyants or mysterious tattooed sheep, the second third, and quasi-fourth books of the Rat-Trilogy, Pinball, 1973, A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance all contain some sort of allusion to the strange and supernatural. The most surreal of all Murakami's books, however, would be Kafka on the Shore (2002). Other than being named after the founder of the darker side of literary surrealism, Kafka on the Shore explores themes of metaphysics, the debate between free-will and determinism, and the mind-body problem. The book contains two seemingly unconnected stories; one of which is about the titular Kafka Tamura and his journey of running away from home. Whilst the other follows Satoru Nakata, an elderly and  intellectually-disabled illiterate man who goes on the run with a truck-driver after killing a cat-murderer. Nakata flees to the city of Takamatsu in Kagawa, the same place Kafka travels to after leaving home...

And still, in almost all of Murakami's work, the idea of the I-Novel still lurks in the background. Being born in 1949, Murakami would have been a student in the late 1960s and so it's possible that the events of Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973 and Norwegian Wood are all grounded, to some extent, in the memories of his time as a student. And the former soldier in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, was said to have been sent to China during the war, the same as Murakami's own father. So, excluding some of the more supernatural parts of his work, it's possible that Murakami has been greatly influenced by both his own memories, but also by the memories of those around him.

1995 was not a good year for Japan. On January 17th, a massive 6.9 MMS earthquake struck the city of Kobe in the south of Hyōgo Prefecture. This was the worst earthquake in Japan since 1925; more than six thousand people were killed and over forty thousand were injured. Then, two months later, on March 20th, the apocalyptic cult Aum Shinrikyo released highly poisonous sarin gas onto the Tokyo subway. Thirteen people died and over six thousand were injured. Murakami had been living in the United States since 1986, but returned home in the aftermath of the two tragedies. In January 1996, he began interviewing people who been affected by the subway attack. These interviews, along with his own thoughts, were published together a year later as Underground (1997), Murakami's first non-fiction book. In his new book, Murakami criticised the Japanese press for being overly sensationalist and focusing on the perpetrators of the attack rather than the victims. It also helped to shine a light on the Japanese national psyche, as many of the victims revealed that their priority, regardless of their injuries, was to make sure they got to work on time. Three years later, Murakami released another book After the Quake (2000). This was a collection of fictional short stories all set in February 1995, after the Kobe earthquake but before the subway attack. These stories were a departure from Murakami's usual surrealist style of writing as only one contained any obviously supernatural themes. Interestingly, though, none of the characters were directly involved in the earthquake. Instead, it's only something that is mentioned in newspaper or on the television. This, combined with a move to a third-person style, away from his usual first-person, creates a strong sense of detachment from the events, perhaps reflecting Murakami's own sense of distance, as he was away living in America at the time. 

Outside of writing, Murakami's main hobby is running. He started in the early 1980s as a way to keep healthy after spending most of his time at his desk writing. He has ran numerous marathons and completed an ultramarathon around Lake Saroma in 1996. Murakami has also published a memoir of his running career, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2008). 

 

Yuki Tsunoda: Future F1 star or another underexperienced rookie?

 By Louis Walker

It’s no secret that when it was announced that Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda was going to be racing for AlphaTauri for the 2021 Formula One season, a lot of people were hyped. He would be the first Japanese driver to race in F1 since Kamui Kobayashi drove for Caterham in 2014, and the first driver to be born in the 2000’s. But after 16 races in 2021, the question still remains: does Yuki Tsunoda deserve to be in F1?

Born in Sagamihara in Kanagawa, Tsunoda’s professional racing career began the same way as most F1 drivers did, in karting. Debuting in the JAF Junior Karting Championship in 2010, he progressed to both the regional and national classes in 2013 and 2014 respectively. While information is scarce on his results in these categories, the experienced gained from karting meant that Tsunoda would eventually graduate to single seater car racing, making his debut in the Japanese Formula 4 Championship at the end of 2016, before racing in the series full time in 2017.

What followed would be the first signs that Yuki had the potential to be a successful racing driver, with 3 wins and 6 podiums earning him a solid 3rd place in the championship in his rookie season. 2018 would prove to be even better, however, as his experience and speed from the previous season resulted in him winning the championship in convincing fashion, with 7 wins and 11 podiums to his name.

Of course, the natural progression after winning a Formula 4 Championship is to land a drive in Formula 3, and that’s exactly what happened. Signing with Jenzer Motorsport for the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship, Yuki would have moderate success over the season, with 3rd place at the Monza feature race and a win during the sprint race that same weekend being the highlight of his season. He would finish 9th in the standings with 67 points.

Despite not making a huge impact in his rookie F3 season, Tsunoda would progress to FIA Formula 2 with Carlin for the 2020 season. Whilst F2 is usually a difficult series for rookies to excel in, Yuki would quickly find his feet by scoring a podium in the third race of the season in Austria. 3 wins and a further 6 podiums would lead to him being the highest placed rookie and therefore earn himself the Anthoine Hubert Award, finishing 3rd overall behind Mick Schumacher (who also graduated to F1 in 2021) and Callum Ilott.

With Yuki having a strong backing from Honda (under the Honda Formula Dream Project), and Daniil Kvyat having an underwhelming 2020 season, the door was left wide open for Tsunoda to take the second seat at Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda for the 2021 Formula One season. Expectations were high after his strong F2 campaign. Those expectations were met in the first round at Bahrain, where he would score 2 points on his debut after finishing 9th, and it seemed that all the hype generated pre-season was valid. However, this would be his only points finish in the first 5 races.  Whereas his teammate Gasly would score points in 4 of these races with a best finish of 6th. This was mostly down to a combination of poor qualifying performances hindering his race pace, and multiple crashes of his own accord. Round 2 at Imola saw Tsunoda crash at the start of qualifying, which led to a 12th place finish after starting from the back of the grid.

It wouldn’t be until round 6 in Azerbaijan until he would score more points, picking up the pieces after Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen both suffered heavy crashes after high-speed tyre failures allowing him to score his best result of the season so far in 7th. However, with Gasly finishing on the podium in 3rd, that result was quickly forgotten. Three more points finishes over the next 9 races brings Yuki’s points tally up to 18 so far, compared to Gasly who currently sits on 74 points.

Last time out at Turkey essentially summed up the season that Tsunoda has had. A strong qualifying session in mixed conditions saw him line up 9th on the grid but was once again overshadowed by teammate Gasly pulling in another superb performance to line up 4th. The race would start strong for Yuki, holding off 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for the first 8 laps before the Brit was able to pass around the outside at turn 3. Despite this, the Japanese driver felt that he should have done more, saying “I tried to hold him behind for 20 laps. Eight laps is not enough.” A few laps later would see him spin out of the points and finish a disappointing 14th, with Gasly scoring a further 8 points in 6th position.

Tsunoda and Gasly have both been retained by AlphaTauri for the 2022 season, but with Honda pulling out of the sport at the end of this year and only 6 rounds remaining this season, Yuki will have to impress next year if he wants to remain in F1 in the long term and avoid the wrath of Helmut Marko.

日本とイギリスの共通点

慶太岩原より

こんにちはみなさん！

ようやく第二回目の記事を出すことができました。おまたせしてすいません…！

さて、今週の火曜日のセッションでは日本語レッスンを行いましたが、その後半ですこし、「日本とイギリスの共通点」というテーマでディスカッションを行ってもらいました。

一番ポピュラーなものとして出ていたのがロイヤルファミリーの存在でした。日本には皇室がありイギリスには王室があります。両国ともそれぞれの存在によって政治の仕組みが、ほかの国々と比べると少しユニークなものになっているのは事実で、「共通点」というテーマで取り上げるものとしては最も興味深いものかもしれません。

ですが他にもたくさんあります。例えば車は日本もイギリスも左側を走行し、ハンドルは右側の席についていますね。（これは日本がイギリスの交通制度をまねたからという説があるらしい。）車の前についているボンネットもアメリカではHoodですが、イギリスでは同じBonnetと呼ぶようで、ほかにも車にかかわる様々な種類のパーツはすべて日本ではイギリスの呼び方になっています。＊日本にはラウンドアバウトはありません。

共通点はまだまだあります！お茶文化、礼儀、皮肉、自虐、島国、エスカレーターははじに寄る、など。政治的な話では、議院内閣制（二大政党制）もそうですね。

みなさんもこの視点で日本について勉強してみるのも面白いかもしれません！

Two Japanese Youtube Channels for Listening Practice: もしもしゆすけ & さきちゃんただいま

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Do you want to improve your Japanese listening comprehension, but can't find any good listening resources? Then this is the article for you. 

もしもしゆすけ (Moshi Moshi Yusuke)

Started in March 2019, Yusuke's channel contains three types of videos; File/Monologue videos, Conversation videos and No-Dialogue videos. The most numerous, and probably most useful, type of video are the File/Monologue videos. These involve Yusuke walking around some kind of public area, usually somewhere like a train station, book shop or restaurant, whilst providing a voice over. Each of these videos focus on a different part of Japanese society that foreigners would have to deal with in their travels. They include topics such as; Suica-cards, public transport, convenience stores and eating out. This allows learners to easily pick a certain video if they are looking for a certain range of vocabulary. The second type of video are the Conversation videos. These are a sort of interview with other Japanese speakers, some of which are Japanese and some of which are foreigners. These videos do not focus on a specific topic and so the vocabulary used can vary. However, they are still useful as a conversation between two fluent speakers sounds very natural and so can be good to study from. The last category, No-Dialogue, only contains two videos. As their name suggests, there is no voice-over from Yusuke and so have very little educational use. However, they are still entertaining as they contain interesting shots of Tokyo and Asakusa. Excluding these two videos, all other contain four types of subtitles; English, hiragana, katakana and, after Sayuri Conversation 3, kanji . This means that, should the listening be to difficult, you can follow along with the subtitles as a sort of audio-assisted reading . Yusuke's channel is extremely useful for listening practice and his vlog-style of videos on a wide range of topics help to keep learners motivated and engaged. 

さきちゃんただいま (Saki-Chan Tadaima)

Saki-Chan's channel is virtually identical to Yusuke's. She uses the same format of walking through streets or in the middle of a large city, while providing a voice-over that is also displayed in English as well as hiragana and katakana subtitles. The main difference, however, is that, unlike Yusuke, she does not seem to create videos based on specific themes. All but one of her videos is her conversing with a friend, usually in a café or restaurant. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing, as her videos provide a calming, almost comfy, atmosphere. Although her channel is far smaller than Yusuke's, I'm confident that she has a good future ahead of her as a youtuber. 

Links
Yusuke: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcCeJ3pQYFgvfVuMxVRWhoA

Saki-Chan: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ZrBzYZRYIKEl3naLM4QBw