November 1 Reading Reflection - Kaito

Erika Kobayashi's works were my favorite of this week. They felt very lyrical and deliberate. The generational storytelling was really touching. In all three of the stories there was a historical context being told through the lens of a very personal story and self-contained life. The idea of professions, ideas, thoughts, trauma being passed down is very powerful and I think Kobayashi got those themes across in a beautiful way.

Aoko Matsuda's Love Isn't Easy When You're the National Anthem was a very strange read. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, I think there's something to be said about patriotism as a cover for controlling a population- "everyone must sing the national anthem"- which is what makes the people who don't sing so compelling for the national anthem. Maybe it is drawn to these people who don't automatically subscribe to the anthem because it's something unusual that the anthem can try to change and make conform. The vibe was very creepy.

Murakami's Abandoning a Cat was very jarring and difficult to read. The juxtaposition of soldier vs. priest was very interesting. Although they seem opposites, it can be argued they are both huge organizational structures that have the means to influence the culture. Japan's involvement in these crimes is often overlooked, and to see it written so explicitly from the son of someone who witnessed it first hand was surprising.

Yu Miri's The End of August was really interesting. I would be interested in what the formatting looks like in print. I thought the contrast between the young girls, particularly the one with the crush, and switching to Woo-gun's thoughts was really well done, and really highlighted the dissonance in experience of those living in South Korea during this time. The banning of Korean names is so insidious. The pain of Woo-cheol and Woo-gun and their family was extremely palpable.

I read Yu Miri's Tokyo Ueno Station last year, and the story is told in a very winding, sometimes confusing way. It’s very interesting to me how it mixes memory and present narratives. The first time I read it I felt a bit lost sometimes, but I also think this might be purposeful sometimes as are thrust into his perspective so immediately. The lens through a homeless person is something I feel we don’t give a lot of thought to in society in general, and experiencing this life in first person raises a lot of thoughts. It’s really interesting to see how the war has a direct or indirect impact on so many different people from different walks of life, and the ripples of the war that feel everlasting.

 

11/01 Melissa LaRochelle

 

Erika Kobayashi, Sunrise: I liked this story. It was a fun little twist that the real narrator was the daughter of the woman being written about. It was similar to last week's mushroom story, going over the effects of nuclear blasts. This one seemed more passive about it though.

Coco's Century: I can see a theme of Kobayashi's writing where she tells a story connecting the different branches of a family tree. How even when you're old and start forgetting the stories of your youth, your family can remember for you and tell your story. Lovely.

His Last Bow: this tied the first and second Kobayashi story together showing us a clear family tree. It showed the history of the father and the history of the mother and their newborn child. It also showed how closely connected and similar families are to one another. How their stories and trials helped make their children who they are. It's also very heartwarming to see the care and love the narrator uses to tell the story of her ancestry.

Haruki Murakami, Abandoning a Cat: Continuing the theme of familial connection and wartime Japan, we have an article of a man telling the story of his father, through facts he's not even sure are fully accurate. The narrator several times tells a story about his father followed by how he could be misremembering or he simply never fact checked with his father. This story talks about the effects of generational trauma being passed down father to son, father to son. Unloading the burdens of a parent to their child. Maybe this was done in an effort to form a deeper connection, but in reality it only serves to separate the two further. Each generation of a family has their own struggles to face in their youth. We've read a few stories now about previous generations struggling in times of war. How the only way to honor them is to respect them and their experience, considering we have not shared these experiences. 

Yu Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station (fragment): This story is different from the previous ones read for this week. Rather than focusing on past familial bonds and generational trauma, we have a man, presumably homeless, reflecting on his existence. He was poor since birth and had to do intense manual labor from a young age. Even with all of these countless years spent working, the man is still living in a tent, getting by through the scraps that nearby restaurants leave out for him and his fellow homeless people. It was interesting to me that he was not living with his wife and children. I wonder how he had time to marry at all with how intense his own survival was. The act of having children also adds even more of a financial strain. He portrays his existence as if he were a ghost in the modern world. At Ueno Station, the only people he takes note of are his fellow homeless people. He described everyone one else's faces as "puddles of water". Perhaps he gives attention to his fellow homeless person because society around him will not. The government never seems to intervene either, other than when they clear the homeless people from the park and hint at not wanting them to return. But where should they return if they truly have no where to go? And what ever happened to the homeless man who died's cat that he treasured so much? Now that creature is all alone too. Very sad.

Aoko Matsuda, "Love Isn't Easy When You're the National Anthem" (MB6): Um. hahahah what was this? Sorry. A song was talking about being aroused. Very unserious lol.

Yu MIri, The End of August (fragment): We return to a story of current wartime. One perspective, is a young girl with a crush on a boy, enjoying a hot day playing jump rope with her friends. The next perspective however is quite different. We have this boy, only 18, training for a marathon with his brother who is in his 30s. Their concerns outlay the childish concerns of the young girls before them. They talk about missed potential and a war looming over their heads. The elder brother is resigned to the idea of running away to avoid war. The younger is rebellious, wanting to stay in Korea and make his mark as his own person. He wants to reclaim his name and his freedom with it.

This week's readings focus a lot on war and the effects it has on different people, not just in the generation directly involved, but every generation after. War is not just the time spent fighting but also the time long after that sticks with those who fought, the memory of those who died, and the children who's parents were left permanently scarred. There are perspectives of those who feel hopeless and those who feel a passion to go on. 

Novenmber 1 Reflection -Jaxon

 I enjoy reading Erika Kobayashi's works. Although the works are short, I saw the change of times, wars, and different generations' inheritance in a few pages. With similar phrases, it's amazing to see when different generations reach the same age and make different decisions. 

"Abandoning a Cat" is relatively hard to read since Murakami is telling a real story some parts of the family issues, in reality, are not that fun to read. I didn't know he likes cats, and I just realized cats appear in the long novels I read, like "Wind-Up Chronicle" and "Kafka On the Shore." The content is a little bit too realistic, which makes me feel a little bit depressed. The conflicts between old values and new values, such as working as a writer and putting effort into studying something you are not interested are appealing to me.

"Tokyo Ueno Station," from what I recall, doesn't tell me when the story is narrated, and the narration jumps from time to time a lot, but I think in the book it mentioned it was during the period when Japan's economic bubble broke so maybe it's around the 1980s? I have been to Ueno Park, so it provided me good imagery when I was reading. The perspective of a homeless worker is interesting to me, and from the part we read, I think there is a lot of information missing, like how the narrator ended up homeless and what happened to his hands.

I feel very bad to read "Love Isn't Easy When You Are National Anthem" since in China, I'm confident to say, at least in the school I attended, 80% of the students don't sing the national anthem, and I'm also one of them who pretend I'm singing. 

There are many Korean words in "The End of August," and I have to go online to search for them. Although they are easy words, it's still hard for a person like me who knows nothing about Korean. The narrative structure is a little confusing, or maybe I miss something. The narrator keeps switching from the third-person perspective to Woo-Gun's first-person perspective. I didn't get what the roles of the girls appeared in the beginning are.

November 1 Reading Reflection --Shi Shi

I really enjoyed this week’s reading and the shared theme of historyand lineage. When I saw that the focus was “Dealing with History,” I assumed it would be focused primarily on historical events, and so I was very pleasantly surprised in how each of the stories intertwined more complex portrayals of both historical events and the narrator’s own history. 

My favorite works were Erika Kobayashi’s pieces. The rhythm of each story was so beautiful and emotional–it felt like every corner I took there revealed new layers of information that defined the narrator’s identity. It reminded me that your own history is intrinsically informed by other peoples’. They were each extraordinarily intimate, too, which made it a very emotional read for me as I felt I was prying into someone else’s heart. 

I felt this way towards Murakami’s piece about his father as well, though it was a more painful read in the information he revealed about his father. One of the parts that struck me the most was when he compared his father’s apprenticeship at the temple with his intended adoption to the cat they were going to abandon. This was especially heartbreaking, as it was the first emotional scar he carried with him for the rest of his life. Through reflections on these memories, Murakami learned more about his father and the trauma he accumulated throughout his life, seemingly using these memories and research as a way to understand his own relationship and experiences with him. I thought this piece was a very thoughtful and empathetic portrayal of Murakami’s father that offers Murakami the grounding to analyze his own identity in the context of his father’s.

I had read Tokyo Ueno Station last semester with Prof. Frederick, and so it was really interesting to read it again alongside these other stories. I liked seeing how Yu Miri weaves memory throughout her narrative, often fading in and out of focus and switching between present day. The socioeconomic lens she applies also is a very devastating portrayal of the hardships one may face throughout life, and it demonstrates how one’s own history is dependent on circumstances of a collective history.

I also liked Yu Miri’s The End of August, although I wasn’t quite sure how to easily follow the narrative given it was an excerpt. The form of the narrative was very interesting and different, and though I liked it a lot, I also struggled with comprehending the subject easily…maybe that’s the point though. From what I could interpret, the characters are Koreans living under Japanese occupation. This was a refreshing perspective as it gives us an external look at Japan, still within Asia though. It reminded me a bit of Pachinko by Lee Min Jin.

Aoko Matsuda’s read was fun! I don’t really have much to comment on other than I liked the personification of the national anthem. This also gives an interesting perspective on national identity and history.

October 25 Reading Reflection - Kaito

The readings for this week were very interesting. I loved the exploration into language from Scattered All Over the Earth and The Easy Life in Kamusari. I think it’s also fascinating how the works dealt with culture and community on a personal scale while still relating to the world at large. I loved the story of The Easy Life in Kamusari especially, and am very curious how it will end. It’s interesting how the experience in this small village in the countryside is almost like a world on its own, and how that separation can lead to many new possibilities outwardly and within yourself.

The Little Woods in Fukushima was incredibly insightful. I’m assuming this is non-fiction, and reading his account of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident was harrowing and enlightening. I found it really interesting his reflection of Japanese society and why nothing has changed since then, why it is easier for these issues to go ignored. This also deals with memory- “Memory is more than mere data. Even if we don’t intentionally lie, out memories can be unreliable.” It was interesting to read his accounts of the past with the mushroom farm in particular.

The Memory Police is one of my favorite books. I read it a couple years ago, and have even done a project inspired by it. Rereading the first 6 chapters made me want to reread the whole thing again. I think the atmosphere is amazing, and the mystery you experience trying to understand the story. The things it says about memory, autonomy, the government, family and community, are all very poignant and relevant for today. I was surprised to learn she wrote it in 1994, when I thought it was newer than that. 

 Jiahan/Cindy Lyu's Blog post for 10/25

The Little Woods in Fukushima: This is a quite serious text to read this week, quite different from other stories we read. It is kind of like a biography that encapsulates the author and his relatives' life experiences, great traumas, and human efforts to reach a reconciliation of peace. As earthquakes, increase of competition in markets, and nuclear meltdown took turn to happen in Fukushima Prefecture, people's life are challenged and they strived to make a living. In face of those great, inevitable disasters, the writer by his text, poses a resilience shining in human nature. All is so difficult to deal with, which makes people think of suicide and all those negative things, but still, they are trying to get things done, and to get the broken part sewed together once more. And the author's description of mass media's artificial tragedy and fishing somehow hold the seriousness of matters from public eyes, which lead to a certain degree of public indifference, is painful to read.

The Easy Life in Kamusari: I enjoy the writing style of Shion Miura as I read this short story. It is as if that I was watching an anime movie, and his sense of humor often makes me smile while I was reading it. Certain aspects of the story sometimes even make me feel unreal and fantastic, such as the setting of a mountain forestry which has no internet at all. And I am fascinated by such a town as Kamusari.

Memory Police: This novel has an interesting theme focused on disappearance of things. It is also scary. I think that the author might be alluding at something, but I am not able to figure it out. I am looking forward to discuss this piece in class.

Oct 25 Reflection - Maya

This week’s readings all have themes of memory and environmental influences, two of which are particularly about forestry while the other two are about how language and memory shapes over time, and its link to the culture.

What was interesting to read for me this week was the first story, “The Little Woods in Fukushima”, because it is the first reading this year that touches on an author’s real life story, if I remember correctly (ironic considering the theme of the week). I thought the intercutting of his interviews with his brother and the details of the 2011 disaster with his personal childhood anecdotes were especially poignant, as it shapes the readers’ understanding of the details as a whole as the author’s reflection on his life. You get the sense of almost regret or shame the author feels for leaving his hometown and people to become an author, while also understanding that he feels lucky to have escaped the crisis that afflicted the mushroom farm.

“An Easy Life in Kamusari” also deals with forestry, but it’s from the perspective of someone coming into the small town for the first time to work on shaking snow off of the branches and help the trees grow for timber. Despite the main character continuously talking down about the country life and forestry as a job, the ending seems to view it more positively than the other story, as he even recognizes that no one in his hometown took the time to reach out to him.

Both “Scattered All Over the Earth” and “The Memory Police” touch on memory and a kind of dystopia future where important parts of culture and life can just disappear in an instant. The first story had a sense of hope to it, that Hiruko could maybe use the help of Knut to remind the world of Japan’s existence, while “The Memory Police” seems to show that there’s no way of stopping. It’s a remembrance to not take everything for granted, because their beauty can be stripped away so easily.

October 25th - Miguel

     At firs this weeks like theme(?) of the readings had me a little lost just because I was confused on what exactly would the readings focus on. However a lot of them to me focused on the environment part of the weeks topic. Or at least for the readings, The Little Woods in Fukushima and The Easy Life in Kamusari to me read more on environment due to the mention of foresting. I honestly really liked the Kamusari reading, at first I was very lost because of the way the narrator spoke. It was like he was breaking the 4th wall by sometimes speaking to the readers, but then saying how he doesn’t believe anyone would ever read this story. However, the way he spoke and thought felt very modern and relatable in a sense, not that I have ever been in his situation. The Little Woods in Fukushima being revolved around the natural disaster that hit Japan on 3/11 was also why to me it was more focused on the environment part of the theme. I feel like after reading the Kamusari reading this one didn’t really leave much of an impression on me due to the different writing styles. “ there are things that will never be restored and there are people who will never be made whole again” I did want to share this ending quote from it. I don’t know why this stood out to me so much, but I just think my thoughts sort of align with this quote. Like the thought of rebuilding, but yet something’s can never really go back to the way they originally were(?) something along those lines. The Memory police was scary at first when I saw the 48 pages but then realized they were single paged. The story’s plot(?) was really eye catching to me, I liked the idea of things disappearing and people forgetting about them when they do, but there being people who can resist this phenomenon and there being s police that enforces these disappearances making sure no one remembers. I liked how the narrator decides to hide R as a way to resist herself on this monotonous life she describes due to these disappearances despite the danger that this would put her in. Although I didn’t like reading the letter R for his name cause it just felt weird reading R as someone’s name. For Scattering All Over the Earth, the narrator being a refugee and Japan being a disappeared country follows the distopic part of this weeks theme. I don’t know what I expected when I read Knut speaks as the chapters title, but him being a linguistics student was not it. This journey they go on to find someone with a connection to Japan feels so unreal to me, but I know its just part of the story’s plot even though I feel finding someone who can speak Japanese/has a connection to Japan today wouldn’t be that hard. 

October 25 Reflection -Jaxon

 I saw a strong contrast between city and country in all the works we read this week except for "The Memory Police." "The Memory Police" and "Scattered All Over the Earth" have fascinating settings for me, and I especially enjoy reading "Scattered All Over the Earth" although I lack knowledge of Europe. I had to search online a lot to prevent I behave like Knut, who thinks Sushi is from Denmark. I seldom see such a vast appearance of European countries and cities in one story whose setting is in the future. I really like how the author arranges Hiruko's languages. Different from "The Easy Life in Kamusari," Hiruko's language is not grammatically correct, but it contains the most important information, so the author didn't put any explanation to the language. In "The Easy Life in Kamusari," the "dialect" has parenthesis that tells the reader the meanings of the expressions, but I searched online, and I found "Kamusari" is not an actual place in Japan, but other places like Yokohama do exist. 

I found the protagonist in "The Easy Life in Kamusari" has great pride, every time he feels tired or stressed, he tries to be strong only because he doesn't want to be laughed at by others. I feel the pride doesn't come from the city (in my impression, some people look down on the countryside in big cities), and the pride makes him not able to fit into the village well.

"The Memory Police" reminds me of many classic novels like "The Giver," in which people forget about the old world and are required not to recall them. The theme of forgetting also appears a lot in "The Little Woods of Fukushima," where the narrator mentions many times that his memory is not clear enough. I feel in the countrysid ,when people do work, the work is usually tiring, and people don't get many days of rest, as a result, that makes people feel that time passes fast since every day doesn't make a difference. In my opinion, working all year doesn't make a high-quality memory. In the countryside, working, people's memories are not as diverse and clear as those of other people who have time to relax and do some other activities that don't include work. 

10/25 Melissa LaRochelle

 The Little Woods in Fukushima: This is definitely different from what we usually read in class. Rather than a story made for amusement, this was a story seeking to show a true, undiscussed part of Japan. How people react in the aftermath of disaster. How they rebuild. How quickly the unaffected move on. It also had quite a lot about the mushrooms. It honestly kind of jumped around a lot in terms of what the focus was: first it was about the mother's death, then mushrooms, then natural disaster, how people brush off natural disasters, back to mushrooms, disaster, mother, mushrooms again. It was an interesting choice.

Scattered All over the Earth: This was an interesting, and kind of sad, story. The idea of Japan just disappearing along with its cultural impact on the world. Other countries absorbing its culture as its own instead. Especially with our female character, who isn't even able to contact any other person from her country now that it disappeared. It was comforting, however, that her and our male character could find comfort in each other. How he was focused on her present language so she didn't have to dwell on the past. I found it interesting though how towards the end, from the woman's perspective it appeared to her as though the man had purely linguistic interest in her. While that is true, I also got a sense of romantic interest from his pov as well. He was practically mesmerized by her while she was on screen, even saying he had to urge to kiss her. I am interested in the rest of their story.

The Easy Life in Kamusari:Yoki doesn't deserve Miho, I'll marry her instead. JK. I still don't like him though, cheating grinds my gears to no end. Anyway, this is another forestry/ nature industry kind of story much like the Fukushima mushroom story. This one is a bit more story-like, rather than news-like, as we follow the young boy. It was amusing how bad he was at his job. It was also sadly relatable, his feeling of wanting to give up and go home. This midterm season has me and Yuki both wanting to take a train home and run away from responsibility. 

The Memory Police: What a sad world. A world where you wake up and something has disappeared. Not only that, but a law Enforcement designed to make sure that the disappeared are properly forgotten. Memory is one of the greatest things a person can have. The ability to hold onto something long after it's gone. A world where you can't hold on to anything even if you want to if it was deemed gone is no world at all. You can see that as the society gets more and more anxious. Not only are they forgetting, but they're scared to remember because they could be taken by the Memory Police. It kind of reminds me of The Giver.

October 25 Reading Reflection — Shi Shi

I had mixed experiences with this week’s readings, but overall found the themes refreshing since I feel like a lot of what we’ve read so far has been about identity/relationships/role in the world. This week’s readings definitely feel a little more centered on the environments they’re set in which was a nice change of pace.

I did not like reading Yoko Tawada’s Scattered All Over the Earth, and I found it really hard to engage with. I think what also threw me off was that I didn’t realize there was a change in narrator between the chapters at first, so I was completely confused. I did like, however, the decision to have Hiruko’s dialogue typeset in lowercase to distinguish her language from others’. The overall plot of the story was sad and a little eerie though, with her home country no longer existing and only being remembered as a place where sushi is from. 

The Memory Police also had some overlap in its dystopian structure and topic of memory, however, the narrative style of this piece was a lot easier for me to engage with. I enjoyed this story, especially as it started to criticize their government system and become a little suspenseful. While I was reading it though, I kept wondering how the narrator was able to recall all of these events when certain parts of it had “disappeared” from her memory. This story in particular made me feel pretty sad and reflective of the nature of loss.

The Little Woods in Fukushima was also difficult for me to read, and I think it’s because of the narrative style not being completely linear. There were multiple moments where the author would reference something, but not entirely, and then reference it somewhere else in parentheses, and that confused me. 

I think my favorite story from this week was The Easy Life in Kamusari as it was more lighthearted and playful. I really felt a sense of brotherhood develop between Yoki and Yuki, and I also enjoyed seeing Yuki’s character evolve throughout the chapter;  each of the characters felt very distinct from each other and made me grow connected to them quickly. I also liked the setting and trade it focused on as it’s much different from the urban settings and occupations we’ve been reading about in past stories. I enjoyed the coming of age storyline and how it’s intertwined with the environment, using the seasons and changing duties of the lumber business to show growth and community-building.

October 18: Barn Burning Reflection – Shi Shi

I really enjoyed this week’s Murakami reading! Barn Burning explores perception, questioning our sense of reality and where we are positioned in it. A couple months ago I watched Lee Chang-dong’s film Burning that was based on the Murakami story, and so I have been meaning to read it for a while now. It was definitely interesting to see the parallels between the two narratives, but I felt like the film adaptation was more explicit in exploring a particular narrative of the story which I felt wasn’t as clear cut in the original. While Lee’s film is much more of a slow-burn/mood/thriller piece, my experience with Murakami’s was much more subdued and neutral, allowing for room for more narratives to be explored. In both versions, there’s no “truth”, only multiple narratives that lead us to question reality ourselves. This concept is foreshadowed at the start of the story when the woman “peels oranges” to the point where the narrator questions the reality of the act. There is also interesting commentary on social class/social mobility and female objectification which I think the visuals of the film help to highlight. The story does seem to come between the two male characters, with the woman becoming an object between them. This was really interesting to observe after reading a bit into Mieko Kawakami’s critique on apparent sexisim within Murakami’s work (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/18/mieko-kawakami-interview-breasts-and-eggs-haruki-murakami & https://lithub.com/a-feminist-critique-of-murakami-novels-with-murakami-himself/ ). I’m beginning to get more into Murakami’s works, so it’ll be interesting to read with this perspective in mind!

October 11th Reading Reflection ー Maya

 The readings for this week seemed to all be attached to a theme of bitterness or contempt for modern life-- less in a romantic angle than that of last week. The main characters in each story all seem to be alienated from their peers in contemporary society, especially in "Full of Malice" and "I Want To Kick You In The Back". Though they were distinctly in two different genres (with "Full of Malice" clearly leaning into more fantastical elements, while "I Want To Kick You In The Back" being more grounded), both feature characters that were deeply hurt by situations of their past. In the first story, the protagonist is desperate to find out what happened to their brother. The story seems to have the white building symbolize daily life, and the expectation that people have to be complacent and happy in society all of the time, which the character rejects until getting lobotomized. One thing I found interesting, though I am not sure what to make of it, was the fact the mother ran away from the building while approaching. At the start of the story, I thought this could have been a bit of an admission of guilt in putting the younger brother in this situation, but with the added context of the fantastical elements towards the end, I'm not sure how to interpret it. 

"I Want To Kick You In The Back" plays out in a more realistic way. The main character is clearly deeply hurt by her interactions with the others, and her bitterness and resentment could be part of the reason that others are so put off by her, as she doesn't even try to actively engage with them. Despite this, I found her inherent desire to fit in (although she tries to make it seem like she doesn't care) quite relatable, especially her disappointment at being "used" to get closer to Oli-chan, rather than him wanting to get closer to her as a person.

I thought that Ao Omae's story was a nice tie-in to some of our previous discussions last week, as the story not only touched on alienation but also loveless relationships. The main character has a desire to be in a relationship, but only so he can appear "normal", not because of genuine feelings. It was interesting to see him grapple with his not-quite-romantic but more-than-platonic feelings towards Mugito, and how he dealt with trying to still be a "boyfriend" to another while feeling guilty for thinking about Mugito constantly.

Oct 11 Readings - Miguel

For this weeks readings I feel the shorter stories had more of an impact on me(?). Full of malice was just such an interesting and creepy story I feel like it lingered in my mind while reading the other stories. The Twitter stories was honestly confusing towards the end of it. It felt like I was reading nonsense in a way because new points were being brought up without like a full background of context with it and it all felt fast and abrupt that it just confused me when I read it. The hole reading had me a bit and then at times it was just a slow read. With the title I had expected to hear more about the hole but I didn’t expect to only see it mainly at the end of the reading. I feel like the relationship between the narrator and her husband is a sort weird one, like it’s not as if they had a bad relationship but the way the husband is always on his phone and the way the narrator assumes what/who he’s talking to. And then the mother in law was just a lot when they were moving, and I thought the mother in law from last week was a lot… I don’t know I just didn’t really like the way she controlled the place when they first were moving in, like I get that it’s a house they own but still and also the father in law having like no presence either was interesting. Talking to stuffed animals and I want to kick you in the back share this like loneliness feel in their stories that are shown in different ways. Talking to stuffed animals about ones feelings is a very lonely thing to do, while the beginning of the other story quite literally talks about loneliness and its sound of the bell and how the narrator is ripping paper to mask the sound of it from their classmates. 

October 11 Reading Reflection - Kaito

This selection of readings was really thought provoking. I really appreciated the themes in these stories and it was interesting to see how societal ideas are very similar here and in Japan. The stories touched on loneliness, mental health, and many of them had a particular emphasis on "politeness" and this idea of keeping up appearances. Three of the stories specifically mention smiling as a mask or act, and that showing your true emotions is in some way rude or unseemly. It was a big focus in Full of Malice, and it was also mentioned in a line in both The Hole and I Want To Kick You In The Back. The relation between putting on an act and pretending to fit in and feeling alienated or othered seems to be very common. I know I can relate, so seeing it depicted in such a range of ways was really interesting. Each individual story seemed to touch upon a specific facet of society that deals with interpersonal hardships that relate to otherness. Full of Malice seemed to talk about mental illness, shame, guilt, and fear that comes with it, especially in a society that would rather lock up people deemed "out of the norm" than confront it head on and try to understand it. It was a very difficult read. I have read Terminal Boredom by the same author, and her writing is so interesting. I do know that the author died by suicide, and that also makes the read of it more harrowing since she had likely been struggling throughout her time writing.

The Hole was so strange and interesting, and for some reason I was so nervous reading it. Especially the interactions with the mother-in-law made me so stressed out! Everything with the hole and the black animal was very odd, I am looking forward to talking about it in class. I also noticed there were a couple mentions of Asa seeing seeing a glimpse of something and then it disappearing, so I wonder what that's about. I'm really intrigued and would love to read the rest of it so I can know what happens. 

I really enjoyed People Who Talk To Stuffed Animals Are Nice. I think the premise is very fun and easy to read, and I especially like the protagonist, Nanamori. His ideas are so interesting- I think the character is very relatable and I'd love to hear what other people thought. I think the discussions about gender and romance are so relevant to today's times. The line on pg 51: "While it was fun to talk about those things, it was also exhausting--because at times, you ended up conscious of turning people (and being turned) into something consumable." really really struck me. I think especially now society has a disproportionate focus and weight of romantic relationships vs. friendships/partnerships. It is something I have thought a lot about so I want to hear what other people think as well.

I will be honest, aside from the format of it being twelve short paragraphs that contain a small story or beginnings of a story, I did not understand much of Twelve Twitter Stories.

This was a really great group of readings, I am looking forward to discussing in class. Also, I will bring the book Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki to class in case anyone is interested!

 Jiahan/Cindy's post for October 11th reading:

The readings for this week is fascinating, such that I encounter something new that I never experienced before.

Full of Malice: This is really a violent tale. It tells about that a female protagonist stepped into a health institution to find his 5-year-old brother, who was a half-wit. But it ended up with the female character's brain being taken out by a young doctor by force. And she was unable to escape from that "health institution" and watched her brother's cut body remains with an unconscious and fake smile. It is quite brutal and make me dumbfounded after reading it. Nonetheless, I think that the message here is provoking. This story reminds us about the importance of those unwanted/undesired negative emotions. Emotions like revenging, mad, hate, and dislike, which we want to restrain, even put into extinction, are parts that make us complete human. Without them, we would live in a deceptive friendly world with a meaningless and dull smile, which possesses no soul. I guess that Izumi Suzuki wants her readership to realize that even malice, is a crucial part to each of us, that we have to live along with throughout our life. This notion is impressive and makes me think of the newly released "Inside Out 2", which punches on that every emotion has a purpose to be and we shall embrace them as well as we shall embrace an imperfect self. However, although I am charmed by this short story, I could not stand her mentioning about Miyazawa Kenji being an old storyteller in the "health institution". To me, although Kenji's literature can seem to be utopian and too extremely pure, his work purges people's heart so effectively and has a strong power in them, which is not utopian and overly idealistic at all. Characters in Kenji's stories do have their downsides and flaws, yet there will always be a pure-hearted character, in sought of true happiness. I always feel that Kenji's most beautiful wishes are contained in his stories and it is not something fake, or pretentious.

The Hole: This is yet another tale touches on societal insatisfaction between a modern Japanese married couple. Behind everything tranquil and peaceful, our protagonist is not able to have a rewarding job and feel lost in her temporary "house-wife" life. She's stuck somehow and could not find a way out, while her husband is always on his phone, failing a helpful conversation. I wonder what is the significance of the appearance of the mysterious black animal and a boy beside the river. And I am curious about the hole and Seras. Who is Seras and is she just a neighbor or a ghost. I have many suspicions about her. And my biggest guess is that maybe they are all reflections of Matsuura's innermost desires, such that the mysterious black animal might be her desire to find something new that excites her and grants her a meaning of life, such as an adventure similar to Alice in Wonderland. And the appearance of Seras might be her desire to connect with other people and make friend with others, as we are told in the beginning that Matsuura does not have handful of friends.

Twelve Twitter Stories: This is one of the most craziest thing that I ever read. They are sequences of stories, lacking an exact connection to me. And the address changed between first person and third person. Some of them sounds like a podcast script to me. But it is an interesting read and I am looking forward to discuss them in class. Maybe they are all different dreams during one ill sleep night?

People who talk to stuffed animals are nice: I am in love with the title and I think that stuffed animals is an important symbol in this short story. And it is a story about a male character Nanamori, who is unfit with his surroundings for his insufficient idea and pulses towards romantic relationships. It is quite psychological too, in writing, which unfolds Nanamori's thoughts before the readers clearly.

Melissa LaRochelle: October 11, 2024

 Full of Malice: Oh boy. This story was so creepy and reminded me a lot of the horrors movie "Smile" where the protagonist sees the people around them break out into unsettling smiles. It's also interesting to think of a dystopian world where the mentally ill or physically disabled have parts of them cut away and used as science experiments. Also the ending where they say the narrator's malice has "spread" through their whole brain, as if it were a disease was also an interesting thing to me. The story also implies that while the outside world doesn't know exactly what goes on in these facilities, they also don't want to know. Very sad.

Twelve Twitter Stories: Very confusing, I literally have no idea what to say to that. The buttered man imagery was so uncomfortable.

The Hole: I have a lot of questions: Where did she work/ what did she do as work? What was the figure she saw in the rain that could have been a person? what was with the mysterious nature of the mother-in-law's favor and being short on her end of cash? What's with the hole? The animal? The behavior of the neighbors? The secretive messages of the husband?  This story seems like the telling of a boring housewife's day in the life but it has so many details that remain unresolved.

I Want To Kick You In The Back: I guess because we're missing a good chunk of context, this story comes off a little odd.  We have a protagonist that has an overwhelmingly negative view of others. She's a pessimist. She finds displeasure in other's enjoyment. She dislikes most people, yet feels this incredible loneliness. She alludes to an unpleasant middle school experience but we don't get much more than that from her. When she thinks she can find a comrade in her male classmate, her fellow "leftover" she is once again displeased with this person's character.  She finds fault in everyone she narrates.  When recounting the day she met a famous super model, Oli-chan, she described herself as shameless. She didn't care what people thought of her (but now she does), and acted however she'd like. This attracted the drunken model. This interaction, too, soured, much like the other interactions our speaker had described in the story. Odd.

People Who Talk To Animals Are Nice: I liked this story. I could relate a lot to Nanamori in the aspect of desiring the idea of dating but not the practice.  He's struggling with the weight society puts on romantic experience and the problems that may arise from romantic entanglement. He also struggles with distinguishing romantic and platonic feelings. Is he worried for Mugito as a friend or more? If he doesn't romantically like his girlfriend, or agree with her views on the societal pressures of gender, why does he stay with her? Does he feel obligated towards society to be a man in a relationship like everyone else around him? Why does he feel the need to seek this validation? It can be hard to exist in a society such as high school or college where the most valuable thing you can offer is your relationship status. Using gossip and dating as a way to distract from heavier issues going on in society. I suppose that was the appeal of the Plushie Club. A place where you can talk about the things weighing on your heart without judgement.

October 11 Reading Refelction -Jaxon

 I can feel a strong sense of alienation from this week's reading, especially from "I Want to Kick You in the Back" and "People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice," and I really want to read the rest of the passages for these two stories. I feel a strong resonance with Nanamori in the story as a university student, and Nanamori's opinion or value about love is exactly what I have been thinking of until now, and I'm very happy I'm not the only one in this world who thinks of love hurts people's feelings and friendships. Nanamori's courage surprised me, especially under the conditions that he knew Shiraki had many romantic relationships. I think he mentioned he wants a relationship in college since that's what people are all pursuing, and people around him keep talking about those topics. Nanmori might be affected by the people around him and the trends of the majority in Japanese society, so he started to try to find a relationship, too. However, he still keeps the thoughts that he will damage the friendship between him and Mugito, so he engages with Shiraki instead. I even have a friend like Mugito in the story who is also in the same department and took the same classes as me, so the book just got my heart. It also kept the author's style of not telling any information about any characters but just throwing a bunch of names maybe it's because this time I read really carefully I didn't feel very confused. 

For "The Hole," I enjoyed reading the story, but I didn't get what exactly that hole is and what the mysterious animal is. I thought the story should have a lot to tell, but it ended very abruptly. I feel the ending is sudden because there is a lot of content describing how they move in and what the life of the narrator is like every day in the countryside, but the story ends by telling one of her days encountering some issues. I don't know why the whole story reads like a typical American horror movie in that the protagonists move to the countryside and start encountering weird things. The description of the countryside, especially the silence, sound of cicadas, and the summer heat wave feels creepy to me since it gives me a sense that everything seems to be normal, but something went wrong. 

I have to admit that I didn't read the "Twelve Twitter Stories" very carefully, but I don't quite get them. They give me a sense of those extremely short novels that convey plenty of information with reversals. 

I also enjoy reading "I Want to Kick You In the Back," the story expresses the theme of alienation explicitly. The scene of Hasegawa interacting with the model and the photographer makes me feel not well. The idea that to be able to live, you have to hide your true self and try to adapt to others is given many examples in the book from the perspective of people who don't follow social norms and get isolated.

October 11 Reading Reflection – Shi Shi

I enjoyed this week’s readings and how they seemed to center around the theme of social conformity. Certain stories, such as The Hole and I Want to Kick You on the Back, I found more relatable than some stories we’ve read the past couple of weeks. 

As a college student in my senior year, I’ve thought a lot about my future and what my ambitions are beyond being financially stable; I’m trying to figure out how to make my life more meaningful. I think I resonated the most with The Hole in how when I’m not in school or have a full-time job, I feel similarly to Asahi: bored/unproductive but also this irritation with the corporate monotony of work culture. I want to kick you in the back was also a bit relatable in figuring out the kinds of connections I want to have. In high school, I used to like big friend groups and thought that being very social regardless of how well you knew everyone was the expectation; however, when I was around 17 I realized that I much preferred different kinds of friendships that depended more on connecting at a deeper level. The protagonist of that story seemed to be at a similar stage where she was trying to figure out the types of relationships she wanted to be part of. 

I did not understand Toh Enjoe’s Twelve Twitter Stories besides that there were twelve stories about the length of a twitter post (unless I’m mistaken?). I couldn’t easily find a connection between each story, so I’m curious to discuss this in class.

Full of Malice felt kind of dark and depressing to me in how the protagonist is forced to conform to a sterile world free of malice. It definitely offered interesting critique on Japanese culture and social expectations, as it highlights perhaps how people really do feel forced to adhere to certain lifestyles. People Who Talk To Animals Are Nice also seemed similar in how Nanamori felt pressured to understand love, or at least be in a romantic relationship, just for the sake of seeming “normal”. 

Oct 4th Blog - Miguel

 This weeks readings contained a lot of feelings of love within their stories. I also did nor expect some of the endings for a few of the readings. Diving into the first reading (Realizing Fun Things Through Water) it felt to me as if this reading was a bit of a blur honestly. The narrator was very much someone who not complains a lot but holds their feelings within and thus has a lot to say (whether it be bad or good), I mean she was talking about how she could only say certain stuff to the water and how she couldn’t talk to other people about that stuff so it felt good to let it out. I think that’s very not toxic but it’s a bad thing to bottle up thoughts to the point where water is your only outlet. I also find the way the narrator thinks about her relationship with her husband to be questionable. Her stance on romance is also confusing like I assumed she just didn’t like labels at first, but then she goes on to say its more on how that romance could hurt people, not directly either but somewhere out there someone would get hurt?? I don’t it was very weird and then she only likes people who find interest in her first, but then its not like she likes them back its just that she feels the need to give back because of their “kindness”.  Moving on the seahorse reading also had me in a loop, it was a lot of jumping back an forth. It had me a little lost hearing about the several husbands she has had and then her children, the first one dying early and then the last one being the only girl and resembling her. And then did the 4th child die then when she went into the water, I assumed she did, but I could be wrong. I also did not like hearing about the abuse she went through with the husbands treating her body like that. The misogyny reading also confused me with what exactly was being cut, like I know it was misogyny being cut but like what was the actual thing representing that. The other readings were okay in my opinion it was more these readings mentioned before that struck me out, the picnic one I just felt was weird. Tomochans happiness also was not confusing, but it just didnt resonate anything with me. Oh and there was a lot of like neck and whiteness kind of physical traits being mentioned through out all the readings. Do I know why that is, not really, but I noticed it and thought I would share. 

Oct 4th Reading Reflection - Maya

 This week’s readings touched on love and marriage through a woman’s lens (besides perhaps “Picnic”), particularly in marriages in which there was no love or there were struggles. I found these readings much harder to read than those of the past weeks because of the difficult subject matter, however I still enjoyed them.

I appreciated that they all had very distinctly different tones to them, despite the similar subjects. “Tomochan’s Happiness” leaves readers with an air of hope, that even though Tomo-chan went through something horrific, she was still able to live life "unafraid of men". The violence inflicted against her still had lasting consequences and impact on the way she socialized, but the readers get a sense that she could find contentment with Misawa-san, perhaps making plans to go to Hokkaido. I thought the approach the author took to break the fourth wall was also quite interesting, as an open invitation to not assume the best or the worst of a situation, but to just look at the proceedings at face value. In "Dissecting Misogyny", the tone of the story is that of humor, to make light of a serious topic and discussion.

"Seahorse" uses fantasy realism to tell another tragic story of a woman in marriage (or countless marriages, as it seems). It  appears that only after she if able to talk to and raise her daughter in her likeness, that the main character is able to reclaim her sense of self and pride and return to the ocean. All of the men of her past have treated her poorly, and only in seeing her daughter reject a future similar to hers, is she able to break free and swim away from the things that were keeping her tethered to land.

 Jiahan's blog post

Dissecting Misogyny, A Live Demo:

In this short article, everything is so sensual. Conceptional misogyny weirdly gains a material form, composed of flesh, bones, and blood. And a “mad” female (I guess) surgeon is dissecting the very “misogyny” on a demo stage, with other women watching it attentively. The dissection of misogyny is a dirty task that requires professional experience. And the process is a horror, such that everything inside “misogyny” stinks. It is all dark and putrid. Yet meanwhile, the dissection of misogyny is quite doable and the finished remains can be easily thrown away and deposed. This article is obviously both symbolic and practical. And I want to say that it is quite ironic, too. For it appears to me that the very surgeon who dissects misogyny is misogynistic and contradictory because in one hand, she is prideful to dissect misogyny in front of other female audiences, but on the other hand, she views woman stereotypically by saying that “I appreciate that you ladies all have a lot to do today, too: shopping for groceries, returning home and preparing dinner...” and that “I should tell you that these knives with their astounding cutting potential are just $99 plus tax for a set of two”. So it makes me think that whether Matsuda is critical about both the “so-called” misogynistic professionals and the conception of misogyny itself.

 

Sea Horse: Sexual abuse, sexual slave, domestic violence, maternity, woman objectification, and imprisonment. There are so many negative themes mingled in this short but hopeful story. Our protagonist is a creature from the ocean, “a seahorse” as she self-exclaims. She was boundless and free once, yet being lured by the aroma of a man, she left the ocean and landed on earth, from upon which, her misery began. She is not allowed to return to the sea and is abused and handed over and over to many husbands. By whom all, she was once objectified as a miraculous collection and was easily abandoned as years passed. Her maternity brings her further human identification and holds her from returning to the ocean She almost forgot her real name, which is apparently a loss of self-identity. She becomes numb and insentient. She’s no longer her. Yet encouraged by the depart of her daughter, she once again pined for the sea. Her heart returned. She followed her daughter and was free again. This is really a hopeful ending and, to my opinion, serves as a great empowerment to woman, who might currently be in an unwanted marriage or difficult status. In other words, this story tells other miserable woman that they are still free, not bonded by their past or environment, and that they can make choice on their own autonomy.

Picnic: A picnic between a husband and a wife. Peaceful yet sad. The couple seems to be happy, but they could not communicate well. It seems like that they do love each other, but their love languages differ. They could not get what they want from their partner, such as a wanted response and such. The story is eccentric by leaving us to ponder questions like “why Kyoko cannot see well indoors”, and “is the account imaginary/ is the narrator reliable”, and so on. I am so looking forward to discussing this in class. Maybe it is about sexual indifference?

Tomo-chan’s Happiness: This is one of the most beautiful stories that I have ever read. Childhood trauma, adultery, absence of the father, and the sudden death of mother. A lot of tears and emotions. And yes, there are so many hard trials in life and often we need to fight them off on our own. Tomo-chan is really a tough girl, and her high-sensitivity is a gift from heaven. After all, we are all children of the universe, and we are watched over and taken care of by it as we try hard to feel. We are never alone.

 

October 4 Reading Reflection - Kaito

The ties between all these readings were very interesting, and at times difficult to read. All of what we discuss ties into huge, looming societal themes. Realizing Fun Things Through Water and Tomo-chan's Happiness have some similarities in the protagonists- both women seemed to take things in stride, having particular motivations and desires, reacting in small and subtle ways. Their thoughts on relationships and waiting for a relationship to sort of happen to them, I'm not sure what it says. With Tomo-chan's Happiness, I was surprised by the ending and the breaking of the fourth wall with the novelist, I don't really know how that relates. It felt like it was touching on loneliness, how connection can shape a person, how people need people in different ways. Sea Horse was disturbing, and also confusing... I was left with so many questions about who the narrator was and what the arc of her life meant. It obviously talked about possession over women's bodies, the abuse that men inflict within a marriage or relationship, but I wonder how that carries to the magical realism of who she was. Being drawn to a man because of his scent, then being kept away from her home. Why and how did the men know to "never let her near the ocean"? Her fourth child returning to sea... I also thought the title was interesting. I first thought it was "seahorse", not "sea horse". I knew that with seahorses, males are the ones who get pregnant and give birth. The female's primary goal is to mate and deposit eggs before providing for the male and babies. So I thought maybe it related to that role reversal. Maybe it does, but when I realized it was "sea horse", I was confused again by what it meant. I really liked Convenience Store Woman. I was also in Professor Frederick's class last semester and we read it for that class, but I realized I actually didn't get far. I think I was out of class for that entire week. Anyway, I read the whole book this week. I'm still thinking through all my thoughts on it, but upon first reflection I find it to be a very eye-opening book for it's views on societal pressures. I found it empowering that Keiko was able to stand her ground and be unashamed of the fact that being a convenience store worker is how she can live her best life. I found it interesting that Murata's messaging seems to be to live truly as yourself regardless of society, to act in accordance with who you are without outside pressure. it is maybe purposefully ironic that Keiko does so by feeding into society's workings. Convenience stores are a true facet of society, and by extension so is she. I guess Keiko is a combined opposition of those two thoughts is intentional. I'm a little stuck with Picnic. I can't seem to make sense of it in a way that really connects. Dissecting Misogyny was very entertaining. Humorous and to the point. So much commentary in such a short read. I really enjoyed this week's reading overall, and am looking forward to talking about them in class!

October 4 Reflection Jaxon

 I would say the most impressive piece this week for me is Sea Horse. My English is so poor that I thought of the title as "Seahorse" but not a horse in the sea and kept thinking about why the title is "Sea Horse," even after I realized that the protagonist is a horse but not a seahorse. In Chinese culture, at least, the horse is a symbol of freedom since we have a large area of grasslands, and horses can run freely. It's interesting to see the protagonist narrate in very good language, while in the story, she doesn't seem to be able to read very well. She seems to be able to communicate, but she can't even ride the train to the sea. Maybe she learned how to write and read later. 

I feel it's not very hard for her to get back to the sea from her description when she jumps into the river and almost reaches the sea, but what kept her? She doesn't have any child at the time, and yet she still feels the time hasn't come. The first part of her story sounds like a mermaid story but an adult version, and she keeps calling those humans husbands, but they look more like masters to her. They put shackles on her, but she still calls them husbands.  I think it's probably because either she was told that she has to call them husband or it's sarcasm for those people who think they are playing as a good husband.

Picnic is the only work we read that's in the first-person male perspective so far, and I was scared by the scene where the narrator just starts to abuse Kyoko. Or did I misunderstand what happened? They are outside having a picnic in a park, which is a public place, and the man just tries to release his sexual impulse.

For Realizing Fun Things through Water, maybe it's intentional or not, but I found the characters' introductions are a little crossed up, and I couldn't match the names and characters at first. For example, Kimiko's letter mentioned Hatsuoka's sister, and then "I sent a letter and sent it to Hakozaki. She is getting scammed..." Because who Hakozaki is is not explained, I was confused about who the subject was referring to. I thought "She" was Hatsuoka's sister.

The Convenience Store Woman reminded me a lot of No Longer Human, in which the protagonists both tried to disguise themselves as normal people who could fit into society. Most female protagonists in the stories are a little different and they are trying hard to find a place they can comfortably live in this world.