Japanese Books

It has been a long time since I've read a sports manga this good! Everything is so awesome, and the funny moments are hilarious too. How Hanamichi seem to embarass himself as an amateur basketballer yet gain fame thru it is puzzling but that makes the manga better. I thot I saw the best when I watched the anime, but after reading the manga, it was a whole lot more interesting.Seriously. The anime stops around the time when Shohoku qualifies into the national. But the manga goes on and on till the 2nd round of the national against Sannoh. That is the best game played in the manga besides the one against Kainan. I mean, it took up almost 7-9 volumes just for that game against Sannoh! Very beautiful game, and there are tremendous changes in Shohoku's players (read: between Kaede Rukawa and Hanamichi Sakuragi)

I can't praise this manga/anime enough. People who are wondering how good this is should really read this or watch the anime. It is hilarious and yet have crying moments. It has it's ups and downs just like the real life. It cuts through you when you read it. Very enjoyable. Very addictive and yet not for the faint of heart. Did I say very addictive? It is impossible to have one dose of this.

This manga is known as one of the best mangas of all time (alongside with Dragonball). While it was running in the manga magazines (which was quite a few years ago), it spawned a basketball craze in Korea. The storyline may seem quite cliched, but the way the story is told cannot be beat. It has sold over 100 million copies in Japan and still is a steady seller. If you have not seen this, you need to, because after it every other sports manga will seem like a pale imitation of it.

I just started reading mangas a while ago, and the first one I ever read was Slam Dunk. I treid to read it during school, but it turned out to be so funny and catchy that I was laughing out loud (and falling down stairs cause i couldn't put it down) for the rest of the day. After i finished it, I continued with other mangas, but I can't seem to find one like this. It's hilarious, but also is really true in the ways it describes teenagers. If you had to read one manga, this should DEFINATELY be the one.

Tours of Shanghai's former Jewish Ghettoes are popular, and the fact they are offered gives you a sense of the importance of the Jews' contributions to the city's past. For those who want to delve deeper and who want the stories behind the stories told and the buildings seen on the tours, there is Rena Krasno's Strangers Always.

Krasno was born in Shanghai in 1923 to stateless Russian Jewish parents. Krasno lived there her entire life until expats were forced out of China in 1945. The author includes detailed, yet concise, background information--including newspaper articles and some Japanese propaganda pieces--about issues that affected her daily life during this era and her reactions to the world around her. She tries to puzzle out the truth behind the propaganda and figure out what is the real status of the war, for example. She also attempts to illustrate how the lives of the various groups of people in Shanghai intersected and how the ways in which people interacted changed.

Although the book focuses on the war years of 1942 to 1945, she provides other interesting information as well. One of the worthwhile tangents Krasno provides is the story of her parents' emigration. Her father, David Rabinovich, left Russian for Siberia, and then went on to Harbin. As the Russian Jews picked up their lives again in Harbin, they began to suffer hardships at the hands of White Russian Fascists and the Japanese. Eventually, Rabinovich and many other Jews left Harbin to try their luck in the more tolerant city of Shanghai. There, Rabinovich met and married his wife and became the editor of a Russian Jewish newspaper called Our Life. He also served as the honorary secretary of the Shanghai Ashkenazi Jewish community. Krasno's mother owned a children's dress and toy shop called Peter Pan. Luckily, during Ghettoization this little shop kept the family fed. One of the fun anecdotes about the store involves writer and personality Emily Hahn, who shopped there for clothing for her pet gibbon.

Other notable side stories include the history of the Opium trade, the background of the Bund, and the story of Jewish immigrant Silas Hardoon and his impact on the city.

Although the book deals with a difficult time in Shanghai's history, Krasno's account maintains a lighthearted, youthful exuberance. Despite the air raid sirens and bombs going off around her, food shortages, and other hardships of wartime, young Rena remains determined to pursue her education and insists on having as much fun as is humanly possible under these unusual conditions. Fortunately, she wrote down all of these elements of her life in Shanghai for us to contemplate in the 21st Century.

Strangers Always is a quick and satisfying read. I found it better than some of the other war time memoirs for its style, tone, and level of details. The book will appeal, of course, to readers interested in the history of Jews in Shanghai, but also to readers interested in WWII era Shanghai or immigrant life during the boom years in general.

This book is the memoir of a young woman from a Russian Jewish family growing up in Shanghai during World War II. The setting is multicultural, multilingual and multiracial, and the author provides fascinating details from the history of a city that no longer exists. Shanghai had Chinese, White Russian, French, British, American, German, Iraqi and many other citizens. The author lived there under the Japanese occupation, but this is not a Holocaust story. Some people were interned and imprisoned, and there was some anti-Semitism, but there were no mass deportations to death camps or a "final solution" as was taking place in Europe. The city was full of refugees from many governments, including Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Fascist Italy and Franco's Spain, as well as "stateless" people, many of whom had escaped to China following the Russian Revolution. The author documents publications of the day, Japanese propaganda, and news from the U.S. and its allies. She also explains well what happened to various people later, what rumors turned out to be true or false, and gives her sources. First-rate research, good writing, and an interesting story add up to a great read. I add that I read this after becoming interested in pre-Communist Shanghai after reading Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. If you liked that book, try a real-life version!

This book is the memoir of a young woman from a Russian Jewish family growing up in Shanghai during World War II. The setting is multicultural, multilingual and multiracial, and the author provides fascinating details from the history of a city that no longer exists. Shanghai had Chinese, White Russian, French, British, American, German, Iraqi and many other citizens. The author lived there under the Japanese occupation, but this is not a Holocaust story. Some people were interned and imprisoned, and there was some anti-Semitism, but there were no mass deportations to death camps or a "final solution" as was taking place in Europe. The city was full of refugees from many governments, including Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Fascist Italy and Franco's Spain, as well as "stateless" people, many of whom had escaped to China following the Russian Revolution. The author documents publications of the day, Japanese propaganda, and news from the U.S. and its allies. She also explains well what happened to various people later, what rumors turned out to be true or false, and gives her sources. First-rate research, good writing, and an interesting story add up to a great read. I add that I read this after becoming interested in pre-Communist Shanghai after reading Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. If you liked that book, try a real-life version!

I wanted to share my personal experiences in Shanghai both before World War II and during the Japanese occupation (1923-1949). I base my book on my private diaries, notes taken during radio broadcasts, and years of research. My father, who at the time was the Editor of the best known Jewish weekly in Shanghai and Honorable Secretary of the Russian Jewish community, put all his personal papers at my disposal. This book describes the end of imperialism in Shanghai and, I believe, is of interest to the general public, Jews and non-Jews alike. Rena Krasno, author.

This effervescent story, with its vivid, carefree illustrations and its protaganist's refreshing win-win attitude, is a rousing celebration of individuality and joie de vivre. We love Suki!!

This is a great book for showing the importance of treasured possessions and how they can be shared effectively with others. Suki loves her kimono and wears it to school with pride. The author, Uegaki, does a fine job of showing Suki's spirit and respect for her grandmother. The text is easily understood and the addition of humor lends to the usefulness of the book. It can be used as a catalyst for sharing time and discussions of favorite relatives. The illustrations are done with ink and watercolor and are especially delicate, yet expressive. They portray Suki as a spunky young Japanese girl with a mind of her own but a love of tradition and family.

This charming story is one that every child should read (or have read to them!). Not only does it have an encouraging message and introduce aspects of Japanese culture; it's also VERY beautifully illustrated, and Chieri Uegaki's writing is a pleasure to read. I love the way she phrases things, like when Suki sits close to the taiko drummers and feels "like she'd swallowed a ball of thunder and her whole insides quaked and quivered." Buy this book -- you won't be disappointed.

Suki's Kimono is the heartwarming picture book story by Chieri Uegaki of Suki, a young girl determined to wear her favorite blue cotton kimono to school because it is a cherished gift from her beloved grandmother. Suki's friend warns her that it seems weird, but young Suki is determined to follow her own heart. A delightful tale Suki's Kimono is an exuberant story which is wonderfully enhanced for young readers with the brightly colored illustrations of Stephane Jorisch.

It's good to have books of this sort. It's about time someone instill some sort of work ethic in the Americans. Americans are often dismissed as lazy and unambitious, self-centered, which is not far from the truth. I know, I used to work for Boeing Company in America. This should be required reading for people in American auto industry so they make better car,LOL!

Having managed a Japanese invested company in the USA for 8 years, I was exposed to the strengths and weaknesses of the philosophy of operation, style and processes. It caused me to rethink the validity of the mostly unspoken and unexplained management approaches that cause much frustrations and inefficiencies to American workers. Back in the introductory period of American Karate in 1962, I learned, as an instructor, to explain the reasons behind Karate practice and thought processes, rather than leaving the art vague and mysterious. Americans would do well when all the chips and stones are turned and have clear objectives and rewards for the effort. I decided to write, perhaps for the first time by a Japanese executive, a plainly explained managment book on the system of Japanese companies in the USA. No theories but all practical questions and experiences Americans will be exposed in working for or with Japanese companies. Answers to the questons and different experiences are clearly written to assist Americans to succeed in managing a Japanese company which has been expected but being realized so slowly. EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINABLE AND CAN BE LEARNT!

As an American who has worked two years in Japan and four years in the US for Japanese automotive startups (and married to a beautiful Japanese woman for six years), I was able to relate to this book on a level that a majority of readers cannot comprehend. I was fortunate to have a Japanese President who took me under his wing early in my career and taught me the lessons of "ho-ren-so" and the like. However, working for the Japanese is a challenge still. As an American, reading through the first few chapters of Mr. Honda's book, I found myself becoming somewhat angry at the accusations and arrogance of the Japanese thinking being explained. After stepping back I realized the author was just providing information to help better explain ideas presented in later chapters and his overall point. This book is not so much "Americans are bad or lazy" and "Japanese are superior," it is more or less food for thought. Japanese or American, working with people requires understanding of one another. Often, the most difficult aspect is getting both sides to acknowledge and accept the good points of one another and adopt them to create true synergy. As for the coward from Pottstown, PA, who doesn't even have the courage to give an e-mail address. He totally misunderstood this book (that is if he read it at all). If Americans are so lazy, then why does the world economy depend so heavily on us? Why do Japanese companies continue to invest billions in new US ventures every year? If it were not for us lazy Americans, ignorant fools such as this coward from Pottstown, PA would not have world dominating companies such as Boeing to work for. One more point for the Japanese to understand. A reporter once asked a former football coach of Notre Dame, "Coach, how do you motivate your players?" The coach responded, "I don't motivate them. They come motivated. I try not to de-motivate them." As pointed out in Mr. Honda's book, Americans enter into Japanese companies with childish optimism and enthusiasm. All to quickly is that enthusiasm shattered and the American becomes just another body punching the clock or "lazy". Until Japanese executives (and many American companies) understand this and learn how to harness this energy, they will never understand the true work ethic of the American worker. If going home to spend time with your wife, children, community volunteer organization, church, or night school at the end of an eight hour workday instead of sitting at your desk looking busy but you really don't have anything to do or as the Japanese at two companies I have worked for, sitting in the smoking area for hours at the end of the day just to get face time, if not wasting my precious time like this is considered lazy, then I am guilty. Ask any Japanese Executive on his deathbed if he has any regrets in life. I do not believe his answer would be, "I wish I had spent more time at work." Thank you Mr. Honda.

Mr. Honda takes the mystery out for American managers who want to know what to say and do in order to be successful in Japanese companies. He provides numerous examples and comparisons between the American and Japanese styles of management along with recommendations. A special emphasis on diversity-communications is provided from cover to cover to guide the reader on the perceptions and expectations American and Japanese managers have of each other, and how to improve their working relationship. In summary, Mr. Honda's book is long overdue for American managers who are looking for practical tips and guidelines to have a successful career in Japanese companies.

Thanks Taschen, this book is perfect, the size, the case, the cover!!! beautiful picures, plans and text. That is how a archtecture book is done, in years, people will talk about the sensibility in put Ando's work in a book.
The travel begins in the case, with a familiar pattern of Ando's work, the cover, beautifully taken, and the climax of book presentation is the hardcover, with Ando pattern, perect!
Inside, have everything oh Ando's work, the text, the picures and the plans are superb, but the top os te top is the sketches os his works.

Thanks again Taschen..

the book is amazing... arrived in great condition and amazingly quick... the book was much bigger than what i had in mind though... huge and heavy...

This is the latest monograph on Tadao Ando and despite its steep price, its sheer size alone can justify its value. Although the title states "complete works," the monograph focuses on select projects from the mid-70's to the present (there is however, a list of his complete works in the back with single b/w photos in an index format). Although many of the projects that are featured here can be found in other Ando monographs, the extra large photographs of his projects reveal a new sense of space to projects that we are already familiar with. In addition, this monograph also features preliminary sketches of projects and some photos that have not been published before. New projects that you won't be able to find in his other monographs include the 4x4 house, Ground Zero Project, etc. A great book to have in your collection and so far, the grandest of all of Ando's publications.

www.hjlbookreview.com

A wonderful, large format, book covering all of Ando's significant work into the early 2000's. It is so interesting to see his early work, how clear a path he set for himself in his career and how carefully he has kept on the path.

I was introduced to this book during a course that was an overview of Japanese food. I find it to be quite readable, and the photography to be incredibly helpful with the explantions. Some of the information is slightly dated at this point, especially in the sections on sushi and sashimi. This book was so helpful to me, that I gave it to my parents as reading material as they were convinced I would eat nothing but sushi while studying in Japan.

Donald Richie first went to Japan in 1947 as part of the American Occupation Forces. He soon fell in love with Japanese culture and decided to make Japan his home. Richie has lived in Japan for more than fifty years and is best known as the foremost Western critic of Japanese Cinema.

Donald Richie has carved out a niche as the great "explainer" of Japanese culture. "A Taste of Japan" is Richie's attempt to explain Japanese food to a Western Audience. He dedicates chapters to such topics as Sushi, Tonkatsu, Fugu and Tempura. Each chapter tries to explain what each of these foods means to the Japanese. If you are looking for a cook book or an etiquette guide, this book is not for you. The value of this slim and entertaining volume is as guide to food and its relationship to the the Japanese people.

This book is a great introduction to the culture
of eating and drinking in Japan. The colour
photographs are sensational and the text is clear
and well laid out. By reading this book I have
been able to get much greater pleasure from
eating and preparing Japanese food.

A long-time resident of Japan, Donald Richie fondly explores the relationship of Japanese foods to Japanese history and culture in a series of graceful, eminently readable essays. If you want to know how tempura came to Japan, why the Japanese play Russian roulette with fugu (blowfish), or why riceballs are standard picnic fare, this is the book for you. (Note: This book does not contain any recipes.)

I bought this book, along with other tea books, as a gift. I was so impressed by this one, I had to buy one for myself as well!
The book itself has an impressive weight and is filled with glorious pictures on thick pages. I keep it out to invite my guests to flip through it on the coffee (tea) table.

I would recommend this book to anyone at all. It was great fun to read and I feel like I gained a good basic knowledge about all the aspects of tea.

A fascinating history of tea is presented well. The photos are gorgeous. This book is a great companion to Mary El-Baz's "The Essence of Herbal and Floral Teas."

As a child, I thought tea was a rather nasty tasting drink, having only been exposed to harsh, bitter teas. But as I travelled the world, I found that there were many delicious teas available, and became a tea aficionado. It has been a great pleasure to watch as tea has become more popular in the USA, making a great many more teas and tea related products available -

------ Like this book!

I have browsed many books about tea, and purchased a few. None have been as satisfying as this book by Lydia Gautier. Each time I read a portion of this book, I was transported into the very relaxing world of tea. This book is not just another boring and dry approach to facts about tea. It brings the essence of tea to life. Gautier's love of tea shines through in the information she selected to present in the book, and the way it is presented. And accompanied all along the way by gorgeous photographs. Photographs of teas, tea ware, plantations, tea salons, people enjoying their tea, etc. - all of the photographs drawing you in to the point where you can almost smell the fragrance of the tea infusing or of the leaves being picked.

The book covers the history of tea, the properties of tea, tea varieties, tea tasting, relationships between tea, coffee, wine and perfume, types of teas, addresses of a few select tea rooms around the world, and even recipes for various tea beverages and foods. All of the information is presented in a captivating manner.

This is one book about tea that you will want to read more than once!!!!

I received this book as a gift from my husband and it has turned out to be a very helpful resource. The author gives an interesting and well researched history of tea as well as thorough descriptions of various types of teas and their regions. The section on tea tasting is well presented. As a tea business owner I refer to it often.

I was sent a copy of this book by my mum from Australia last year and only recently had the chance to finally read the book.

It's no wonder that this book is an award winner (2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize). Kwan keeps you rivetted to his story, told through eyes of a young boy growing up in very turbulent times. In spite of coming from a wealthy family, it cannot save him from the terrors and turmoil brought to Northern China in the 1930s and 1940s, nor from the racial judgement passed on him for being half-Chinese and half-White.

How Kwan manages to survive is quite amazing. He is abandoned by his own mother and faces major abuses at school. Then, war begins and he begins to witness the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China. Finally, after the Japanese are defeated, he nearly loses his father to the KMT government that his father has faithfuly served through the resistance movement. He is not even safe from his own family, who try to use him as a means to extort his father for money that no longer exists.

An absolute must read for anyone interested in China, the Japanese invasion of China, and a boy's coming of age.

An extraordinary story told with well controlled language and subtle understatements. The book chronicles the lives in a previledged, but also marginalized, world where everyone is deeply enshrouded in his or her own loneliness : the western expatriates in China, the mixed-blood children like the author himself, the western women married to Chinese men but unable to summon any love for the country or its people, the well-cultured mem ostracized by the society for their marriages to western women. Each of them, making good-intentioned efforts to connect, failed miserably because of their own deep-rooted prejudice, social barriars imposed by other people, or simply the uncontrollable historical whirlwinds. Outside this walled-in existence, a war is raging on with unimaginable callousness. The wall would eventually crumble down and the fineness of the Legation Quarter be swallowed by the brutal and rancid humanities of that era. Reminding us at times of Proust and Graham Greene, this remembrance of things past documents, in a hushed voice, an extraordinary age and all the human efforts to stay emerged in the midst of sweeping torrents. Warmth and friendship flicker from time to time in this vast emotional void : the author's attachment to his down-to-earth and understanding nanny Shu Ma, his natural bonding with the reticent peasant Xiao Hu, and the unusual and quiet friendship between the boy and the Japanese Admiral. Language in the last couple chapters slips a little bit and becomes less disciplined. But overall this is a wonderfully written memoir. Saddened by the news of the author's death couple weeks ago, I was especially grateful for the gift he left with us in the form of this book.

I bought Michael David Kwan's "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" after reading a glowing review in the Washington Post. I was not disappointed. It is a moving, understated memoir about Mr. Kwan's childhood years starting shortly before the outbreak of World War II and ending as the Kuomintang was breathing its last in mainland China. Although young David was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family as a "half-caste" child of a Chinese father and a Swiss mother (who abandoned the family very early in David's life), he was never considered to be a true part of either the white and Chinese communities. The editorial reviews give a good overview of the content of the book and the increasing difficulties that David and his family endured under the Japanese and even more so under the corrupt Nationalist Chinese government. The narrative is brisk and engaging; it is probably the best work of non-fiction that I have read in quite some time.

Sadly, on May 20th of this year Mr. Kwan suffered a fatal heart attack just two weeks before the official U.S.-publication of this book. We are all very fortunate that he was able to give us such a memorable farewell gift.

"Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" won the 2000 Kirayama Prize for non-fiction, beating out such well-received books as Herbert Bix's "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," Helen Zia's "Asian American Dreams" and Chanrithy Him's "When Broken Glass Floats."

I read a review and an excerpt of this book in Toronto last summer, and waited anxiously for it to be published here in the States. I read it in two days, gulping it down excitedly; then I re-read it slowly, informed of the story but savoring the beautiful prose. I wrote Mr. Kwan a "fan letter," only to learn today in this forum that he passed away. I was hoping for a sequel.

Topaz Moon is a testament to the power of art, not simply as a mechanism for creating beauty, but also as a method of documenting history. Faced with the social disruption and indignity of relocation and internment in WWII, Professor Chiura Obata of the University of California at Berkeley chose to use his considerable artistic gifts to create what amounts to a visual diary of his internment experience. Seemingly hundreds of drawings, pen and ink paintings and watercolors (too many to count) document Professor Obata and his families experiences from the start of the war, through relocation to Tanforan, internment at Topaz, and beyond, in stark terms, quiet dignity and haunting beauty.

Unlike photography which can only memorialize the actual events of a moment, painting and sketching allows the artist to document his or her own emotional reaction to those events. Dorothea Lange, herself an admirer of Professor Obata, took photographs of the Tanforan relocation center, including Professor Obata's art classes, some of which are reproduced in Topaz Moon. However, compared to Professor Obata's own first hand sketches of the internment process, Lange's photos appear emotionless. This is because Professor Obata infuses his documentary sketches, which are remeniscent of Van Gogh's figural drawings, with the powerful emotional reactions he felt in witnessing scenes in which he too was a victim.

But Topaz Moon is a text which is more about creating community than casting blame. Kimi Kodani Hill, Professor Obata's granddaughter, has framed her grandfather's art with an insightful, succinct and compelling history of Professor Obata's life and the events of the time. The anectdotes relayed by Ms. Hill emphasize the support, assistance and sympathy given to the Obata's by their many freinds outside of the camps. I was struck by the fact the President of U.C. Berkeley, Robert Gordon Sproul, who himself was vocally opposed to the internment, personally rescued Professor Obata's life's work of art and stored that art in his official U.C. residence for the duration of the war.

While Topaz Moon is more than an art book, the art itself is more than merely documentary. Professor Obata's finished paintings and sumi-e works represent some of the best American artwork of the 20th Century. Works such as Moonlight Over Topaz (commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt while Professor Obata was still interred), Hospital Topaz, and Silent Moonlight at Tanforan Relocation Center would stand out in any museum. In their own way, these images are every bit as beautiful as his earlier Yosemite woodblock prints.

I highly recommend this book.

Most of the artwork are done in black ink on white paper. It makes for a stark and bleak testament to the difficulties faced and endured by the internees. The book is a great teaching tool for children and adults, not only to learn about the internment, but to study the artwork.

This is a wonderful book. I bought it for the artwork which is fresh, inventive, and very skillful but the social history is equally engrossing. The text is clearly written and generous with quotes.

At 8.25" square it's smaller than your average coffee table book, but the pages are rich with intelligence, beauty and invention.

"Topaz Moon" is a slim little book that is filled with a selection of the interment imagery of Chiura Obata. The imagery is both in his writings and in his art. And both make lasting impressions.

The images range from simple line drawing to watercolors executed while a victim of Executive Order 9066 in which all West Coast Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in interment camps. It is amazing what he was able to accomplish in the face of circumstances beyond his control. Obata's work is excellent.

"Topaz Moon", "Obata's Yosemite" and "Nature Art With Chiura Obata" are the only three books currently in print about the remarkable artist and human being that was Chiura Obata. The three books present different facets of his life and all are worth reading and seeing. Highly recommended.

I found My Japanese War Bride to be very enlightening. It shows how the right combination of two people can overcome any adversity and come out stronger. It takes us through Mike and Tsuchino's struggle to go from nothing to being able to have anything they want, and I found myself rooting for them against the military and both their families. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to sit down and just be entertained by two peoples faith and hope.

I found the book to be entertaining and humerous. It brought to mind memories of post-world war II attitudes and bureaucratic obfuscation that will be familiar to anyone who served in the military or worked for the government. Both Mike and Tsuchino come across as likeable, intelligent and determined people.

I enjoyed the book. Very easy read . I learned a few things about bureaucracy in the military that were disturbing.... dare to question and you pay for it, even if you are right.
The author by his life shows how to succeed by hard work , by giving 110% and by being well prepared so when an opportunity arose he was able to jump at it. Tsuchino is his perfect mate; expecting him to so his best always and willing to back him and follow him wherever his path led. A very inspiring love story .

There is little literature available about Japanese War Brides and this book gives an excellent first-person accounting of a husband and wife's strengths and devotion. I read the book in efforts to gain information for research, but found that I could not put it down, not because of my interests, but because it is a true story of overcoming the odds and finding success/happiness in love and marriage!

Michael Forrester has a provided his life story in an easy to follow, chronological manner that gives one a sense of understanding of the time and events. It is real, interesting, humorous and most of all heartwarming! I would suggest this book to all readers.