Somewhere Among

Finished January 28

Somewhere Among by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu

This children's novel is narrated by eleven-year-old Ema. As the story opens Ema and her parents are taking taxi from their small apartment to the other side of Tokyo where her father's parents live. Ema's mother is from the United States and teaches English at a college. She's having a difficult pregnancy, so the plan is to live with her Obaachan (grandmother) and Jiichan (grandfather) so that her mother can rest. This means that Ema can't go to her usual school as it is too far away. 

At first her Papa tries to stay there as well, but the commute to his work is too long and he gets too tired. It is June, shortly before the normal school year ends, so Ema will get tutored by her Obaachan until she starts at the new school in September. Ema is a pretty good kid, and she's excited to have a sibling, so she tries to not worry her mother over things. Usually in the summer she goes with her mother to visit her California grandparents, Nana and Grandpa Bob, but this year she will miss that, so she talks to them on the phone and writes to them. 

The novel is told in a series of poems, with each one dated. We see how Ema has some trouble adjusting to living with her grandparents. Her Obaachan runs the house and has rules and expectations, so Ema finds her a little cold, but she is close to her Jiichan and they spend time together. 

By the time school starts, he finds her a used bicycle to go back and forth with and he fills in her mother's duties on the Mama Patrol that watches out for the kids safety going to and from school. But this novel also takes place in 2001, and when the planes hit the towers in New York City, Ema is unable to prevent her mother from learning the news. 

I really liked Ema and understood her feelings of not fitting in due to her mixed heritage. Changing schools is hard and she also has to deal with a bully, something she hasn't encountered before and tries to hide from her mother. 

This is a book that draws you in with the character and the poetry format means that a reader can take their time as they go through the book. 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Finished December 4

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot

This book is the first in the series names for this title. It is a book set in a small basement coffee shop in a back alley in Tokyo. The shop has existed for decades and there is a legend that the shop also gives customers the chance to travel back in time. 

In this book, there are four stories, each with a customer visiting the cafe with the hope that the legend is true and that they can make such a journey. But there are rules around these journeys: One is that the traveller cannot change the present, no matter what they do. Another is that you can only meet someone who has visited the coffee shop. A third is that there is only one place in the shop that you can sit to travel, and you must remain in that seat for the duration. A fourth rule is the limit of the visit, the time is takes from the coffee being poured until it gets cold. And the visitor has to drink all the coffee or they will be stuck as a ghost. 

The visitors here go back for various reasons, and we see all of these visitors in the introduction to the first story. Here Fumiko wants to go back to have a different conversation with her boyfriend Goru who recently went to work in America. 

In the second story, Kohtake wants to go back to before her husband Fusagi, who has early-onset Alzheimer's, forgot who she was. A staff member at the shop says that the reason Fusagi wanted to go back was to give her a letter, but that she can go back to get it herself. 

The third story is the story of sisters. Hirai runs a snack bar near the coffee shop. She came to Tokyo from the outskirts of Sendai, a city a few hours north of Tokyo, where her parents ran an inn. Her younger sister Kumi comes often to the cafe to try to meet Hirai, but Hirai won't talk with her. Hirai left because her parents expected her to take over running the inn and she didn't want to, and they eventually transferred their expectations to Kumi. When something happens to Kumi, Hirai knows that she wants to have that conversation with her sister that she's been avoiding. 

The fourth story shifts the conversations around travelling in time to contemplate travelling to the future and the difficulty of determining whether the one you want to meet with be there at the time you travel to. One of the coffee shop workers decides to do it, with the others promising to do what they can to ensure the meeting takes place. 

I liked the premise of the book, and the parameters around these travels in time. They are very different from what we often see in novels with time travel as a concept. 

A feel-good read that will appeal to a variety of readers. 

Tokyo Ueno Station

Finished October 23

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri, translated by Morgan Giles

This book tells the story of Kazu, a man who wanders the world he lived in before he died, not understanding why he hasn't moved on. No one sees him or reacts to him, but he reflects on his life, working long hours on jobs away from his home, not seeing his children grow up, or spending very much time with his wife. 

He also describes the circumstances that led to his last few years living as a homeless man in the Ueno Station Park in Tokyo, and his interactions with some of the other inhabitants of the park. 

The moments of reflection on the past are interspersed with his observations on the present, seeing how life goes on, and witnessing the passing of others he knew.

This is a very interesting novel, with intimate details of Kazu's life told in such a way that removes the emotion from the experiences. He seems removed from his life, not just by death, but in remembering key moments of his life as well. 

His life also has ties to that of the royal family in a limited way. He is the same age as the Crown Prince, and his son was born the same day as the prince's son. His life in the park is also changed by visits from the royal family.