Books on Asia

Carol and John chat about Lan Su, the Asian-American community in the Northwest, and Suzhou’s rich heritage as a center of book culture and scholar gardens, especially during the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644).

Also mentioned is the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (Chin Music Press, 2021).

To see Carol’s work, including photographs of Lan Su, visit her website.

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. 

Podcas...

The islands, in order of appearance in the episode, are: Geomun Island (Port Hamilton); the garden island of Oedo (Oe Island – “do” is the Korean word for “island”); Geojedo, site of an important Korean War POW camp and often spelled “Koje”;Ulleungdo and the nearby disputed islets of Dokdo; and the fictional island of Sukhan.

Books mentioned in this Episode:

A Korean Odyssey: Island Hopping in Choppy Waters (2020) by Michael Gibb

Anglo-Korean Relations and the Port Hamilton Affair, 1885–1887 (2016) by Stephen A. Royle

The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese POWs in the Korean War...

Books discussed in this episode, in order of appearance:

The Last Great Australian Adventurer: Ben Carlin's Epic Journey Around the World by Amphibious Jeep (Random House Australia, 2017) by Gordon Bass

Once a Fool: From Japan to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep by Boye De Mente

Japanese Swords and Armor: Masterpieces from Thirty of Japan's Greatest Samurai Warriors (Tuttle, 2024) by Paul Martin

The Modern Japanese Garden by Stephen Mansfield (Thames & Hudson, 2025)

The Wondrous Elixir of The Two Chinese Lovers (Plum Rain Press, 2025) by Tim McGirk

China Running Dog, (Plum...

Amy Chavez has a deep discussion with Ted Goossen about Japan, it's emerging culture, it's historically strong women and how Japanese literature and its themes, are changing. In addition to talking about Hiromi Kawakami's novel The Third Love, other mentioned in this podcast episode are feminist Chizuko Ueno, translator John Bester and authors Kanzaburo Oe, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Masuji Ibuse and Mieko Kawakami. 

Goossen is currently reading books by Ruth Ozeki, and short stories by various authors. One older book that made an impression on him was The Anatomy of Dependence by psychologist Takeo Doi, which examines the i...

Sam Baldwin tells John Ross about some ingredients behind the success of his self-published memoir For Fukui’s Sake: Two Years in Rural Japan (the subject of a previous chat between them on the Bookish Asia podcast). They touch on Sam’s latest memoir, Dormice & Moonshine: Falling for Slovenia. But the heart of the conversation is some travel book recommendations – and Sam’s new project: a review website dedicated to travelogues and travel memoirs: https://travelmemoir.review

Sam's Recommended books (in order of mention):

Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan (1999) by Jamie Ze...

In his novel China Running Dog, a young man in his early twenties lives in Shanghai in the year 2000, in a greed-crazed free-for-all moral and lawless vacuum created by the Chinese Communist Party. Johnny Trent, small-time entrepreneur from Basildon in the UK, ends up in China, where he meets Felix Fawcett-Smith, fresh off the boat and from the other side of the tracks. An unlikely friendship begins.

Johnny impresses the well-bred Felix with his street smarts until Felix takes Johnny’s advice too literally – and too far – and slips into Shanghai’s murky underbelly. He enters a world wh...

The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers – Tim McGirk

The novel tells the story of archaeologist Ned Sheehan's discovery of two ancient Chinese tombs at a Maya site in southern Mexico. One tomb belongs to Xu Fu, a famous Taoist priest who vanished on a quest for the elixir of immortality at the behest of China’s First Emperor. The other houses the emperor’s own mother, scandalously revealed to have been Xu Fu’s lover.

Tim and John talk about what is known about Xu Fu, a historical person, and Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s...

Lauren Scharf talks about Japan's minka, kominka and akiya houses in Japan.

MinkaCon 2025, is an event to be held from Nov. 7-9, in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture. The two-and-a-half-day event features discussions, presentations, workshops and a writers panel for those interested in life in the Japanese countryside and preserving traditional Japanese houses. There will be a bevy of authors present, many of whom we've featured in previous episodes of the Books on Asia podcast: Azby Brown, author of Just Enough (Ep 26);  photographer and writer Everett Kennedy Brown; Alex Kerr (Lost Japan, Finding the Heart Sutra) (Ep 8) who will b...

A Tale of Three Tribes in Dutch Formosa (by Yao-Chang Chen, translated by He Wen-ching)

Sitting in for Amy is the duo John Ross & Eryk Michael Smith of Plum Rain Press and the Formosa Files podcast. They discuss their very first book release, a historical novel set in southwestern Taiwan in the mid-1600s. The Dutch East India Company’s presence there (1624-1662) came to an end after a series of battles and an epic nine-month siege by the Ming loyalist warlord Koxinga (aka Zheng Chenggong), born from a Japanese mother and a Chinese father. Three Tribes te...

Asia Bookroom exhibits their most precious items at rare and antiquarian book fairs in Melbourne, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Look for them at the Sydney Rare Book Fair from Oct. 23-25.

In this podcast we discuss some of the items on offer at the Sydney Rare Book Fair:

The Disputed Islands Controversial Japanese Map by Hayashi Shihei from around 1790. This is a manuscript copy (written by hand), and includes the Takeshima/Dokdo islands indicating they belong to Korea.

A silk sample book from the 1950s

A Japanese policeman's notebook f...

Adelstein introduces the people behind Mt. Gox, one of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges, based in Tokyo and run by Frenchman Mark Karpeles. As a reporter for The Daily Beast, Japan-based Adelstein starts researching Mt. Gox, to figure out how it got hacked, and how it collapsed i 2014 with over 650,000 Bitcoins gone missing. He covers the laws, customs and quirks of Japan's hostage-justice system and how the entire investigation into Karpeles and Mt. Gox played out. And yes, it includes cats! 

The Devil Takes Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Crimes and the Japanese Connection will be published by Scribe, Oct. 14, 2025. Duration: 00:43:15

In this episode we cover traditional Japanese gardens and how ancient gardens were related to nature, geomancy, literature and Japanese concepts of wabi-sabi, yugen, and mono no aware. but how garden design shifted from symbolism and representation to a more naturalistic style as seen in Murin-an, a garden in kyoto. Essays on garden design include entries by Ogawa Jihei (1860-1933), Kengo Kuma, Mira Locher, Japanese monk & garden designer Masuno Shunmyo, and garden historian, critic, and author Tim Richardson.

Some of the gardens discussed are: Kagawa Prefectural Office in Takamatsu city, Kengo Kuma and Nezu Museum, Osaka Station...

Books discussed include:

Korean Wilds and Villages (1938) by Swedish zoologist Sten Bergman

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters, by BR Meyers

Absurdistan, by (2006) by Gary Shteyngart

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

The Cuttlefish (2005) by Chris Tharp

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. 

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best B...

Amy Chavez and Hector Garcia discuss his recently released book, The Spirit of Shinto, and how Shinto’s worldview permeates pop culture—anime, manga, films—where good and evil often blur, echoing the idea that kegare (dirt, corruption) must be cleansed rather than destroyed. Unlike Western religions where God is above, Shinto gods exist among people, as seen in Makoto Shinkai’s films or games like Ghost in the Shell and Nintendo’s video games. Hector, a Tokyoite himself, urges people to seek the Shinto "awe" in their daily lives since Shinto should not be explained but lived. At the very e...

Amy Chavez opens the show by asking Friedman to give a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away on July 25, 2025. Friedman then turns to the reason for writing his book, co-authored by music journalist John Weiderhorn. Friedman talks about the co-writing process and describes it as “putting his musical abilities into words.” His latest solo release, Drama, he calls his best and most romantic work to date — a largely orchestral album that stretches beyond his usual style.

Beyond music, Friedman reflects on being a “foreign talento” on Japanese TV, participating in variety shows, commercials, and thoughts on the Japane...

A few of Takemori's favorite books on Japan are:

Takemori's upcoming translations are Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka (Penguin Modern Classics,  Sept. 2025), Hollow Inside by Asako Otani (2026) and Family of the Wasteland by Atsushi Sato (May 2027).

Read a book review of Mornings Without Mii (previous title Mornings With My Cat Mii) on the BOA website.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

Th...

Lina Terrell is a translator of Japanese historical texts. Today we are going to talk about her recently released translation of The Legacy of the Ryukyu Kingdom: An Okinawan History (JPIC, 2025) by Takara Kurayoshi, a native of Okinawa. Before Okinawa, the unified and independent Ryukyu Kingdom existed for 400 years. What was this island nation like and what kind of world did it exist in? Author and Okinawa native Takara Kurayoshi plumbs the depths of Okinawa's distant and obscure past.

Amy and Lina discuss the Ryukyu Kingdom before it became a part of Japan. They discuss noro...

Igor Prusa, Ph.D. is a Czech scholar in Japanese and media studies, currently affiliated with Ambis University Prague and Metropolitan University Prague. He received PhDs in media studies at Prague’s Charles University and at the University of Tokyo. His research interests include media scandals in Japan and anti-heroism in popular fiction. 

Today we're going to talk about his new book, Scandal in Japan: Transgression, Performance and Ritual (Routledge, 2024). He recently started teaching a course at the University of Vienna on the subject.

Prusa explains his definition of a scandal, emphasizing its public revelation and...

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, Amy Chavez talks with Baye McNeil talk about being a black minority in Japan, Japanese views of black people, the "African Samurai," the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1854 (who brought a minstrel show with him who performed "blackface"), and some of the media's portrayals of black people in both the US and Japan. He cites the original Calpis beverage label with a blackface character and mentions tropes in Japanese television. He suggests Japanese change the way they tell stories and  use biracial people to represent black people rather than their o...

Podcast host Amy Chavez talks with Michael Pronko, a Tokyo-based writer of murder, memoir, and music. He is professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuen University. During his over 20 years in the country, he has written for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and Artscape Japan, and has been featured on NHK TV and Nippon television. He also runs the website Jazz in Japan, which covers the vibrant jazz scene in Tokyo and Yokohama. Today, we're going to talk about Pronko's fiction, as well as his nonfiction books, including his most recently released Tokyo Tempos.

Pronko's "Detective Hiroshi"...

Paul Martin is a Japanese sword expert who has worked at the British Museum and traveled extensively in Japan to study swords and armor. Martin's new book Japanese Swords and Armor covers 30 famous samurai warriors and their swords, armor, and other artifacts associated with them, from antique sets to modern treasures, each with its own historical and cultural significance. The book was originally published in both Italian and French, and will now be available in English from by Tuttle Publishing in Oct. 2024.

He discusses the history and significance of Emperor Go-Toba, who was exiled to the Oki...

Burritt Sabin was born in New York City and came to Japan as a naval officer in 1975. His professional career in Japan started as a journalist, and he quickly moved into writing and historical research. The first book we’re going to discuss today is about Yokohama,  one of the first Japanese ports to open to foreign trade in the 1850s. A Historical Guide to Yokohama: Sketches of the Twice-Risen Phoenix is a window into a time when Japan was rapidly opening up to the world. (The book is in English, despite what the Amazon listing says.)

The...

Amy Chavez speaks with Lesley Downer, an expert on Japanese culture and history who writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels transport readers to the intriguing world of 19th-century Japan, while her non-fiction takes us along  the Narrow Road to the Deep North with poet Matsuo Basho; behind the scenes of the Japanese geisha community; and into the intrigues of the richest family in Japan. In this episode, she discusses her just-released The Shortest History of Japan: From Mythical Origins to Pop Culture Powerhouse, which provides a concise yet detailed account of Japanese history.

Lesley highlights the s...

Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his recently released book Gangsters, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders Who Shaped Modern Japan (Tuttle, April, 2024). 

They talk about strong women characters such as an Australian bar hostess named Maggie who became famous for using scissors to cut off customers' neckties  and a female yakuza gangster who carried a revolver in her purse. And if you think Japan doesn't have a drug problem, think again. Whiting talks about North Korean drug smuggling and its contribution to a surging number of meth users. 

Lastly, while most tourists to Japan can...

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, host Amy Chavez talks to author John Stevens about his new book The Lotus Moon: Art and Poetry of Buddhist Nun Otagaki Rengetsu (Floating World Editions, Aug. 2023).

Book's Features:

The most comprehensive English-language presentation of the work of famed nun and artist Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)

• Presents 90 of Rengetsu's painting and pottery works in over 242 full-color photos

• Written by Professor John Stevens, the foremost Western authority on Rengetsu

• Includes Japanese kana, romanization, and English translations, with commentary for all entries

• Prov...

Author and travel-writer Angus Waycott talks about his  8-day walk around Sado Island off Niigata Prefecture in the Japan Sea. He gives us in-depth accounts of: a mujina (tanuki-worshipping) cult, funa-ema (literally "ship horse pictures"), exile (including those of Zeami and Buddhist priest Nichiren), and the controversy behind the Kinzan gold mine and its "slave labor," all topics that he recorded in his book Sado: Japan's Island in Exile, originally published by Stone Bridge Press in 1996 and re-issued as an e-book by the author 2012 and 2023.

Book Description: "Given the choice, no-one ever went to Sado. For more t...

We talk with publisher Peter Goodman and author/translator Frederik L. Schodt about artificial intelligence as it relates to writing and publishing books.

Frederik L. Schodt's book The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution was recently listed as one of the books used to train generative AI. Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press (our podcast sponsor), publishing books about Asia for over 30 years. Both of these guests offer their views on AI, the use of published books to train artificial intelligence, the issues of copyright, fair use, and plagiarism...

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with author and translator Frederik L. Schodt, who has written/translated many books on Japan including The Osamu Tezuka Story, Manga, Manga!: The The World of Japanese Comics, The Astro Boy Essays, and My Heart Sutra: The World in 260 Characters (read our review).

But the two books we're going to talk about today are his historical non-fiction books Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan and Japan to the West, and Native American in the Land...

In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with John Ross, a New Zealand writer based in Taiwan. Ross has spent three decades in Asia, starting as a freelance photojournalist then becoming an English teacher and author. His works include Formosan Odyssey: Taiwan, Past and Present, You Don’t Know China: Twenty-Two Enduring Myths Debunked, and Taiwan in 100 Books. He co-founded  Camphor Press, a publishing house focused on East Asia called and co-hosts Formosa Files, a weekly podcast on the history of Taiwan.

John Ross lives in a small town in Taiwan, known as the...

In 2021 John Rucynski--who has been living in Japan on and off since 1994--self-published A Passion for Japan through Blue Sky Publishing. In this anthology, which includes 31 writers, he asks not why the writers came to Japan but why they stayed. Here is a list of the essays and writers included, from the Table of Contents

Stephen Mansfield, author of Tokyo: A Biography (Tuttle, 2017), is a British writer and photo-journalist based in Japan. His photo-journalism work has appeared in over 60 magazines, newspapers, and journals worldwide including the Kyoto Journal, CNN Travel and Nikkei Asia. To date, he has had twenty books published, four of them on the culture and people of Laos and several on Japanese gardens. He also has a chapter and essay in the anthology Inaka: Portraits of Rural Life in Japan (Camphor Press, 2020). In today's podcast he talks about, of course, Tokyo. o us about Tokyo: A Biography.

The Boo...

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, host Amy Chavez sits down with writer, translator, and professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University, Jeffrey Angles. He is the first non-native poet writing in Japanese to win the Yomiuri Prize for Literature, a highly coveted prize for poetry. His translation of the modernist classic The Book of the Dead by Shinobu Orikuchi won both the Miyoshi Award and the Scaglione Prize for translation. He is with us today to talk about his translation of the just-released book by Hiromi Ito, The Thorn Puller. 

Hiromi Ito, author o...

Sarah Coomber is the author of The Same Moon (Camphor Press, 2020), a memoir about what happened when she traded out her wrecked Minnesota life for two years in rural Japan. The Same Moon is possibly the only book about the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) experience written from a woman's point of view. Sarah joined the program in 1996, when the government-sponsored program was in its infancy.

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, she talks about being a single woman in Japan at that time, expectations at work, and how things have changed, or...

In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Azby Brown, a long-time resident of Japan and author of Just Enough: Lessons from Japan for Sustainable Living, Architecture, and Design. Some topics discussed are Edo Period sustainability measures, STG’s, architecture of old Japanese houses, the Kamikatsu Zero Waste town, and future measures Japan is taking to become more sustainable.

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. 

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Lif...

In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Maud Rowell about her new book Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness (404 Ink, 2021). Maud is a freelance journalist and writer from London. She went blind at 19 while traveling in South Korea. Two months later, she went on to begin a four-year degree in Japanese Studies at University of Cambridge including one year at Doshisha University in Kyoto. She trained in journalism at City, University of London, and over the course of the pandemic, wrote her first book Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness published by 404...

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, podcast host and island-dweller Amy Chavez and Gifu countryside villager Iain Maloney discuss their experiences living in Japan's countryside. Iain's book The Only Gaijin in the Village: A Year Living in Rural Japan is dedicated to the subject of himself moving to the the countryside with his Japanese wife, while Amy in her latest book The Widow, the Priest and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island documents the countryside-living experience with an emphasis on the Japanese people she lives among. See what...

Podcast host Amy Chavez talks to Robert Weis, curator of the Luxembourg Natural History Museum's upcoming exhibit, “Spirit of Shizen – The Nature of Japan through 72 Seasons,” running from July 1 to August 31, 2022. 

An accompanying catalogue, in the form of an anthology, will be published featuring essays by prominent writers on Japan's seasons.

Amy starts off the show asking  Weis, a paleontologist, how he ended up curating the exhibition “Spirit of Shizen” Weis explains his childhood fascination with fossils, his work at the museum, and his love for Japan. He says Mark Horvane, a Kyoto-based garden designer, was an advis...

Amy asks Poulton to explain the difference between reading Noh plays and seeing a Noh performance. Poulton goes into great detail on the subject, including why and how the same Noh play covered in a few pages of text becomes a one-and-a-half hour play when performed. He quotes from Arthur Waley's The Noh Plays of Japan to explain the concept of length and time.

He further introduces Kan'ami and Zeami, father and son, who elevated the art of Noh to what it has become and discusses the Tokugawa Shogunate's influence on Noh and gagaku (court music). Poulton...

This week author and translator John Stevens joins us from Hawaii. Stevens has penned many books over his long career, mainly dealing with Japanese martial arts, poetry, and biography.

“A book should be enlightening for the writer, and for the people reading it.” —John Stevens

Amy starts off the show mentioning the books of Stevens that she has read: The Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei; The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba; Dew Drops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan; and Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda. Yet that is onl...

Abby Denson is the award-winning author of Cool Japan Guide: Fun in the Land of Manga, Lucky Cats and Ramen, Cool Tokyo Guide: Adventures in the City of Kawaii Fashion, Train Sushi and Godzilla and the Kitty Sweet Tooth series (with Utomaru). 

Her most recent book, which we’re going to talk about today, is Uniquely Japan: A Comic Book Artist Shares Her Personal Faves - Discover What Makes Japan The Coolest Place on Earth!

Abby has scripted comics for Amazing Spider-Man Family, Powerpuff Girls comics, Simpsons comics, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pus...

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, podcast host Amy Chavez talks with novelist David Joiner about his new novel that takes place in Kanazawa, in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture.

The novel introduces the city of Kanazawa, its connection to the famous Japanese literary master Izumi Kyōka, and its setting for the novel. The story revolves around an American married to a Japanese, and the Japanese family's dynamics. Highlighted are some of the differences between traditional and modern Japan and the foreigner’s place in it.

Finally, Amy a...

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, host Amy Chavez talks with anthropologist, shamisen player, author, and translator Liza Dalby about her books and her new translation of the recently deceased novelist cum Buddhist nun Jakuchō Setouchi's memoir "Places."

Liza is author of the Geisha, Kimono: Fashioning Culture, East Wind Melts the Ice: A Guide to Serenity Through the Seasons, and  Hidden Buddhas: A Novel of Karma and Chaos. Her previous translations include Little Songs of Geisha: Traditional Japanese Ko-Uta.

Amy and Liza talk about Liza's long career wr...

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, podcast host Amy Chavez talks with Kathleen Burkinshaw in the U.S. about her book The Last Cherry Blossom, and about hibakusha, the Japanese word that refers to victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII.

"My mother was 12 and a half when the bomb was dropped. She grew up in Hiroshima and she was about two miles away from the epicenter. So the journey of the book is kind of how I found out about my mother's...

On this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, we have guest interviewer Lisa Wilcut speaking with award-winning writer and translator Meredith McKinney. McKinney is translator of many Japanese classics such as Sei Shonagon's 11th-century "The Pillow Book" and the 14th-century "Essays in Idleness," which was published along with "Hōjōki." She has also translated "Kusamakura" and "Kokoro" (see our review) by Natsume Sōseki, one of Japan's most celebrated modern writers. Today, she is going to talk about her long career and also about her just-released book on the wandering poet Saigyō call...

On this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, Alex Kerr is returning to the show. 

Alex is author of such notable books as Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons, Finding the Heart Sutra, and Another Kyoto. Today he talks to podcast host Amy Chavez about his latest book, Another Bangkok, released on July 1, 2021. He introduces Thailand's capital city via its architecture, arts, and culture, and shows us how they are similar to Japan's. NOTE TO LISTENERS: In addition to the podcast, Alex has provided some visuals of the interior pages of the book, whic...

Today on the Books on Asia Podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with the co-editors of Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, just released by Stone Bridge Press. Rebecca Copeland is a professor of Japanese literature, a writer of fiction (The Kimono Tattoo) and literary criticism, and a translator of Japanese literature (Grotesque, The Goddess Chronicle). Linda C. Ehrlich is an independent scholar and poet who has published on world cinema and traditional theater.

Podcast Show Notes

Amy asks Linda and Rebecca how they came to publishYamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch...

Cathrine Pawasarat, author of Gion Festival: Exploring its Mysteries, is one of the founders of the Clear Sky Retreat Center in British Columbia, Canada. Her previous book is From Wasteland to Pureland: Reflections on the Path to Awakening. The former Kyoto resident talks with us today about Kyoto's most famous event, the Gion Festival that happens every July in the former capital.

Amy starts out the podcast describing Kyoto's Gion Festival, the giant floats with the tall towers on the top as they parade down the street among crowds of bystanders. Catherine explains that Kyoto's neighborhoods work...

Today we're talking with Tina deBellegarde about short stories, what makes a good short story, and why certain short story writers are so appealing. Tina has been nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, has a short story published in the Mystery Writers of America anthology called "When a Stranger Comes to Town," and most recently won the USA Prize in the Writers in Kyoto annual story competition.

Amy congratulates Tina on her contest-winning entry called "Sound Travels" in the WiK writing competition, and Tina mentions that it can be read on the Writers in...

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, show host Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his just released memoir Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball (Stone Bridge Press, April, 2021). Whiting is known for his numerous books on Japanese baseball: The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, The Samurai Way of Baseball, and The Meaning of Ichiro. He's also penned a book about gangsters called Tokyo Underworld. In this episode of the podcast, Whiting talks about all these books as well as what it's like to write a memoir.

This episode starts out with Amy asking Wes for some tips on using mountain huts while hiking: What time to arrive, whether you should book meals, if you need reservations, and how mountain huts on Mount Fuji differ from other mountain hut accommodations.

They also talk about hot springs (onsen) at mountain huts, or near the hiking trails. Some onsen have mixed bathing (men and women together) and they discuss some tips on when to cover up with a swim suit (or not). Amy talks about her embarrassing moment in a mixed bathing hot spring, and Wes...

This episode starts out with Amy and Janine talking about Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) and the poetic reforms that took place from 1868 during Japan's transition from the Edo to the Meiji period. It was a time when Shiki (and his friend Natsume Sōseki), was influenced by Western literary styles and culture. These effects are reflected in Shiki's haiku, tanka and prose. Beichman's literary biography Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works (Cheng & Tsui Co, 2002) delves into Shiki's influence on poetry, his invention of the tanka series and the publication of his poetic diaries. Janine also discusses the differences between haiku and...

Partial Transcript

“Welcome to the Books on Asia podcast, I’m your host, Amy Chavez, and today we have with us Alex Kerr who is going to talk with me about his newly published book Finding the Heart Sutra: Guided by a Magician, an Art Collector and Buddhist Sages from Tibet to Japan. (Allen Lane, Penguin U.K. Nov. 26, 2020)."

Amy: Your book "Finding the Heart Sutra" is coming out this week, congratulations!

Alex Kerr: This book is a result of 40 years of what's basically been an obsession with the subject. I did the calli...

Amy  talks with author, journalist, and Times correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry about his books Ghosts of the Tsunami about the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman about a foreign hostess who went missing in Tokyo. 

Recorded on May 8, 2020.

See Parry's book Ghosts of the Tunsami: https://booksonasia.net/book/ghosts-of-the-tsunami/

People Who Eat Darkness: https://booksonasia.net/book/people-who-eat-darkness/

For more books, see Books on Asia Issue 7: Disasters, Natural and Man-Made https://booksonasia.net/book/people-who-eat-darkness/

Podcast Show Notes: https://booksonasia.ne...

Amy Chaez talks with Lena Baibikov who has translated Haruki Murakami’s non-fiction works from Japanese into Russian. Lena has translated What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Radio Murakami and a book of Murakami’s short stories as well as works by authors such as Banana Yoshimoto, Ryu Murakami, and Yukio Mishima and several children’s book authors. This podcast recording takes place in Lena’s kitchen in Ashiya, just 100 meters from where Murakami’s parents lived until the Kobe Earthquake of 1995. Lena also took Amy on a tour of the neighborhood Murakami grew up in. She tells...

Amy  talks with William Scott Wilson, author and translator of over a dozen books on Japan and China. They briefly discuss a few of these including, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (by Yamamoto Tsunetomo), The Book of 5 Rings (by Miyamoto Musashi), and Cultivating Ch’i: A Samurai Physician’s Teachings on the Way of Health (by Kaibara Ekiken) before they zero in on the writing of Walking the Kiso Road. In this episode the author reveals a surprising fact about himself that we never knew before! (hint: If you like to kayak, you’ll definitely want to check this ou...

Barry Lancet chats with podcast host Amy Chavez about Lancet's popular thriller series including Japantown, Tokyo Kill, Pacific Burn, and The Spy Across the Table based on the exploits of Jim Brody, an antiques dealer who travels between Japan, Asia and the U.S. 

Recorded on January 22, 2019.

See Barry Lancet's thriller series at https://booksonasia.net/book/tokyo-kill/

And other books on Tokyo in Books on Asia, Issue 4: https://booksonasia.net/category/issues/issue-4/

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia f...

Amy meets up with Juliet Winters Carpenter to talk about her 70 or so translated works of Japanese literature including Shion Miura’s The Great Passage, Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel, Shiba Ryōtaro’s Clouds Above the Hill, Jun’ichiro Saga’s Memories of Wind and Waves, and Abe Kōbō’s Secret Rendezvous. Carpenter also talks about her upcoming project, a new translation with Mizumura, as well as translating the life story of Sakamoto Ryōma. 

Recorded on September 29, 2018

To see the books mentioned in this episode, see: https://booksonasia.net/category/issues/issue-3/

Th...

Amy talks with Dr. Judith Pascoe in her office on the campus of Florida State University while a Brontëesque storm rages outside their window. Pascoe discusses aspects of her book On the Bullet Train with Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights in Japan. A fun, engaging read, Dr. Pascoe deliberates on some of the 20 or so Japanese interpretations of the novel, including translations, manga versions, and the reenactment by the Takarazuka all-female theater in Japan and even offers up some unique Japanese-language learning tips. 

Recorded on July 6, 2018.

To see her book and others discussed in the pod...

John Dougill talks about Japan’s indigenous religion of Shinto, its kami (deities) and the designation of Ise Shrine as the center of worship for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Recorded on May 27, 2018.

For more information about Dougill's books as well as publications by other members of Writers in Kyoto, see: https://booksonasia.net/category/issues/issue-1/

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia for over 30 years: www.stonebridge.com

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.