Every so often, the thought of Sensei would flit across my mind, but each time, just as suddenly, it would disappear. It wasn’t as though I had returned to my school days, but neither did it feel as if I was actually in the present – all I could say was that I had caught a fleeting moment at the counter of Bar Maeda. It seemed as if we had ended up in a time that didn’t exist anywhere. The cheese omelette was warm and fluffy. The green salad peppery. 

This novel is a love story. It might not be the classic love story of boy meets girl or girl meets boy, but it is a love story nonetheless. Developing through a couple of years in Tokyo, Hiromi lets us into the everyday routine of Tsukiko’s very uninteresting life. It is never clear where she works or what she does for a living, only that she needs to have some sake at a bar every night to let off some steam. Aside from the bartender, she does not have many friends, until she casually meets Sensei, her teacher from high school, one night in the bar. Soon after their first meeting, they meet, by chance, every several nights at the bar, and thus begins an unusual friendship.

Kawakami’s narrative is lean; short but concise. She lets us into the loneliness of the character’s life with short out-of-routine events, like mushroom hunting, cherry blossom season and high school reunions. The meet-cutes between Tsukiko and Sensei are always brought together with warm or cold sake, depending on the season, and a delicious Japanese meal (with such a vivid and precise description, I craved dining Japanese every night). The conversations in these meeting escalate in tone and deepness as the sake flows through their veins, and, almost every time, an external event happens that brings them back to their realities.

Although the message of the novel is clear, what I enjoyed the most was the subtle allusions to aspects of human nature that are universal – jealousy, loneliness, yearning for companionship, among others. By following one character without reservations or shame, Kawakami creates the story of a middle-aged woman that meets an older man, finds a little bit of peace, and falls a little bit in love.

About Hiromi Kawakami 

Hiromi Kawakami was born in 1958 in Tokyo, and she is one of Japan’s most famous contemporary women authors. Although she studied Natural Sciences and taught Biology, she wrote her first novel in 1994 and has been writing ever since. She has won many awards including the Pascal Short Story Prize for New Writers and the Akutagawa.

Other Books Written by Japanese Women

We only recommend books we’ve read

Kitchen – Banana Yoshimoto (read by Angelica and Ceci)

The Housekeeper and the Professor – Yoko Owaga (read by Ceci)

Woman on the other Shore – Kakuta Mitsuyo (read by Ceci)

Japanese Initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

Women’s Japanese Leadership Initiative (JWLIA)

JWLIA’s mission is to fund women-led nonprofits and to create strong women leaders to excel in both the nonprofit and the private sector. They work with networks of successful women and connect them with young women leaders. Some of the organizations they have support include Yuyake Kodomo Shokudo, an evening cafeteria for children from single-mother households, and GDM Fukushima, an organization that works with local agricultors in order to reactive their primary economic activity after a series of devastating earthquakes.