Hi friends! I am back!
Remember how I talked about that article that was giving me stress? Well, I not only finished it, I finished it early enough that it has now been published on the Japan Rail Cafe blog! It’s all about Sayama tea and the Tocha game and if you’re interested in Japanese tea, I hope you learn something new from it.
The two tea events are also progressing (aka ticket sales have started) so what I have next are the event rehearsals (+ rehearsals for other events like this month’s Church youth workshop on mental and physical health). Now for the reading update:
I realised that in times of higher stress, I actually read more if it’s a reread because:
- I enjoy the familiarity of books (I tend to put off new books during high-stress times) and
- I don’t have the attention span to do much else. I heard exercise is good for stress, but honestly exercise requires more willpower for me.
So, books that I have finished are:
- Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah – I don’t know why, but I’ve been seeing Kristin Hannah’s name pop up around the bookstagram people that I follow and I’ve been wanting to reread her books. And then I realised that I own this! Even though I remembered most of the story, the ending still moved me close to tears. Stay tuned for a proper review happening… sometime in the future
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell – This is a bit more coherent than “What The Dog Saw” in terms of overall theme because it’s about what makes people super successful (spoiler: it’s not just hard work, even though hard work is needed. A lot of luck in terms of when and to whom you are born is also involved). While reading this, I was reminded that I’ve been curious about The Triple Package by Amy Chua. Perhaps I’ll read that next month, or maybe I’ll reread Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and see if my feelings have changed about the book.
- Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella – I didn’t know that I owned a Shopaholic book! I always thought that I borrowed them all from one of my Church School teachers. Anyway, this is pure fluff but I love it anyway – plus it’s interesting that now, I cringe a lot less at Becky’s antics.
- The Tale of Genji, Chapters 1 to 4 – Progress!! Also, the men in Genji are awful – Chapter 2 contains a discussion of women and the perfect women is basically someone without character (but also alluring) that will let men sleep around as much as they want. Honestly, in my view (with pretty modern sensibilities), the only thing Genji seems to have going for him is his looks.
- The Classic Ten by Nancy Macdonell Smith – This is a book that examines ten staple items in a wardrobe and the history behind them. It’s really well-sourced but I do wish that the paperback included pictures – Smith refers a lot to certain images and photos and if I don’t google for them, I really have no idea what they look like. Also, I found this very interesting paragraph about the impact of Louis Malle’s comic wester, Viva Maria!:
“It’s also set soon after the turn of the twentieth century, but its heroines wear the high-collared, ruffled blouses of stereotypical frontier schoolmarms. This look, too, translated into a widespread crazy for romantic styles, including lace-up granny boots, shawls, velvet ribbons, and floor-sweeping skirts, that lasted into the early 1970s. […] As Ellen Melinkoff notes, the granny look “seemed to express our back-to-nature, return-to-a-simpler-time, antiplastic yearnings. We needed some assurance that the world wasn’t changing too fast. For comfort we turned to home-baked bread, macrame, and Laura Ashley dresses.” “
Is it just me, or does this granny-look sound like the Cottagecore trend? I knew that fashions from my childhood were coming back (e.g. shirts under spaghetti-strap dresses) but I thought that Cottagecore was a pandemic trend.
I hope you have had a great weekend too! Tomorrow’s update will be shorter because there’s no way I’m fitting four books into a regular workday.
Congratulations on the publication of your article!!
I love tea — mostly black rather than green (or more specifically sencha), but anyway — so I’m really enjoying your tea reviews, and the detailed attention you‘re bringing to them … and to the tea preparation as such, of course.
As for Genji,
„Honestly, in my view (with pretty modern sensibilities), the only thing Genji seems to have going for him is his looks.“
LOL. That seems to be everyone of my friends‘ responses. 🙂 And it firmly puts Genji in the „I know I really should read this, buuuuut …“ corner for me. I‘ll continue following your progress with great interest!
I’m actually drinking a Japanese black tea today! Some of them are really interesting (:
Hahaha I probably never would have picked up Genji if 1) I really like Japanese culture and 2) I was doing some research on the medieval period. I think there’s a very large gap in worldviews + an unlikable protagonist is hard to read at the best of times!
Yes, I saw your review of today‘s tea — it did look and sound amazing! (Even if it didn‘t quite live up to your experience with another product.) I don‘t think I‘ve ever even had black tea from Japan, at least not knowingly. All the Asian black teas we seem to be getting here are from India, China and Sri Lanka — Japan is the land of sencha hereabouts.
What‘s the project for which you are researching the Middle Ages? It feels funny, btw, at least to me, to be applying a term infused with the Western historical timeline to another culture, especially one that‘s on such a different track and, until the very recent past, even interacted with the West only sporadically. What is the period called in Japan?
I’m looking into the development of courtesans in medieval Japan, but mainly read through the Heian era! Ideally I’d like to be able to trace this through to the modern era (and see if it connects with Geishas) but the books that I’ve got now all focus on the Heian period.
The project is for the Hanfugirl collective! They focus mainly on the role of women throughout Chinese history, but I’m doing this because China influenced, and was influenced by, other countries so we need a fuller picture.
That sounds like a fascinating topic. What made you pick it (if I‘m not being nosy)?
Our group is trying to recreate Tang dynasty courtesans (though I joined as a researcher, not courtesan-protege) and I used to live in Japan so combining the two was a natural fit (:
Wow, what a great project. „Your group“ — actors? Students / academicals?
Mostly just women interested in the subject! I think a few are dancers, but not all (:
Well, it does sound super cool!
Btw, I‘m very much with you on preferring rereads in times of stress. Rereads and comfort reads all the way for me, too … I‘m really in awe of people who even when stressed out still have the energy to tackle complicated books, because that‘s definitely not me! 🙂
Glad to know I’m not alone!
Congrats on finishing your article!!! This is really making me want to dedicate a month to re-reads but I have too many unread books on my shelves haha. Maybe one day when I’ve reduced that number down!
I feel you!! I wanted to do this since the end of last year, but I bought so many books that I had to finish most of them first!
Always the struggle hahaha