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A review by luftschlosseule
The Passenger: Japan by AA. VV.
4.0
trigger warning
suicide, mention of bullying and domestic violence, mention of organised crime violence, grief, mental illness, misogyny
This collection of essays centres around societal issues Japan faces right now. There is one about the ghosts left by the tsunami in 2011, about a cult that infiltrates the politics, about blues music affectionados in Tokyo, about the art of sumo wrestling.
While the first essays are long and take a while to read, towards the end we have some shorter ones. There are photographs and illustrations, there's a section with further reading materials that mentions One Piece for some reason.
I liked this a lot. As a typical middle European person, I am fascinated by Japan, and while I read a lot of manga in my teens, I am always down for learning more about Japan-that-is. While some articles, like the one about sumo wrestling, come from a very positive-enthusiastic side, there is also criticism to be found in these pages. One article is about the evaporated, people who simply leave their old lifes because they made mistakes, and start new somewhere else. Most often, this is down to trusting one will be able to pay back a loan shark, and has to face serious consequences if not. I have toyed with the idea of starting somewhere else anew multiple times, but it was more a what if exploration of a situation, and I came to the conclusion that my problems are illness-related and won't go away by adopting a new name. I never heard about this before, that it's legal in Japan to simply... go. That it's possible to live a new life somwhere else, sometimes just at the other edge of Tokyo, a city so big that you're basically the famous needle in the haystack.
I learned while being entertained which is the best kind of learning.
Recommendations go out to japanophiles and people who like essays or travelling. Essays about travelling. Travelling to write essays.
You get the gist.
I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
This collection of essays centres around societal issues Japan faces right now. There is one about the ghosts left by the tsunami in 2011, about a cult that infiltrates the politics, about blues music affectionados in Tokyo, about the art of sumo wrestling.
While the first essays are long and take a while to read, towards the end we have some shorter ones. There are photographs and illustrations, there's a section with further reading materials that mentions One Piece for some reason.
I liked this a lot. As a typical middle European person, I am fascinated by Japan, and while I read a lot of manga in my teens, I am always down for learning more about Japan-that-is. While some articles, like the one about sumo wrestling, come from a very positive-enthusiastic side, there is also criticism to be found in these pages. One article is about the evaporated, people who simply leave their old lifes because they made mistakes, and start new somewhere else. Most often, this is down to trusting one will be able to pay back a loan shark, and has to face serious consequences if not. I have toyed with the idea of starting somewhere else anew multiple times, but it was more a what if exploration of a situation, and I came to the conclusion that my problems are illness-related and won't go away by adopting a new name. I never heard about this before, that it's legal in Japan to simply... go. That it's possible to live a new life somwhere else, sometimes just at the other edge of Tokyo, a city so big that you're basically the famous needle in the haystack.
I learned while being entertained which is the best kind of learning.
Recommendations go out to japanophiles and people who like essays or travelling. Essays about travelling. Travelling to write essays.
You get the gist.
I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.