Books Time – Strange Weather in Tokyo

Hiromi Kawakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Murakami. I think I can say with little doubt I am in a Japanese literature mood these days! And I am really enjoying my recent readings. The one I am sharing with you today is Hiromi Kawakami's Strange Weather in Tokyo, which also is my last reading and the first book of this author I ever read.

I found this book in Waterstones a few weeks ago, and I was surprised of finding a book by a Japanese author I never heard about. I saw on the shelf a few books by Kawakami, and they all cached me with their beautiful, pretty unusual, covers. The one I chose to buy, Strange Weather in Tokyo, portraits this floating girl into what seems to be a small restaurant, the rest of the cover cream white. The other one I was tempted to buy (and future purchase) was “The Kanano Thrift Shop”, which has the same design, a round image of a floating girl, into a tube station this time, the rest of the cover one single color, a very bright pink this time.

But let's not blabber too much, and let's talk about the protagonist of today's post and its plot. Strange Weather in Tokyo is a book about Tsukiko, a woman in her late 30s, who really hasn't a very exciting life, but a quiet, normal one. She has a job which she likes enough, she is single, she lives alone, she enjoys a drink from times to times, and she doesn't have many friends.

One night, as she drinks alone in a local bar, she encounters her former high school teacher, whom she calls “sensei” (a polite Japanese word used to address to teachers, older co-workers, and also older classmates at school. In general, a word used to address to a person who has more experience than you). In the next following months they will encounter more and more often, and not always on purpose.

They will find out they live in the same nearby area, and they will meet often at the local bar. Both of them people who don't mind (or actually enjoy) being by themselves, they will sometimes share a drink in silence, some other time talk a lot about the past, or their lives in general.

They will even go on a trip together, picking mushrooms, together with two hilarious cousins, and enjoy a freshly cooked mushroom soup. The more the two get close, the more Tsukiko admires Sensei's quietness, his composure, his old fashioned way of seeing the world that Tsukiko enjoys so much. As their relationship becomes more and more intimate, Tsukiko finds herself wishing their friendship might develop in something else, and will fight Sensei's shyness, and his sense of not being a good match for his former pupil.

A delicate, touching love story that I really enjoyed reading. Tsukiko is a bit clumsy in her way of trying to show Sensei her feelings, and she also is a bit worried by them. Sensei is older than her, he used to be married, maybe looks at her like a daughter, not like a woman.

Sensei, from his side, is a sweet old fashioned man, who also doesn't know how to handle his feelings (or Tsukiko's, for what matters, when she boldly tries to show him her interest, in her own cute and clumsy way). He thinks he is too old, he doesn't want to use a mobile phone, he is not sure he can catch up with his former pupil, her energies, her youth, her strong will to love.

A perfect reading for a chill autumn night, to enjoy under a duvet, your favourite cup of tea next to you, and the rain gently tapping on the window, because this delicate story will warm you up like a sweet embrace.

M