Read a Short Story from TOKYO TALES called ‘My Cute Kawaii Boutique’ with an Illustration by Yoshimi OHTANI –

| 26th August 2014

My Cute Kawaii Boutique is the first of fifteen exciting short stories from my latest book Tokyo Tales: A Collection of Japanese Short Stories. This particular story is a tale about the “kawaii” obsession in Japan that is gaining popularity throughout the world, as well as personal growth and strong family ties. As an extra treat, take the time to feast your eyes on the gorgeous illustration by Yoshimi Ohtani, designed specifically for this tale. Many more of Yoshimi’s images are scattered throughout Tokyo Tales and on the book cover.

MY CUTE KAWAII BOUTIQUE

“‘I’m twenty-one years old and I’ve been working part-time for a fashion shop in Yokohama for two years but now I’d really like to work for My Cute Kawaii Boutique,’ I told Junko, the manager of this delightful shop, during my interview in Harajuku. I was full of hope she’d approve of me as I thought about how wonderful it would be to work in such a pretty place.

Junko, the manager of My Cute Kawaii Boutique, looked me over slowly from head to toe. A shiver ran down the back of my neck and I rubbed my clammy palms over the top of my skirt. This was only the second time I’d ever been interviewed.

ā€˜Are you happy to work here full-time?ā€™ Junko asked.

ā€˜Full-time work would be perfect for me,ā€™ I replied.

ā€˜I need to employ someone who doesnā€™t need to be constantly supervised. Do you think you could work in this store by yourself sometimes without any help, Kimiko-san?ā€™ Junko asked me, raising one eyebrow.

ā€˜I think Iā€™ll be able to manage just fine after a little bit of training,ā€™ I said to Junko. I licked my dry lips and hoped Junko couldnā€™t see that my hands had started to shake.

51YvolbLYXL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_ā€˜Thatā€™s a good answer,ā€™ said Junko as she ran her eyes over my resume.

Junko asked a few more questions about my previous retail experience in Yokohama at a shop where Iā€™d sold predictable and appropriate clothing for staid shoppers whoā€™d always wanted to dress exactly the same as everyone else. I thought my answers were good but maybe a bit brief. The shop in Yokohama was nothing like this one. The clothes in My Cute Kawaii Boutique allowed for individualism and creativity. A girl could really make a statement here and channel her inner princess. ” . . . READ THE FULL STORY.

Look Out For The Delicious and Inexpensive Set Lunch Options in Japan

| 15th August 2014

A lot of excellent restaurants in Japan offer very affordable set lunches so look out for these when you want an exquisite and filling meal but you donā€™t want to pay the high prices often associated with haute cuisine served in Japan. You could easily pay above Ā„10,000 per person in the evening for dinner at the many high-class restaurants scattered throughout Tokyo, but many restaurants with extremely good reputations also offer set lunches at a fraction of that cost at midday. For example, a traditional Japanese restaurant called Sankame (pictured below), which serves Kyoto style dishes in Tokyo and boasts a Michelin Guide one star, charges Ā„10,000 – Ā„15,000 for dinner but only Ā„1,000 to Ā„2,000 for a set lunch between 12 and 2 p.m. and itā€™s located in Ginza – an area renowned for its pricey real estate. Read a review of the Sankame restaurant in English on SunnyPages.jp. By the way, the SunnyPages.jp website is a marvellous resource for finding restaurants and choosing a great place to eat in Japan.

Sankame

Sankame Front

Guest Post with Ms. Sanja Željeznjak – Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

| 26th July 2014

Recently, I was contacted by Sanja Željeznjak (pictured below) from Croatia who told me how much she enjoyed reading my Cherry Blossom Stories Blog. Naturally, I was very grateful for her kind words and her encouragement.

In her message, Sanja asked me to take a look at her blog and I’m very pleased that I did. As you all know, I’m a big fan of the cherry blossoms in Japan so I was particularly moved by her blog post called Sakura. I asked Sanja if I could share this piece of writing with my readers and she replied she would be very happy to do this.

Optimized-Sanja Zeljeznjak

Please take the time to read Sanja’s blog piece titled Sakura below. Whether you’ve been to Japan or not, you’ll be touched by the eloquence of Sanja’s words and her understanding of the cherry blossoms and what they represent to the Japanese people. Sanja’s writing is very poetic and uplifting. I believe this blog post acts as a reminder for us all to to appreciate nature and the people in our lives and to forget the materialistic trappings which sometimes seem more important. We should treasure those people who are close to us and we should support them and hold them dear because just like the cherry blossoms which come and go so quickly, we are here on this earth for just a brief moment in time.

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SANJA’S BLOG POST ‘SAKURA’

Each year in early spring, around mid-March and up until mid-April, Japan is almost overnight transformed into the Land of the Cherry Blossom. Countless parks, promenades and boulevards are bundled up in the sheer whiteness of sakura. During that time, the whole country follows with excitement the cherry blossom forecasts all over Japan from the deep south to the upper north. No matter what, almost everyone will try to find at least one spare moment for hanami, or cherry blossom viewing.

Can a foreigner understand the feeling of profound happiness that permeates a Japanese person sitting on a bench alone or with his friends while gazing at a blooming cherry tree?

Optimized-Cherry Blossom for Sanja
Sakura (ę”œ, Japanese: cherry blossoms) warms the soul of every inhabitant who has an eye for its momentary beauty. It’s well known that the lifetime of a cherry blossom is dramatically short, only about one week. As soon as the delicate pink and white blossoms open up on the still, bare branches, a gust of spring wind blows past and shakes the petals. It won’t be long before the petals, fragile as they are, fly off in their first and final flight to the ground, greeted by the most beautiful, cold embrace of death: expressed with the upmost beauty and dignity.

As beauty is so short and transient, she is dear to the human eye. The cheerful soul of the beholder relishes the view of the petals swaying in the air and falling down to the ground, silently like pink rain. We stop for an instant, fascinated by that magical moment of the perfect Japanese spring which has been immortalised in countless movies and in numerous photographs.

We look at the sakura, afraid to say out loud how we instinctively feel and what saddens us deeply: that our life itself is like a cherry blossom. At any moment in our brief lives, we could be mowed down by something insignificant, such as a gust of wind. So let us enjoy every single day while we are still here.

Happiness is in grief, in the dramatic anticipation of the end that must come. The majestic life of the Queen Sakura ends up under the feet of the casual passers-by, who themselves are mere random strollers in this corner of the universe.

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Thank you Sanja for allowing me to share your blog post Sakura. I really appreciate it and I’m sure my readers will agree, you’ve really captured the spirit and significance of the cherry blossoms in Japan. Visit Sanja’s blog called Japanese Bugs.

Sanja Sakura