Revisiting Old Favorites

It was about five years ago that I first read Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, and it became my instant favorite. I have since become an avid Murakami reader, and have read everything that has been translated into English that he has written. To make me sound even more crazy, most of my reason for wanting to learn Japanese is so that I can read everything he has ever written in the original (for those of you who haven't read any of his books, YES--he's that good).
After a colleague at the museum started reading Kafka on the Shore a week or so ago, I decided that I should take my copy off the shelf and experience it once again.
Since the first time I read Kafka on the Shore, I've had the experience of living on Shikoku island, the location that provides the backdrop for much of the story. Shikoku is truly a place as haunted as the storyline suggests, as I had come to discover during my time there. Thus, I think the second time around, this book will hold a whole new meaning for me.

Bento Box for the Heart

As a sales clerk in a museum book shop, I have access to hundreds of books on a daily basis. Usually I pick up a book on architecture or sculpture, but one book I found on the shelf really grabbed my attention in a big way: Bento Box in the Heartland, by Linda Furiya.
This book is an autobiographical tale of a Japanese American girl's experience growing up in a 1960s(ish) Midwestern farming town. Ms. Furiya shares with the reader her experiences coming of age as a member of the only Asian family in the community. She describes how she felt through narrating lurid play by plays of the foods she ate. Each chapter is followed by a recipe that coincides with whatever the chapter was about.
For example, Ms. Furiya describes the awful embarrassment that lunchtime brought for her growing up. While the other kids brought sandwiches and cookies, her mother always packed her her favorite: Japanese rice balls. For fear that the other kids would make fun of her, she found excuses to go to the bathroom durng lunch, where she would then eat her rice balls in the safety of a bathroom stall. At the end of the chapter, she provides a mouth watering recipe for the rice balls.
Ms. Furiya's beautifully descriptive prose captured my heart from page 1, and had me until the very end. It's a story everyone can relate to. We all have our own family secrets, our own moments of fear and shame, that can all perhaps be summed up best by describing the foods we grew up with.
Before seeing it on the shelf at work, I never heard of Bento Box In the Heartland, but boy am I glad I found it.
The bonus is all the delicious recipes contained throughout. I haven't tried any yet, but I have my heart set on making the pork tenderloin recipe!

WARNING: This book will make you HUNGRY!