Whirlwind Trip Through Tokyo

I’ve had a busy, very rewarding couple of days in Tokyo. On Thursday evening I gave a talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, which was moderated by the venerable Robert Whiting. The talk was about my novel Kanazawa; I discussed local cultural elements I incorporated into it, especially the works and biography of Kanazawa-born writer Izumi Kyōka. At the end of the evening, I was presented with a one-year honorary membership to the FCCJ. I guess I’ll need to find my way back to Tokyo often so I can use it!

This afternoon I also had the good fortune of meeting the author Hirano Keiichiro, who has a number of award-winning novels to his name – including A Man and At the End of the Matinee – and seems to be getting his novels turned into movies on a regular basis. I was struck by his kindness and humility, and wish we could have spoken to one another longer than the two hours we actually had together. I’m extremely grateful to my friend, the Japanese literary scholar and Tanizaki translator, Anthony Chambers, for introducing us.

Following that, I went to Books Kinokuniya Tokyo to sign copies of Kanazawa and have my photograph taken in the store. I greatly enjoyed talking to the staff there, who were so friendly and helpful – again, I wish I could have spent more time with them – and I was more than happy to buy nearly ¥30,000 worth of books before I left, which I hope made them happy in turn…

And even before my Tokyo trip, I was lucky enough to meet Beth Kempton, author of Wabi-Sabi and The Way of the Fearless Writer, who was in Kanazawa to research her next book, Kokoro. Although I left feeling as if I’d talked too much in our limited time together at a café, I felt I learned a lot from her, and I just really appreciated the connection with her that our meeting allowed.