Tag: Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Too Far

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Market Harborough

One month ago on 2 March 2.3.23 (I love these numbers!), I embarked on the next stage of my Albihon (best of England and Japan) life to divide my time more equally between the country of my birth and my host country for the last 15 years.

My previous work as a freelance coach in Tokyo saw a long pause during the Covid crisis, and during that pause I also reached the formal retirement age in Japan which diminished the prospect of securing new employment.  Also, as an Englishman in Japan, I am often asked about and expected to be an expert on my  home country, but not having lived there continuously for more than 12 years I felt I was losing touch. Having been confidently saying that “it doesn’t rain every day, nor do we eat fish and chips every day”, I was starting to wonder whether that was in fact true. So after discussions with family and friends in both countries, I decided to return to the UK for six months to re-establish residence.

Logistics in place, with arrangements made to ship boxloads of books back, those that my wife had been nagging me to ‘abandon’, and enough clothes for four seasons – in one day – see what I mean?, I left Tokyo for the 14.5 hour flight over the Arctic circle and 2.5 hour drive from London to my home in Market Harborough, Leicestershire in the English East Midlands.

 Not to be confused with Akihabara (Tokyo’s famous ‘Electric Town’), despite similar pronunciation, ‘Harborough’  is a small (population 25,000), historic market town on the border with Northamptonshire, the county of my birth. So this was also a return to my roots where I would be a lot closer to my blood family.

However, it’s also important to remain in close touch with my Japanese connections and this soon happened. My wife and I are keen cinema goers and a couple of weeks before my departure we went to see Avatar, The Way of Water, in the splendid Toho cinema in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Shinjuku. A multi-screen hi-tech building adorned on its roof by a model (at least I think it is!) of Godzilla, going to watch a 3-hour plus movie is a complete afternoon out. A sell-out showing to a mainly Japanese,  fully-masked, silent but appreciative audience left me in no doubt as to my location. Since I was last in the UK, Market Harborough Cinema located in the Market Harborough theatre, has  undergone a revamp with the latest Laser Projection technology which allows it to show films that are on general release across the country. Nevertheless this not for profit, independent community cinema with a pull-down screen over the small theatre stage in front of the 117 seat capacity  audience, most of whom knew and were chatting to each other as they arrived, is a complete contrast to the 13 screen, 2800 capacity, 3D IMAX Dolby Toho cinema in Shinjuku.

Giant Godzilla Statue Atop Toho Cinema in the Shinjuku Kabukicho District of Tokyo, Japan

My first film was ‘Living’, starring award-nominated Bill Nighy, which I soon learned was based on ’Ikiru’ by Japanese film director Kurosawa, with Kazuo Ishiguro (https://jeremyjlhill.com/2023/02/09/noble-efforts/) enjoying writing credits as well. So, despite the approximate 10,000 km physical between the two cinemas I was re-assured that I would never be too far from the other half of my new 50-50 lifestyle.

I had this re-confirmed the following day wandering around the stalls in Market Harborough’s old market square.

Certainly not for the purists, but it did bring me just that bit closer to my other home

Noble efforts

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An avid reader, my usual genres of choice range from historical to literary fiction, epic sagas and espionage and psychological thrillers as well as, obviously, books either set in Japan or written by Japanese authors. So, that gives me plenty of scope to hit, and usually exceed, my annual Goodreads challenge of 100 books. Not included on that list is either fantasy or science fiction but I will make an exception if there’s a crossover with one of my other genres of choice. Therefore, I recently read ‘Klara Under the Sun’ by Kazuo Ishiguro a novel about Artificial Intelligence and in particular Artificial Friends or android. It was his first published novel since he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017.

Kaz, or, to give him his full name and title, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro OBE FRSA FRSL, was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954 and moved to England with his parents when he was five years old. Now, a naturalized British citizen, he writes in English and much prefers to talk in my mother tongue rather than Japanese. His books range from post-war novels set in Japan (A Pale View of the Hills), to the fictional memoir of an English butler in a stately home (the Booker prize winner, ‘Remains of the Day’) to historical fantasy (A Buried Giant), to the more speculative works such as Never Let Me Go and now Klara Under the Sun. Despite my misgivings about the latter’s subject matter, the purity of his prose had me entranced from the beginning. Told through the eyes of Klara who is chosen from a shop window to be an Artificial Friend to Josie, it explores the developing relationships between Klara and her adoptive family. Suspenseful and at times emotional (yes, robots do have feelings), it’s easy to understand why the author has won some of the world’s top literary awards.

When he won the Nobel, Japanese TV news programmes interviewed residents of Nagasaki for their reaction. Few had read his books, which would have to be translated into Japanese in order for them to do so but most were proud that a native of their city had reached such literary heights.

Unlike Haruki Murakami, another Japanese author whose books I’ve read and thoroughly enjoy who is a long-term contender. Despite having had his books translated into many languages and being the recipient of many prizes, he’s always missed out on the ‘big one’ much to his fans’ disappointment. Although his best known books are probably the earlier ones such as ‘Wild Sheep Chase’ and ‘Norwegian Wood’, one of my favourites is ‘Kafka on the Shore’.

Murakami is a great music fan. A former owner of a Jazz café, music often features in his writing, and as the day of the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature approaches, his fans ( known as Harukists) gather in Jazz bars waiting to celebrate the success of their hero, whilst bookstore owners prepare to stock the shelves only to have to put his books away until the next year. Divine help is also called upon, as some will visit the Hatanomori Hachiman shrine, tucked away in side street close to the National Stadium to pray for the result. Maybe, his next novel and his first for six years, the publication of which (theme  and title unknown) has been announced for 13 April will prove to be the trigger that will bring him and his loyal band of fans the ultimate prize.

A modern day ninja waits for the message to call her into action:

But win or not, I shall certainly buy the English version once published as well as other novels written by a growing list of Japanese authors whose unique style is increasing in popularity and meeting my reading needs as well as filling my bookshelves.