#The Easy Life in Kamusari

[smokefalls]

You can’t bring wild things where folks live! Wild is wild, folks are folks. Don’t ever forget we’re visitors on the mountains, or you’ll earn the wrath of the gods.

Shion Miura, The Easy Life in Kamusari (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter)

#Shion Miura #The Easy Life in Kamusari #quote #fiction #ya #2023 reads

[dracereads]

The Easy Life in Kamusari || Shion Miura & Translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had originally intended a very long blurb for this post. However, I felt like I needed to keep this short and sweet. This book will be receiving a rare, full length review in which I talk about it in a little more length.

Anyway, this lovely coming of age novel is about a young man, Yuki Hirano and his struggles to find his place in the world. The novel is filled with vivid, scintillating imagery of mountainous rural japan coupled with heartwarming tales of found family and community. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it was such an absolute pleasure to read. If you want to find more about it and hear me absolutely geek out about it, look forward to the review. If editing Drace gets to this post before it's published, the link will be edited into the post. If not, well. Editing Drace please fix this issue soon! Cheers.

#The Easy Life in Kamusari #shion miura #genre: contemporary #humorous #character driven #asian authors club #taglinemode #comingofage #slowpaced #foundfamily #warm #fluffy #genre: ya

[verisimlitude]

I figure there are a couple of reasons why Kamusari villagers are so easygoing. One is that most of them are involved in forestry, where you have to think in cycles of a century; the other is that there’s no place to hang out at night, so when it gets dark everybody just hits the hay. “Running around won’t make the trees grow faster. Get plenty of rest, eat hearty, and tomorrow take what comes”: that seems to be the prevailing philosophy.

The Easy Life In Kamusari by Shion Miura

#shion miura #the easy life in kamusari #booklr #japanese books #currently reading #comfort books #cozy reads #book quote #prose

[travelingviabooks]

The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“You cant bring wild things where folks live! Wild is wild, folks are folks. Don’t ever forget we’re visitors on the mountains, or you’ll earn the wrath of the gods.”

Genre: fiction, literary, contemporary, young adult

Country: Japan

Review:

I loved this book. I loved the characters. They have an array of different personalities that just work so well together in this book. This book made me laugh, and I learned a little bit about forestry too. It’s fairly slow paced, but I felt that in this case, it made for a relaxing read. This book was just an overall enjoyable read and a much needed break from all the serious books that I’ve read lately. I’ll definitely be picking up a copy of the second book.

Would I recommend this book?: Absolutely!

#bookblr #book review #book reviews #japan #shion miura #the easy life in kamusari

[torakosama]

Reading log for The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura (#2)

For a refresher, please read log #1 here.

Last time, we talked about some of the villagers in Kamusari, but not really in depth - I have a pretty bad memory, so here's a slightly updated take on some of the characters relevant in this update.

Yuki: definitely a young adult with no purpose in life at the moment. We started with him fresh out of high school with the intent to become a freeter. He feels unwelcome in his family, since his mother seems focused on her other son (as I recall) and ships him off to a mountain village.

Yoki: He's a huge, somewhat animalistic man who cheats on his damn wife (which is played for laughs). He likes the forest so much that I'm starting to see why Yuki keeps calling him brutish and animalistic; he really reveres nature.

Seiichi: He owns the forest that Yuki works in. I picture him to be a Tumblr sexyman since he kind of falls in that trope of looking mean, being nice and also being a DILF, since he literally has a son, Santa and a very pretty wife, Risa. (They're not important for this log)

Nao: All I know is that she's very boyish and almost helped Yuki escape. She has not expressed interest in Yuki.

Granny Shige: granny. Sassy. Goes to an old person's home now and then.

Spoilers below!

So if it seems like I'm skipping stuff, that's because I want y'all to read it! Super good stuff. But it's also because I am so bad at remembering stuff. That's why I have a log. It really helps with my fugue. I had to skim through earlier parts to make sure I got it all.

But I think the pertinent things that happen after Santa got spirited away was the winter festival. Saburo essentially goes, "yep same thing happened to me but I don't remember nothing." Yuki is (rightfully) weirded out by how nobody seems to think this is weird. But life goes on. Yuki gets hay fever, goes to the Kamusari Cherry Tree blossom-viewing party after he lays down bridges for people to climb up and Yuki eventually gets drunk, and Nao is thoroughly unimpressed. Yuki thinks he may have fucked up.

So, the snow is melting to spring, Yuki sees fireflies for the first time, and as he's thinking about the fact that Kamusari is boring as hell, Yoki strikes conversation with him. Yoki admits that Kamusari is boring, which is why he fools around on the side. Everyone knows this, including his wife, Miho. Apparently, even a wild man like Yoki hates the easy life here. Yuki reiterates that despite behavior that seems disgusting, it's implied that nobody faults Yoki because he and Miho are still very much in love. He once tried to build a rabbit hutch to satisfy the itch of needing a hobby, which went poorly, so he instead fools around. This is probably why Yuki and Miho are floored by the fireflies in the rice patty.

Granny Shige correctly predicts the death of a man in the old folk's home, and now there's a funeral.

Spoilers over.

This is where I think it's best if I change the formula a bit. Clearly just trying to recall from memory isn't working. I think these logs come off as disjointed. I don't want that! 😵‍💫

From now on, I'm gonna treat this a bit more seriously.

Til next time!

#reading log #the easy life in kamusari

[studywithjennifer]

The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura

Book 35/50 of 2022

Date Finished: 29th April 2022

Rating: 3/5

#cute little book #literature #books #reading #japanese literature #shion miura #the easy life in kamusari #bookblr

[letsstudieren]

So, we just reached the last week of the current book in the english bookclub of seitokai nihongo's server and I liked it, guys, I liked it.

The Easy Life in Kamusari (Forest) is the first book in a series of two, and I'm not really sure that their lives actually qualify as easy, but they certainly know how to enjoy it.

We got to follow the experience of Yuki, who one day was simply shipped lovingly by his parents to work in the mountains at a forestry company. He gets training, lodging, and to be one with nature for a whole year.

I'm not gonna lie, I almost didn't continue after like half a chapter because I wasn't feeling the tone. I have issues when narrators try to talk to potential readers (yes, I can see the hypocrisy, shush). I didn't like the main character --I found him annoying and uninteresting-- and the secondary ones didn't seem great either but it was an easy read and I get fomo, so I kept going. And I'm so glad I did.

The rest of the book is beautiful and magical in the most simple ways. The descriptions of the mountains, the work the characters do year round in the forest, the town traditions, the respect they have for the place, the moments of peace after a hard day's work, and little supernatural surprises sprinkled on top captured me completely. The book became a little peaceful oasis in my week. I am half convinced that I came to love it more and more at the same time as Yuki did, and the more Yuki became accepted by the people surrounding him, the more I started to like them. Author did an amazing job with that, I'm still very impressed.

For such a peaceful book, however, there is quite a bit of action! We have festivals, rituals, searches for missing people, and another major event that had me screaming through chapter four haha. All reflecting on the cycles of life and death in a breathtaking way.

I really enjoyed seeing Yuki grow throughout his year in Kamusari, learning with him, and getting to be reminded about the fact that following a cycle doesn't mean that we stay always the same, we just have to be patient and watch to notice the changes.

I'm not sure how many years it will take me to read the original of this one, but I would enjoy revisiting it when I'm able. Such a nice little place.

#ani reads #japanese books in other languages #the easy life in kamusari (forest) #japanese langblr #if anyone wants to know the one thing I didn't like leave me a message!

[tokidokitokyo]

Can you recommend any Japanese authors? (doesn't matter if they were not translated to English) or list some books (aside from Haruki Murakami) . Thank you

Hi! Thanks for your ask!

I have mostly read Japanese novels in English (time and difficulty constraints). I have read a lot of ancient texts translated into English (The Tale of Genji, The Tale of the Heike, The Hyakunin Isshu, etc.). I can list for you some of the modern novels that I've read, but I don't know what your preference is, and so you ought to read some of the synopses to see if it is something you might like. You can also look for more books by each author I list.

Book Title - Author (First Last) * = I haven't read it but I heard it was good

The Easy Life in Kamusari - Shion Miura

Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto*

Tokyo Ueno Station - Yū Miri

Convenience Store Woman -Sayaka Murata

Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami*

I Am a Cat – Soseki Natsume

There is also this list of Japanese fiction that has been translated into English that might help you on your journey!

#ask answered #anonymous ask #thank you for your ask! #メッセージありがとうございました #japanese book recommendations

[certifiedlibraryposts]

I don't know about you but I looooooove leaving a library with more books than you were expecting, it feels like giving yourself a little present hehe

I went with the intention of just picking up my holds on Men and Arms by Terry Pratchett (Guards! Guards! was so good I'm so excited for this) and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang, two books I've heard very good things about for very different reasons.

On my way to the holds shelf, I saw a book on the display shelves called Sounds Fake But Okay by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca, it's a book about asexuality and aromanticism!! I identify as ace and I nearly cried from happiness seeing it! I've been pretty secure in my identity for a good number of years but it took me a long time to even learn that vocabulary, and some more to realize that it applied to me. Knowing that there are books on it that will just show up right at the front of the library for people to immediately see...that's just so incredibly meaningful to me.

Finally on a whim I decided to stop by the "M" section in fiction to check if they had any of the Locked Tomb books in hope of picking up Nona the Ninth (Sidenote I just finished Harrow the Ninth last night [borrowed from a different library]......yall The Locked Tomb is insane and SO good highly recommend). Sadly they didn't, but! A book called The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shio Miura (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter) caught my eye and I decided to pick that up as well without knowing anything about it. As I can recall I've never read a book translated from a different language before, so I'm very interested to check this one out!

I might have to renew a few of these before I get all the way through, but such is life. I'd always love to hear any of your good library finds!

#certified library posts

[worldwithinworld]

For the Book Asks, 1, 3, 5, and 12, please?

Thanks for asking!

(I didn't anticipate how hard this would be. I don't do the weekly posts of entertainment I enjoyed anymore, and I don't use Goodreads or any other book tracking. Never really saw the point before this moment now that I'm having trouble remembering what all I've read this year. I can remember if I've read a book, but remembering when I read it is harder. But I'll try my best.)

#1. Best book you have read in 2023 so far: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (This is one of those books that I'd been meaning to read for many years. I finally got to it and loved it. It's not just a good book; it's a good book for me. Based on what I knew about it, I expected I'd like it a lot, and it totally delivered.)

#3. A new release you want to check out: The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray (It's a sequel to The Murder of Mr. Wickham, a murder mystery featuring a bunch of Jane Austen characters, and a couple of very charming original characters who team up to investigate the murder. I greatly enjoyed the first book. Claudia Gray has never let me down.)

#5. Biggest disappointment: The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura (This book was about a young guy beginning a career in forestry. It wasn't really disappointing, because I got it for free and went into the book without many expectations. I picked it for this question because it was the book I liked the least so far this year. It was okay though, and I finished it even though I took a break to read a different book. I may even check out the sequel at some point. The characters often felt unrealistic, but there was enough interesting stuff to it.)

#12. A book you need to read by the end of the year: Murtagh by Christopher Paolini (I wasn't quite sure how to answer this one. "Most anticipated book release" was a different question. I have a lot of books I want to read, but this says "need" like it's an assignment, and that's how this book feels to me. Not that I "need" to read it. I no longer feel compelled to finish books and series that I don't even like much, but I did have that problem in the past. It's what pushed me to read all 4 of those stupid Inheritance books even though the series just kept getting worse. The only thing that I liked about the last book was Murtagh's story. So when I found out another one was coming out, my first thought was, "Definitely won't be reading that!" And then I saw the title. That complicated things. Has Paolini finally figured out what was good about his books (what little there was)? Has he improved as a writer? I will find out! I will read this book this year, though I make no promise to finish! In fact, I promise to quit it if it doesn't show promise very early on in the story.)

This was fun! (I hope you don't take offense if you're a Paolini fan.)

#books #valiantarcher

[jpf-sydney]

The Easy Life in Kamusari

Book review:

Somewhat predictable but still an immensly charming forestchange bildungsdroman.

Nonplussed by mediocre results, fresh high school graduate and Yokohama city-boy, Yuki Hirano is unperturbed by his lack of career prospects. The same cannot be said for his parents and a teacher who saw this coming a mile off. Somehow, they have conspired to register Yuki into a forestry trainee program in a far-off, barely accessible village. It would be assumed that Yuki might have a dissenting say but a little blackmail and household severance later and he has been packed off on his way. This happens within the first 5 pages.

This short novel is written in first person from the perspective of Yuki. Typing away his boredom into a primitive offline PC, he recounts his adventures after having worked and survived a year in his new home. Besides the exponential learning curve of skilled manual labour, each moment is filled with new experiences from the bucolic, near alien traditions and customs observed by the village to the different aspects of natural scenery that abounds. 

Just when the pattern of work and festivals might be starting to wear thin comes the climactic event. Every 48 years the village observes a special ceremony and chooses a 1000 year old tree to fell. Normally a prohibited action but one that the village has been granted dispensation for. Not that cutting the tree down after hiking up a mountainside in the dark and cold is the main difficulty. There is the dubious reassurance that only 8 people have died in the event's recorded history.

This story has been adapted into the magnificently titled WOOD JOB! It featured in the 2014 Japanese Film Festival and the odd special screening at our centre. The original novel differs from the theatrical film but the underlying theme and unique setting make the two versions unmistakably the same story. Besides being packed with scenery candy, the fact the film exists means that the climax does too and the nigh unfilmable ending stunt is given a remarkable realisation. Those who enjoyed The Easy Life in Kamusari but felt it could do with fleshing out are apparently numerous enough as there is now a sequel Kamusari Tales Told at Night still narrated by the fish out of water Yuki.

Shelf: 913.6 MIU [Kamusari nānā nichijō. English]. The easy life in Kamusari. Shion Miura ; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Seattle, Wash. : Amazon Crossing, 2021. ISBNs: 9781542027151 (hardcover) ; 9781542027168 (paperback)

189 pages ; 21 cm. (In the forest series)

Originally published in Japan in 2012 as “Kamusari nānā nichijō” by Tokuma Shoten.

Translated into English from the Japanese.

#review #jcentral #fiction #coming of age #bildungsroman #forestry #eco-tourism #folklore #shinto #sustainability #comedy #diary #miura shion #review 2023 10 #new 2023 10 #light novel

[smokefalls]

Title: The Easy Life in Kamusari Author: Shion Miura Translator: Juliet Winters Carpenter Publication Year of Translation: 2021 Publisher: Amazon Crossing Genre: fiction, YA

As the title suggests, this coming-of-age novel was easygoing, following Yuki Hirano to the mountains of Japan. Yuki is incredibly displeased that he has to leave his comfortable city life because his parents signed him up for a forestry training program, but eventually discovers the joys of the Kamusari villagers' lifestyle and principles.

This was somewhat of a predictable novel, but it was a comforting and illuminating read that was reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films. (I especially think of Isao Takahata's films more than Miyazaki's, to be honest.) Comforting, in the sense that you get the small joys in life that are so often highlighted. Illuminating, in the sense that you get insight into a deeply important subculture of Japan.

I will say that I was a little annoyed with how forgiving people were of a side character's infidelity. I was also a bit taken aback when I saw that a prize for one festival was the chance to sleep with any woman in the village (even if this isn't enforced). I suppose this might speak to a remote village's old-fashioned beliefs/customs, but these were my main issues.

Content Warning: fire, infidelity, death

#Shion Miura #The Easy Life in Kamusari #book review #fiction #ya #2023 reads #booklr

[dracereads]

The Easy Life in Kamusari

Drace's Star Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Like I had originally mentioned in the blurb, I actively could not shut up about this book. There was so much I wanted to touch on and use my words to explore with this book because it was actually super touching and gave me a great sense of relief to read it!

Getting Some Sense of it: If you've ever seen my first ACNH Island, the occult, it's not a big secret that I have a huge crush on rural aesthetics*, especially that of rural Japan. While doing research for the Occult, I spent a good amount of time gobbling up documentaries, travel blogs & vlogs, books, and about anything that I could to just be inspired. It's been a longstanding goal of mine to do an apprenticeship in the Japan at some point in my life to one day fulfill my dream of being a Tea Master / Tea Sommelier. COVID and my personal health has put a huge damper on this dream of mine, but ya'know. It doesn't mean I still can't dream about it while reading. Anyway, I was flipping through the Amazon Prime Reads while I was at work, and I happened upon this lovely little gem. I 100% started to read it between waiting tables**, and I just could NOT put it down or stop. I was super into it. I definitely got two hours of sleep because I tried to finish this book in between a closing shift and a turnaround. The context I provided above is probably ultimately why, but at the same time, it has an atmospheric vibe and cadence that lends itself to being extremely interesting. Synopsis: The premise du jour of the book is the main character, Yuki Hirano, is pushed into joining the Green Initiative in Japan by his parents who are kicking him out of their house immediately after high-school. The Green Initiative is a way to re-introduce people to dying rural industries. Yuki so happens to get stuck into the Forestry sector, and without a choice he is whisked away by a family member to the train station and sent to a remote location known as Kamusari Village.

The book is all about his struggle to find his place in the world, and decide if this life he was practically foisted into is really something he can be proud of. Along the way you meet an absolutely HILARIOUS cast of (somewhat feral) characters, and get drawn into the local culture just as he is. What I really love about this book is that it is extremely well-paced. As you're learning information and themes, you're met with lovely imagery and absolute shenanigans. The book knows how to tell you a good story, and knows when to let your mind have a breath of air and a break with a slow but AMAZING mental imagery of a backdrop of remote wilderness. The characters: So the narrator of this tale is Yuki Hirano. He's a freshly graduated young adult at the age of 18. He's a bit on the cowardly side, and just seems to be all around awkward and shy. His spinelessness is something he rags on about himself, but he's very good-nature and ruefully goofy, which gives him an endearing and down to earth vibe. He has a lot of growing and coming to terms with certain things in this book to do, but he takes to the task quite well.

The Nakamura Lumber Boys: Yoki will get his own mention in a second, so set aside our lovable wild-man for a second. The entire team of Nakamura lumber from the wild boar man, to the elders who spend time with Yuki teaching and boosting his confidence are such a good band of characters. They all have their drawbacks and faults, but they do their best to show their good nature to the very strange boy who most of them have determined won't actually be staying in Kamusari very long. That doesn't deter them from trying to persuade him to stay though. Yoki: Yoki is the character that Yuki seems to be in the most conflict of at the beginning, but by the end the two of them are extremely close. Yoki may be an expert at all things forestry related, but he is absolutely shit at keeping himself in check as a human being. This brings a very humorous balance to the very one-sided relationship at the very beginning. It helps Yuki to humanize Yoki a lot. (Even though Yoki's problems are to his own admission-- his fault.) Yuki gets along well with Yoki's wife (to the point where they would be on best-level in the best book) and his grandmother, Shige, has adopted Yuki as her second grandchild. The Plot: The plot is basically snippets of Yuki's first year in Kamusari, told as a reflective journal. He calls himself out for his own cowardice and lines of thinking, reflecting on the growth he's done as a person while recalling the most vivid and life-changing experiences he lived through during his year in Kamusari. The whole point of him working on this journal was for him to ultimately decide whether or not he wanted to continue on as a forester in the new life provided for him.

Some of My Drawbacks: My only issue with it is that this is definitely a Y.A. book. The author, Shion Miura, has a collection of different works in relations to jobs and professions of Japan. She is an absolute wizard at being able to craft lovely tales of people living their everyday lives and is amazingly good at imparting the Japanese Pride in Traditionalism. Because of this, Kamusari is 100% geared at younger readers, and has a goal of inspiring and gently nudging the reluctant to look into doing something that inspires them. It's pro-capitalistic propaganda for sure. [Future Drace, if you can find that Let's Ask Shogo about Japan's work culture again, please link it here. If not Drace, I'll update it if the link is provided. I would rather it be Shogo or a reputable source please. ] Overall Impression & Score: Nuances of social issues aside, Good book is good people. Anything that inspires me to read well into the night and to the detriment of my own health will usually get glowing praise. Whether or not other people will get the same sort of elated buzz I did out of it is another story, but. for me solid 5/5***. Honestly, writing this review felt like a nice good leg stretch. I edited together a lot of broken tangents from the original blurb, and I think I have this settled. I am not sure if I will be doing a full length or blurb for the second book in the Kamusari series, Tales Told at Night... However, I will probably do a series wrap because I think Kamusari is the first series that I have finished blogging through. As always, if you stuck around to the end of my blathering, I really appreciate it!

Footnotes section: *I think my particular aesthetic niche is called "Mori", based off of MoriGIRL. Do not Quote Me as being anywhere near correct or an authority (**Aside: For those of you that are aware, yes, I am a Kitchen Manager. However, that does not mean that I do not possess the ability to wait on tables and occasionally get dragged out of the devil's den to go make nice with the guests. It's extremely rare, but it does happen! ) ***Go Read some of the reviews on Amazon. My favorite is the person who asked "didthe authordo any research on living in Japan before writing this because it seems so unrealistic and under-researched" I like. laughed for twenty minutes.

#the easy life in kamusari #the review

[letsrilakkusu-blog]

A Little Life, a lot of pain

I'm late to the party, but I just finished reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and wow, I am not okay. I'm restarting this blog solely because I need a space to talk about it.

I struggled to keep up with my reading last year because I chose several books that ended up being less than stellar. To start off 2023, I was between A Little Life and Kamusari Tales Told at Night, the follow-up to The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura. Although daunting in subject matter and length, I went with A Little Life because I figured it was better to start with a heavy book and have a lighter book ready in the reserves for after.

- SPOILERS AHEAD -

I had a vague idea of the plot, only that it followed a group of four friends and that there were a lot of trigger warnings involved. The book starts off innocently enough with the four vastly different but incredibly close guys trying to make it in New York City. Soon it takes a turn to focus on Jude though, and the deeper into his past and psyche we go, the darker it gets. My heart broke and kept on breaking with Jude's every memory detailing abuse of every kind imaginable, his every self-inflicted wound, his every revelation about what an abomination he is and how little he is worth, despite all of the evidence to prove otherwise.

I don't know what I was expecting - the cover photo says a lot, and once the novel does its first shift in perspective to Harold speaking to Willem, in which he seems to speak of Jude as though he is no longer there, I had an inkling of how it would end. Still, I somehow deluded myself multiple times into thinking that maybe, just maybe, the story wasn't going to end with Jude killing himself. And I think the reason why is because the joyous moments of Jude's life - the times spent with his friends-turned-family, Harold and Julia's decision to adopt him, the start of his romantic relationship with Willem, which I had hoped for from the beginning but didn't actually believe would happen - were so unbelievably poignant and beautiful, how could I not wish for a happier, or at least less tragic, ending for this character that has been through so much and deserves every happiness bestowed upon him and more? It's like I was reading a marathon in which I thought that if I got through a particularly bad section (his relationship with Caleb, his memories of Brother Luke and Dr. Traylor), I would be rewarded with a brief respite, a tender moment that would make my heart soar and tears well up in my eyes. It was only after Willem's death, which sucker-punched me in the gut out of nowhere, that I realized I had probably reached the point of no return. Still, I barrelled toward the end, sobbing, hoping, pleading just like Jude's loved ones, and when the end result was what I had originally dreaded, I was left shocked but not shocked, helpless, and empty.

While the story completely wrecked me, I believe that it is a very realistic portrayal of trauma and recovery, and the effects they have on not just the person experiencing it, but those around them. Trauma is deeply personal and isolating. Recovery is not linear, but a lifelong process through which you are never truly “healed”. Sometimes love is just not enough. It wasn't enough for Jude to overcome his fear and hate of sex, and it wasn't enough to keep him going once he lost Willem. I felt that I as a reader was getting pulled along with the same emotions as those around Jude. I grew uneasy every time he withdrew into himself, I felt complacent and accepting when his situation was not better but at least stagnant, I celebrated every triumph, and I found myself holding my breath, waiting, for the day we all knew was inevitable but had fervently wished would never come.

I'm not sure if I would recommend A Little Life to others, especially if I'm not familiar with their tolerance for such heavy topics and themes. Despite that, it's making a strong case for being one of the most amazing books I've ever read, and it will sit with me for a long time to come. It was painful, at times almost too much to bear. But balancing out the pain were the truly beautiful moments of pure joy, the unconditional love and friendship, the things that make our little lives a little better.

#a little life #hanya yanigahara

[lover-of-the-starkindler]

Currently...

tagged by @castingmysilver - thank you!

Favorite color: blue, all shades, any shade (do I love the color of the sky? yes)

Currently reading: The Easy Life In Kamusari by Shion Miura: fiction about a young Japanese man who is sent to learn forestry in rural Japan, it’s half coming-of-age, half falling in love with people and place; The Scarred Mage of Roseward trilogy by Sylvia Mercedes: a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a lighthouse on an island floating in a magical sea, where Beauty is a thief and the Beast is both a prisoner and a warden against a nightmare; Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum: non-fiction

Last song: Revive Us Again was the last hymn we sang in church this morning <3 <3 <3

Last series: I suppose it’s a toss-up between the fact that I rewatched ‘The Bank Shot Job’ (Leverage) the other day, and ‘The Heist’ and ‘Trumbo’s World’ (MacGyver) awhile back...

Last movie: The Hiding Place (1975)

Sweet/savory/spicy: I’m craving chocolate, so... sweet, I suppose

Currently working on: My to-do list that includes a sweater (it’s soooooo close to being done, if only I sit down to do the thing XD ), TSE appreciation week (I made a list!!), a lot of unwanted weeds, and some work-related stuff + the usual random inspiration strikes that may or may not produce anything at all

#a side of smart alec and a pinch of honesty

[torakosama]

Hello and welcome to my reading log for The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura! (Log #1)

So my rental for Discworld lapsed (oops), and I've been busy job hunting but I forgot I had this book, The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura, in my possession. Being a weeb, naturally it grabbed me. Funny enough, I accidentally picked up the sequel first, and as neurotic as I am, I had to get the first in the series. And thus, we're here.

I've already gotten a good way into the book and it's shaping up to be a bildungsroman (this is a new word for me, so I hope I'm applying it correctly). Yuki, our protagonist, reminds me a lot of me in some ways; he's not interested in doing anything, and is just kind of meandering. One day, his mom signed him up for a forestry job without his knowledge or consent. He feels ready to flee the first chance he gets, and I can empathize. And among the first things that happens is that he realizes he's in the boonies and can't leave. He's learning to love the trees and the forest and the little mountain village of Kamusari, but he's still pretty naive. I've finished chapters 1 and 2 (I'm already about 40% through the book) and so far, it seems like there's more going on than just a freeter learns to like trees.

Characters of note:

Yuki: protag. Doesn't like Kamusari at first but is writing a diary about his days there.

Yoki: big logger man who loves his job. Has a wife named Miho but he cheats on her with girls in the city.

Old Man Saburo: can't quite pin down his character yet but he's safely one of the oldheads in the village. Definitely a wellspring of knowledge.

Iwao: I'm not sure about his character either but he's younger than Saburo. If this were a family, Saburo would be something like a granddad and Iwao would be the dad while Yoki is the uncle.

Seiichi: the owner of the coop that Yuki is working at. Very cool demeanor and down to earth. The ideal business owner that actually gets his hands dirty from time to time. If we continued with thr family analogy, I say he'd be the family friend who's an honorary uncle.

Santa: not like Kris Kringle, his name's kinda something like "mountain man. (I have trouble reading his name as you would in Japanese, but I got used to it.) Seiichi's kid. Sweet boy, very cute.

Nao: so far, she's just a wild child love interest.

Granny Shige: I just like her. Sassy grandma.

Spoilers ahead!!

So, already, Yuki is falling for Nao, potentially has seen a god and Santa has been spirited away (he comes back). The people of Kamusari are religious and superstitious in some ways. I can't help but feel like there's more to it than just Yuki living as a lumberjack in the mountains. He claims to have seen a mystery woman while up on a tree and after that, one of the village children, son of the big boss, is missing and found way out there in a place he couldn't have gotten to without help. Yuki, Saburo, Seiichi, Iwao and Saburo don some ceremonial clothes and as they climb the mountain, they bang gongs and shout for Santa, who does turn up. Santa claims to have been following two mysterious ladies and after a few days, everyone just moved on from that.

Spoilers over.

So, that's life so far in Kamusari. Very full of log cutting, Yuki becoming one with nature and apparently god shenanigans. I'm gonna finish up the next chapter or two before moving on. Really digging this so far!

Please pick this one up. It seems that it's not particularly popular, but it is fairly new to the English-speaking audience. Thanks for reading!

#reading log #shion miura #the easy life in kamusari