Kyung-sook Shin

Interview with the Award-Winning Author

Kyung-sook Shin is a celebrated author in her native South Korea. She made her literary debut in 1985, winning the Munye Joongang New Author Prize for her novella Winter Fables. She recently came to international attention as a result of her latest book, “Please Look After Mom,” being translated into many languages and set for distribution in 33 countries. The book is about a mother who disappears and the family’s desperate search to find her. It won the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize for 2011, the Asian equivalent of the Man Booker Prize. Both the first Korean and the first woman to win the prize, she beat celebrated Asian authors such as Haruki Murakami and Anuradha Roy. TJ’s Hong Kong correspondent David Nunan caught up with Ms. Shin at the recent Hong Kong International Literary Festival where she was a featured speaker.

After the Inferno

by Donald Richie

In this installment of a series, Donald Richie recalls a poignant post-war moment with Nobel Prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata

It was 1947 and the Sumida River, silver in the winter sun, glistened beneath us. Yasunari Kawabata and I were on the roof of the Asakusa subway terminal tower, looking out over downtown Tokyo, still in ruins, still showing the conflagration of two years earlier, the burned concrete black against the lemon yellow of new wood.

Donald Richie’s Reflections on Novelist, Yasunari Kawabata

by Peter Grilli

Whenever I think of Donald Richie’s early life in Tokyo, somehow the very first image that always springs to mind is of his rooftop conversation with Yasunari Kawabata.

It was a chilly morning in the early spring of 1947. Richie, the tall 23-year-old American GI journalist, dwarfed the frail Japanese novelist, who was older and far wiser, at more than twice his age. They stood high above Asakusa, gazing out over the ruins of a city that the older of the two knew intimately and the younger was just beginning to love.

Time-Outs

Parents have long used “time-outs” as a technique to stop unacceptable behavior; however, time-outs are not just an effective punishment. They also give children an opportunity to calm down and gain self-control.

タイムアウト(今いる場所から強制的に退去させ、別の場所で一定 時間過ごさせること)」は、子供の容認できない行動をやめさせる ために以前から用いられている手法です。単なる“お仕置き”で はなく、気持ちを落ち着かせ自制心を養うチャンスを子供に与えるという 効果があります。

Moments in Construction

by H. Suzuki

TJ: What aspects of photography do you like the most and the least?
SUZUKI: The most – it mirrors the creator. The least: it mirrors the creator. What I like the most is it reflects the thoughts of the photographer. On the other hand, what I like the least is it reflects the thoughts of the creator, despite his or her intention.

You Never Know....

How often do you let people just pass through your life without much notice? Shared time can be anything from a moment, to a few hours or days; like the lady that smiled at you in the store or the man you met at the seminar. The investments we make in these unexpected meetings are often small. It’s common to assume that unexpected meetings will have little or no impact on the sequence of our lives’ events. So why bother? But what if these meetings could change your life? What if an encounter could change your life? If you embraced this idea, would you choose to live differently or greet the people you bump into in a different way?

Home Makeover Spotlight

Exterior: Subtle Sophistication with Asian Elegance

Mangaris Red Hardwood Decking

The Mangaris Red hardwood decking transformed a once bland exterior to a rich, mahogany-colored one, with a matching, Japanese-style gate. Mangaris decking wood was also used to build up the front exterior wall by 18 inches, giving the front yard, pool, and entrance both a higher level of beauty and of privacy.

Yoga & Wellness Advocate

JUDIT TOROK

A regular visitor to Tokyo, New York City- based yoga instructor and interculturalist Judit Torok shares her techniques for alleviating big city stress.

Fight Off Stress with Your Breath

Imagine you have an acquaintance, a person you've known for a long time - perhaps as long as you can remember. He comes to you house any time, uninvited, and stays for as long as he wants. Rude and inconsiderate, he imposes his presence on your life, makes a mess and doesn’t leave. You try to be nice at first and reason with him, but he only gets more annoying with time. You try to ignore him or even pick a fight, but he comes right back again and again. This unwelcome and annoying acquaintance is called stress.

Who owns the corporation?

Former Accenture Chairman Masakatsu Mori shares his 30 years of experience in advising many of Japan’s leading corporations as well as foreign corporations doing business in Japan and beyond.

Anime Los Angeles 2014

Although Anime Expo may be the largest and best-known eastern media convention in North America, there are a multitude of events for lovers of Japanese culture that take place in Southern California. Anime Los Angeles, the first scheduled convention of the year, may be small in terms of attendance and location, but it still draws in 5,000 fans to the LAX Marriott.