Planning a trip to Japan and looking for a book set in the country?

Or do you just want to dip your toes into Japanese literature and need some ideas about what to read?

In this post, I’m going to share with you my honest and unbiased review of 34 of my favorite and not-so-favorite novels about Japan and Japanese culture.  Hopefully, this list will help you decide which books to read, borrow, or skip.

So grab some tea and a good book and let’s escape to Japan!

By the way, if you’re traveling to Japan soon, check out my Japan itinerary post and my post on how to see Tokyo in four days.

You can also find more of my book lists from around the world HERE!

Japan Books by Contemporary Japanese Authors

This section includes books written by Japanese authors after 1980.

1. What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

By Michiko Ayama (2023)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

“Everybody is connected. And any one of their connections could be the start of a network that branches in many directions. If you wait for the right time to make connections, it might never happen, but if you show your face around, talk to people and see enough to give you the confidence that things could work out, then ‘one day’ might turn into ‘tomorrow.’”

What You Are Looking for is in the Library is a fun and light read set in contemporary Japan. It is perfect for before, during, or after your trip to Japan.

The book centers around a neighborhood library in Tokyo and the reference librarian named Sayuri Komachi. Each chapter follows the life of a different person from the neighborhood. They are all dissatisfied with their lives and end up at the library looking for answers to what’s wrong with them. They find their answers in a book recommended by Sayuri. This book changes each person’s life.

It’s just a fun and feel-good book about the importance of finding purpose in life and the happiness that comes from doing something you love. If the book had been set in the U.S., I might have found it too sappy for my taste. However, its Japanese setting made it seem sweet and unique.

If you’re looking for a book to take with you on the plane to Japan, What You Are Looking for in the Library is a good choice.

2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold

By Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2020)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“With the coffee in front of her, she closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. It was her moment of happiness.”

Let’s start with the setting: a 100-year-old coffee shop in a basement in a back alley in central Tokyo. Despite not being air-conditioned, the coffee shop never feels hot, even during the unbearably hot Tokyo summers. It’s always comfortably cool.

That’s not all that’s strange about the place. It’s a small shop with only three tables and three bar seats. However, one chair at one table has special powers to transport people into the past or the future. Unfortunately, you must follow a few rules. The most important rule is that you must finish drinking the coffee before it gets cold.

Each chapter tells the story of a customer entering the coffee shop and traveling backward or forward in time.

I enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold and liked the very Japanese themes and characters. The anti-feminist features of each story might turn some readers off. For me, I found that they helped me understand Japanese culture more.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is the first in a series of four books following the same kind of time-traveling coffee shop. I’ve only read this one and started listening to the audiobook of the third one in the series Before Your Memory Fades. The audio version is good.

3. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

By Satoshi Yagisawa (2023)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

“It’s only in secondhand books that you can savor encounters like this, connections that transcend time. And that’s how I learned to love the secondhand bookstore that handled these books, our Morisaki Bookshop. I realized how precious a chance I’d been given, to be a part of that little place where you can feel the quiet flow of time.”

Out of all the books on this list, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, gave me the greatest sense of wanderlust. Before  I even finished it, I wanted to hop on a plane to Tokyo and find the Jimbocho neighborhood, the bookshop-lined Yasukuni Street, and the Morisaki Bookshop.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has just broken up with her boyfriend and quit her job. Hearing about her unemployment and broken heart, Takako’s eccentric Uncle Satoru invites her to stay in the studio apartment above his bookshop in exchange for help running the shop.

Takako arrives barely able to get out of bed and uninterested in life, especially books. One night, unable to sleep, she picks up a book. She falls in love with reading, and her life literally changes overnight. Books connect her to the people of Jimbochi and she sees the neighborhood in a whole new light. Most of all, they heal her broken heart.

The book shines in the world it creates – the bookshop and the neighborhood of Jimbocho. Jimbocho is an area of Tokyo famous for its bookshops, especially secondhand ones. The streets are lined iwth bookshops.

A sequel is coming out later in 2024 (More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop) and I’m eager to read it.

I liked Morisaki Bookshop more than Before the Coffee Gets Cold and What Are You Looking for in the Library.

4. Breasts and Eggs

By Mieko Kawakami (2020)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

“Writing makes me happy. But it goes beyond that. Writing is my life’s work. I am absolutely positive that this is what I’m here to do. Even if it turns out that I don’t have the ability, and no one out there wants to read a single word of it, there’s nothing I can do about this feeling. I can’t make it go away.”

Mieko Kawakami is one of Japan’s most popular contemporary writers. Her most famous book, Breasts and Eggs, is one of my top five favorite books set in Japan.

It’s a good book for those who want to delve into women’s issues in Japan. 

The book is about three women: Natsu (the narrator), her sister Makiko, and Makiko’s 12-year-old daughter, Midoriko. Natsu is a single, 30-year-old struggling writer living in Tokyo. Makiko is an equally struggling 39-year-old single mother who works as a bar hostess.

Breasts and Eggs is divided into 2 parts. In part 1, Makiko and Midoriko visit Natsu in Tokyo. Makiko is obsessed with getting her breasts enhanced and her daughter with having her period. Part 2 takes place ten years later and focuses on Natsu’s obsession with getting pregnant. She visits Makiko and Midoriko in Osaka.

The book is about women and their relationships with their bodies: their breasts, their periods, their sexual desires, and their fertility. 

This book is excellent for those who like interesting characters and relationships. The story is a good look into what it’s like being a woman in Japanese society, yet women from many cultures can relate to the themes. It’s also a good book for anyone who wants to see a more working-class, less affluent side of Japan. 

5. Convenience Store Woman

By Sayaka Murata (2018)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Convenience Store Woman is a beautiful, weirdly wonderful, sweet novel! It’s sad, funny, and dark. I loved it so much that I spent a sunny Saturday afternoon on the couch reading it until I reached the end.

Keiko Furukura never fit in until she turned 18 and got a job at a convenience store. There, she found purpose and happiness. Through the employee manual, she finally understood the rules of social interaction.

However, she’s now 36, and her friends and family are pressuring her to conform to society’s definition of an acceptable life: Find a boyfriend, no matter how much of a loser he is, and find a real career, no matter how unhappy it would make her.

Why I loved this book: Keiko is a wonderfully sympathetic character. She represents all the misfits of the world who don’t conform to what society considers acceptable or successful. A great story with a profound message about conformity.

6. The Nakano Thrift Shop

By Hiromi Kawakami (2017)

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I picked up Nakano Thrift Shop because I enjoyed another book the author had written, Strange Weather in Tokyo. However, it wasn’t as good.

The narrator is Hitomi, a young woman working at the Nakano Thrift Shop. We don’t learn much else about her; she is kind of an empty figure in the novel. We never find out how she got to the gift shop or why she’s working there.

Instead, we learn a lot about the other endearing and oddball characters who work and shop at the secondhand shop.

It’s an okay book about Japan. The characters are interesting, but not much happens, and the story kind of goes nowhere.

7. Strange Weather in Tokyo

By Hiromi Kawakami (2017)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Strange Weather in Tokyo is a poignant novel about loneliness and love.

Its main characters are 38-year-old Tsukiko and retired school teacher Sensei, who meet in a neighborhood bar and eventually fall in love. The twist is that Tsukiko was Sensei’s student 25 years ago.

This is a very Japanese novel: the rituals, the social taboos of two differently aged people falling in love, the lack of directness and frankness that leaves so much unsaid, and the wonderful food and drink.

This novel is full of insights into Japanese culture and cuisine. It makes the perfect book to read while traveling in Japan..

8. Kitchen

By Banana Yashimoto (1987)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I’ve actually read Kitchen twice, which I don’t normally do. However, in preparation for my trip to Japan, I wanted a novel that wasn’t written by a man. At that time, there were few Japanese books written by women. Now, you can find a lot of good books by Japanese women.

The book is about Mikage, a young Japanese woman whose grandmother passes away. She moves in with a friend and his mother who help her deal with the loss. Her friends and the kitchen become her comfort and the center of her recovery.

Reading it a second time was a more meaningful experience than my first time. When I read it last year, my father had just passed away, so I could relate to what the character was going through.

It’s a good book about Japan that can give you a glimpse into the Japanese way of dealing with grief. It’s very short and easy to read.

9. Tokyo Ueno Station

By Yu Miri (2015, 2020)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

• Winner of the 2020 National Book Award in Translated Literature
• A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

If you’re planning on visiting Tokyo, read Tokyo Ueno Station. Most visitors notice only the fun and flashy side of Tokyo—neon lights, anime and cosplay, sushi and ramen, and its efficiency and cleanliness. This book will get you to notice the other side of Japan—the homeless, poverty, inequality, and loneliness, giving you a richer and more meaningful travel experience in Japan.

The story is about a homeless man named Kazu whose ghost wanders around Ueno Station and Park, overhearing snatches of conversations from park visitors and inhabitants and reminiscing about his life.

As Kazu’s ghost roams Ueno, he reminisces about his hard life, growing up poor in a small town near Fukushima, moving to Tokyo, and then becoming homeless.

Kazu also tells you how the homeless survive in Japan. Sometimes they are treated with kindness (restaurants and convenience stores), while other times with cruelty (sadistic school children).

Tokyo Ueno Station gets you thinking about how much luck and fate have to do with what happens to people. Why are some people luckier than others? Is it their fate? Bad decisions? Karma?  Buddhism plays a significant role in the book as Kazu’s family is deeply religious.

10. Go: A Coming-of-Age Novel

By Kazuki Kaneshiro (2018)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Go: A Coming of Age Novel, a book about a Zainichi (the word used for a Korean-born, raised, and living in Japan) teenager named Sugihara.

It’s a coming-of-age story about a teenager searching for identity and love. Alongside the story is an examination of what it means to be Korean in Japan, the attitudes and prejudices of the Japanese toward Koreans, and the attitudes and prejudices of Koreans toward Japanese.

You can also find this book on my best books on Korea list.

11. The Housekeeper and the Professor

By Yoko Ogawa (2009)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Housekeeper and the Professor is a heart-warming and poignant story about an unlikely friendship between a mathematics professor, his housekeeper, and her son.

The professor lost his memory years ago in a car accident. He can only remember his life before the day of his accident in 1975 and the last eighty minutes of his present life. Every eighty minutes his memory is erased.

The housekeeper is a single-parent with a ten-year-old son who is named Root by the professor because the shape of his head is like the square root.

It’s a good story, and the characters are sweet. 

12. The Memory Police

By Yoko Ogawa (1994, 2019)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Memory Police was my favorite novel of 2020. This is a Japanese dystopian novel. It was originally written in 1994 but not translated into English until 2019.

On an unnamed Japanese island, objects keep on disappearing. One day, a ribbon. The next, birds, calendars, and fruit. For some people, once the objects disappear, they lose all memory of them ever having existed. For others, the memories never disappear, and they live in fear that the Memory Police will discover their ability to remember.

This haunting novel reminded me of Murakami’s weirdness, Orwell’s dystopian world, and Anne Frank’s fears. In fact, Anne Frank’s diaries deeply influenced the author when she was younger. According to an interview the author had with Motoko Rich for the New York Times, her library is full of books on the Holocaust.

13. Where the Wild Ladies Are

By Aoko Matsuda, 2016

Translated by Polly Barton

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Looking for some witty feminist short stories set in Japan?

In Where the Wild Ladies Are, Aoko Matsudo takes traditional Japanese folktales and retells them with a modern, female-empowering twist. In her stories, women are not to be feared or suppressed but instead celebrated and empowered.

Thanks to National Public Radio’s characterization of the book as a collection of ghost stories, I bought it thinking it was going to be a good read for Halloween. These are NOT scary stories. There are ghosts and spirits in them, but they’re very tame.

The book gave me some insight into what Japanese women deal with in today’s world.  In “A Fox’s Life,” an older woman learns not to hide the fact that she’s more intelligent and faster than all her male colleagues and classmates.

The back of the book contains a useful summary of the original folktales. It will help you better understand Matsudo’s version.

 Some of the stories are wonderful; others are duds.

14. The Devotion of Suspect X

By Keigo Hagashino (2011)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Devotion of Suspect X is a bit different from most mysteries. In most, you don’t know who the killer is, but in this one, the killer is revealed from the very beginning. As a result, you might think that it would lack suspense. But that is not the case! There’s lots of it! The suspense is in seeing whether or not the killer and her accomplice can get away with the murder. I was rooting for them to succeed. There is also an unexpected twist at the end. Different but enjoyable.

I think this book can give you some insights into how the Japanese view single mothers, spousal abuse, police procedures, and the life of bar hostesses.

I’ve read several of Keigo Higashino’s mysteries. This book is his best.

15. The Mill House Murders

By Yukito Ayatsuji (2023)

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

If you want a Japanese mystery with the flavor of an Agatha Christie novel, then one of the books in the Bizarre House series is a good choice. I’ve only read the second one, The Mill House Murders. Although the book alludes to events in the first book, you don’t need to read the series in order to understand what’s going on.

Every year, a group of art enthusiasts visits the bizarre Water Mill House and its reclusive owner, Fujinuma Kiichi. Kiichi wears a mask and gloves due to an accident that disfigured his face.

The group comes each year to look at the art of Kiichi’s father, a famous painter. After his accident, Kiichi bought up all of his father’s works of art and hid them away in his house. This yearly ritual is the only time outsiders get to see the paintings.

However, the past two years’ visits have turned bizarre, with a stolen painting and a series of murders all taking place on stormy nights.

Luckily, an amateur detective shows up during the second year to solve the mystery.

A good mystery novel should be solvable if the reader pays attention and follows the clues. In this one, I was able to solve it right before the detective revealed the murderer.

Books by Haruki Murakami

These are some of my favorite books by Haruki Murakami. You can also visit a post on my ranking of all the Murakami books I’ve read (many are not on this list).  

16. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

By Haruki Murakami (2014)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

For those of you who want to read Murakami but don’t want the magical realism, the weird sex, and the weird characters, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is a great option.

I loved the book! It’s actually my second favorite Murakami book, probably because I’m not a fan of magical realism and this book doesn’t have any. Also, the plot involves a mystery (not the murder kind of mystery), and I love mysteries. Plus, the main character is relatable—at least to me he was.

Tsukuru Tazaki is a train station engineer living in Tokyo. He’s somewhat of a loner who has had a lot of bad luck with relationships (romantic and platonic). The story centers around a mystery: why did his four best high school friends suddenly ostracize him?

It’s a sad book with an interesting look at modern-day Tokyo.

17. Kafka on the Shores

By Haruki Murakami (2005)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

18. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles

Haruki Murakami

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is another good book for Murikami virgins or anyone looking for a second book by the author with lots of magical realism and weird characters. I found it to be more grounded and more relatable than Kafta on the Shores.

Uninspired by his career and unambitious in general, Toru quits his job. His wife, Kumiko, tells him, “Hey, no problem. I’ll work long hours to support the both of us.” He spends his days making sandwiches, lying on the couch listening to music, perusing the want-ads, looking for their lost cat, chatting it up with a weird neighbor, and waiting for Kumiko to come home.

Meanwhile, Kumiko is coming home later and later. She drops hints that Toru doesn’t really know her, and basically gives him the old “I-have-a-headache” excuse. Before Toru realizes it, his wife has left him. No note. Nothing.

Toru’s heartbroken but determined to win her back. First, though, he must find the cat, uncover the hidden history of Japan during World War II and Kumiko’s sinister brother, and solve the mystery of the abandoned house.

I’ve read the book twice. The first time I didn’t finish it. The magical realism was too much for me. The second time, I liked it, and I couldn’t get the story out of my mind even long after I finished it. The weird stuff that happens has an underlying meaning. If you can catch the meaning behind everything, I think you’ll like the book more.

I’d read Wind-Up over Kafka on the Shore.

19. Norwegian Wood

By Haruki Murakami (2010)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Norwegian Wood is my favorite Murakami novel. There’s no magical realism or outrageously weird characters.

The book is set in Tokyo in the 1960s. Toru Watanabe is a first-year university student. He doesn’t fit in with any group at his university.

The novel focuses on his complicated relationships with two women: the troubled and mentally unstable Naoko and the outgoing and opinionated Midori. He’s torn between his feelings for both women.

The writing is beautiful, the dialogue is witty, and the characters are wonderfully developed.

20. Sputnik Sweetheart

By Haruki Murakami (2001)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Another terrific novel by Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart is a story about unrequited love. It’s not as normal as Norwegian Wood but also not as weird as Kafka on the Shore.

K falls madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but she doesn’t love him in the same way. Her first love is her writing. That is until she meets an older woman whom she feels madly in love with. However, Miu doesn’t have the same feelings for Sumire. When Sumire vanishes from a Greek island, K drops everything to go look for her.

The writing is good, the characters are interesting, and the characters are well-developed.

21. 1Q84

By Haruki Murakami (2011)

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Do not make 1Q84 your first Murakami novel. At over 1,100 pages, it’s too long and too convoluted.

The book’s chapters alternate between the two main characters’ (Aomame and Tengo) stories. Aomame, a physical trainer, enters an alternate reality called 1Q84 (it’s the year 1984). Meanwhile, Tengo becomes immersed in a fraudulent ghostwriting project that changes his life forever. As the story progresses, their two lives converge.

The book has Murakami’s usual cast of eccentric characters: a wealthy dowager who protects battered women, a dyslexic and cryptic teenage girl, a Russian literature-quoting bodyguard/assassin, a mysterious cult leader, some creepy little people, a tenacious NHK fee collector, and best of all a clever but physically repulsive investigator.

The first half of the book is so good that I zipped through it. I was head over heels in love with Aomame and Tengo—I loved them! There are lots of weird people and events, but they add to the mystery of the plot.

Then, at the 50% mark, the book takes a turn for the worse. Holes start appearing in the plot. The weirdness goes into hyperdrive. The story becomes so far-fetched and illogical that I stop caring what happens to Aomame and Tengo. I hated the direction the book took.

If you’ve read one or two other Murakami books, then by all means, jump into this 1,100-page mess. Some readers love it, but others agree with me.

Books on Japan by Foreign Authors

This section covers books set in Japan that were written by non-Japanese writers.

22. American Fuji

By Sara Backer (2002)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

How much do I love this book?

I’ve read American Fuji four times. It’s maybe my favorite book on Japan. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that, like the main character, I also taught English in Asia for many years. The other reasons are that it’s a mystery, and I love mysteries, and it involves a lot of cultural misunderstandings. I find cultural differences to be fascinating.

The story takes place in the 1980s or 1990s in a more conservative part of Japan.

There are two main characters: Gabby Stanton, an American professor living in Japan, and Alex Thorn, a father whose son died in Japan. No one will tell Alex how his son died.

Gabby has lost her job and is now working at a funeral home selling “fantasy funerals.”  Gabby becomes Alex’s guide in uncovering the truth and navigating the culture of Japan.

It’s an unputdownable novel about Japanese culture told from the point of view of someone not Japanese but who lived in the country for a long time.

23. An Artist of the Floating World

By Kazuo Ishiguro (2012)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

An Artist of a Floating World is a great book for those who like historical fiction and who want to understand what the Japanese people felt after the war.

During the war, Masaji Ono was a revered artist. He painted propaganda art that the government used to drum up support for the war.

Now it’s 1948 and the war is over. Many in Japan are angry and they blame people like Ono for leading them into a foolish and destructive war. Ono must come to terms with this anger as well as his past mistakes and their effects on his family.

Kazuo Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors and this is one of his three best novels.

24. The Buddha in the Attic

By Julie Otsuka (2011)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

25. The Devil of Nanking

By Mo Hayder (2011)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Devil of Nanking is a fun, creepy, and suspenseful novel. It takes place in both Tokyo and China.

There are two stories in one. The first one is about an eccentric English girl’s quest to find a film documenting some horrific atrocities of the Japanese military during the rape of Nanking. The other story is about the man who supposedly has that film and what happened to him in Nanking during the Japanese invasion and occupation.

Hayder nails the suspense and the atmosphere of both Tokyo during the 1990s and Nanking in 1937. I felt like I was right there in Tokyo and Nanking.

Some people suggest reading Iris Chang’s Rape of Nanking first to understand the context. I read The Devil of Nanking first and it was fine, but I also had some knowledge of the atrocities that had taken place.

26. Memoirs of a Geisha

By Arthur Golden (1999)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Memoirs of a Geisha is a riveting and powerful book that’s hard to put down.

The story starts in 1929 Japan. Chiyo Sakamoto is a young girl from a poor fishing village. Her parents sell her to a Kyoto geisha house, where she learns to become a geisha. Over the years, she faces many hardships, including rivalries with other geishas, a manipulative boss, demanding customers, and the changes in Japanese history from war to recovery. She eventually rises to become one of Japan’s most celebrated geishas.

I know some people criticize the author for fetishizing Asian women and for inaccurately portraying geishas. All I know is that it’s a fantastic story.

Memoirs of a Geisha was made into a movie. The book is ten times better than the movie.

27. Pachinko

By Min Jin Lee (2017)

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Pachinko is another fabulous historical work of fiction that’s hard to put down. It focuses on the lives of Koreans living in Japan.

It starts in the early 1900s in Korea with a Korean woman named Sunja. Sunja falls in love with a wealthy Korean-Japanese man and gets pregnant. To save her family’s reputation, she marries a kind Christian minister and moves to Japan. There, she and her family are treated as second-class citizens. They face many hardships of World War II and instances of discrimination.

Pachinko is one of my top six books set in Japan. You will not be disappointed!

You can also find this book on my top 15 books on Korea list.

28. A Tale for the Time Being

By Ruth Ozeki (2013)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliant novel by Ruth Ozeki. It follows the lives of two people: Ruth in Canada and Nao in Japan.

One day, a Canadian writer named Ruth is walking along the beach when she finds a Hello Kitty box washed ashore. The box seems to have floated across the Pacific from Japan during the 2012 tsunami. In the box are the belongings and diary of a Japanese girl, Nao, and her life of being bullied at school. Ruth tries to find out what happened to Nao.

This is a powerful and moving story that was hard for me to put down. If I were to reread one of these books on Japan, this one would probably be it.

29. Snow Falling on Cedars

By David Guterson (1994)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

30. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

By David Mitchell (2010)

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

31. The Translator

Nina Schuyler (2013)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Translator by Nina Schuyler is a well-written and intriguing novel. It will appeal to readers who are interested in foreign languages or neurological disorders.

At first, it seems like a straightforward medical drama about Hanna, a 50-year-old polyglot and Japanese translator, who one day falls and hits her head, losing her ability to speak any language other than Japanese. Believe it or not, this has actually happened in real life.

Despondent and lonely from her predicament, she accepts an invitation to Japan to speak at a conference. There she has an uncomfortable run-in with the author of the last work she translated right before her fall. This meeting leads her to seek out the author’s muse, an unpredictable and tormented Noh actor. Through her relationship with the actor, Hanna is forced to reexamine her relationships.

I found Hanna to be an interesting and complex character. I loved how Schuyler weaves the story of Hanna’s failure to translate the Japanese book with her failure to understand the people she loves. Very beautifully written story!

32. When the Emperor was Divine

By Julie Otsuka (2007)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

33. The Little Teashop in Tokyo

By Julie Caplin (2020)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Little Teashop in Tokyo is another book that will spark your wanderlust for Japan. It’s great to read after your trip to Japan. I found myself reliving my trips there.

However, a warning: it’s a romance, so if that genre is not your thing, then skip it.

Blogger and photographer Fiona has just won a two-week trip to Tokyo to work with one of Japan’s most famous photographers. Unfortunately, the famous photographer has a family emergency, and in his place is a famous British photographer, Gabe.

It turns out that Fiona knows Gabe. He was her teacher and she used to have a crush on him. In fact, he was partly involved in her motivation to drop out of school.

At first, Gabe doesn’t recognize Fiona and acts like mentoring her is beneath him. However, their relationship blossoms once Gabe realizes how talented Fiona is.

The romance was Okay. It’s cute, but for me, it played second fiddle to the scenes of Fiona visiting the sights of Japan: Teamlab Borderless, Shibuya Crossing, the Meiji Temple, Mount Fuji, and Kyoto. It was a fun escape and a fun way to return to Japan without leaving my home!

Classical Japanese Fiction by Japanese Authors

This section covers books written by Japanese writers before the 1980s.

34. The Makioka Sisters

By Junichiro Tanazaki

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

35. The Old Capital

By Yasunari Kawabata (1962)

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

36. Spring Snow

By Yukio Mishima (1969)

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Have you read any of these books? If you have any other suggestions for novels on Japan, let me know in the comment section below.