The Library Shelf

Collections

1. Grilled Fish

Bright winter sun and icy morning. The smell of grilled fish assaults me on my way to work. I close ...

2. The taste of sweet potato

In 1998, I had chosen to study at Keio University. I do not remember having signed a contract to become ...

3. My well-worn robe

Glossy and bright morning in Hong Kong. Our whole family slept with big socks and an extra duvet. I am ...

4. Hachijo-jima

An island between the sky and the water.
An island with neither men nor boats.
An island between the sky and the ...

5. The amazing beauty of Koya-san

There is a place in the Japan where time has stopped, a place where it is easy to imagine oneself ...

6. Snow country

When I arrived in Japan, language difficulties locked me in a silence I had never experienced before and without any ...

7. Nikko

While I was a student in Tokyo, I had to take care of the Dean of my French Business School ...

8. Kyomizu-dera, the temple of the extreme

The Kyomizu-dera is my favorite temple. It is a Buddhist temple situated in Kyoto. Some may weep before the Ginkakuji, ...

9. Roppongi and the Yakuza

In the winter of 1999, I was working very hard during the day at the bank and living dangerously at ...

10. Yuzu bath

The current typhoon striking Taiwan has indirectly affected us. It sent us a soaring heat, causing records that Hong Kong ...

11. The taste of soba in the middle of summer

It was summer 1997 and my first one in Japan. High temperature records were reached in Osaka. In Hirakata-shi, a ...

12. Make-up in the land of the rising sun

Before I lived with the Sano family in Hirakata, I first lived for a couple of months with the Sakakibara ...

13. Hina matsuri

Mrs. Sano, my Japanese mother called me yesterday to check on us. She reminded me that the doll festival Hina ...

14. Brushing up my Japanese

I managed to get some holidays to visit my Japanese family at the end of next week. It is a ...

15. Gathering

The woman sitting in the reception of the hotel may seem familiar. She looks like a grandmother. She carries on ...

16. Aquarium

I tried to romanticize the rainy season last week to the Australian of my heart and I have been truly ...