Natsumi is small but full of big exuberance, and puts her girl-power to good use when she discovers a Japanese tradition as energetic as she is. When Natsumi's family practices for their town's Japanese arts festival, Natsumi tries everything. But her stirring is way too vigorous for the tea ceremony, her dancing is just too imaginative, and flower arranging doesn't go any better. Can she find just the right way to put her exuberance to good use? This heartwarming tale about being true to yourself is perfect for readers who march to their own beat.
This sweet and gentle picture book celebrates summer in Japan, as one little girl shares her love for bugs with her cousin who is visiting from America. Two young cousins who are separated by language, continent and culture meet for the first time when Jill's family travels from America to Japan to stay with Natsumi's family during the summer holidays. Natsumi's nervousness about meeting her cousin from across the sea quickly disappears when she discovers that her cousin is a lot like her: they both love summertime's hot sandy beaches, cool refreshing watermelon, festivals and fireworks. Then Jill asks Natsumi about the strange buzzing sound that comes from the nearby trees, and Natsumi is nervous once again. What if Jill is frightened of Natsumi's cherished cicadas, the insects that sing the music of summertime? This is a tender, evocative story that celebrates the special pleasures of summertime and of reunions with faraway family and friends.
In Lovesick Japan, Mark D. West explores an official vision of love, sex, and marriage in contemporary Japan. A comprehensive body of evidence—2,700 court opinions—describes a society characterized by a presupposed absence of physical and emotional intimacy, affection, and personal connections. In compelling, poignant, and sometimes horrifying court cases, West finds that Japanese judges frequently opine on whether a person is in love, what other emotions a person is feeling, and whether those emotions are appropriate for the situation. Sometimes judges’ views about love, sex, and marriage emerge from their presentation of the facts of cases. Among the recurring elements are abortions forced by men, compensated dating, late-life divorces, termination fees to end affairs, sexless couples, Valentine’s Day heartbreak, "soapland" bath-brothels, and home-wrecking hostesses. Sometimes the judges’ analysis, decisions, and commentary are as revealing as the facts. Sex in the cases is a choice among private "normal" sex, which is male-dominated, conservative, dispassionate, or nonexistent; commercial sex, which caters to every fetish but is said to lead to rape, murder, and general social depravity; and a hybrid of the two, which commodifies private sexual relationships. Marriage is contractual; judges express the ideal of love in marriage and proclaim its importance, but virtually no one in the court cases achieves it. Love usually appears as a tragic, overwhelming emotion associated with jealousy, suffering, heartache, and death.
Examining the overseas experience of language learners in diverse contexts through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, studies in this volume look at the acquisition of language use, socialization processes, learner motivation, identity and learning strategies. In this way, the volume offers a privileged window into learner experiences abroad while addressing current concerns central to second language acquisition.
THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO TRANSFORM! In a nail-biting finish, Shido managed to correctly guess who Natsumi was impersonating. His reward for beating her at her own game? A house full of screaming children! In an act of pure frustration, Natsumi turned Shido’s friends into a bunch of kids before making a break for it. Of course, there’s no need to worry because she’s still hanging around, doing her best to ruin his reputation from a distance... Shido’s only chance to return the gang to normal and reclaim any semblance of peace is to give Natsumi...a makeover?!
Someone isn’t who they appear to be... When a new Spirit, Natsumi, arrives, Shido sets out to meet her and right off the bat, things start going wrong! This witchy Spirit has the power to transform herself into someone else. Shido isn’t sure what he’s done to get on her bad side, but whatever Natsumi has against him, she’s using her abilities to ruin his life. After taking his friends hostage, she threatens to disappear them forever! Shido has to guess who Natsumi is impersonating before she does something terrible to them all. There are just too many choices and the clock is ticking! How will Natsumi’s twisted game end?
Fate is a tricky thing... Five years ago, a Spirit killed Origami Tobiichi’s parents. Holding a grudge that has only grown since then, Origami turns to DEM in hopes of becoming powerful enough to enact her revenge by killing every last Spirit. Shido can see that this is guaranteed to lead her down a path of death and destruction, so he’s ready to do whatever it takes to stop Origami’s plans to attack Tohka and the others. But what if there was a chance to turn back the clock and potentially undo everything...?
"With its stopwatch timing, locked-room murder and perplexing abundance of alibis.... Readers are in store for plenty of surprises." —Wall Street Journal Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino’s best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in Silent Parade, a complex and challenging mystery—several murders, decades apart, with no solid evidence. A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There’s a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn’t indicted, he returns to mock the girl’s family. And this isn’t the first time he’s been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases. The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.
Mixed Race in Asia seeks to reorient the field to focus on Asia, looking specifically at mixed race in China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India. Through these varied case studies, this collection presents an insightful exploration of race, ethnicity, mixedness and belonging, both in the past and present. The thematic range of the chapters is broad, covering the complexity of lived mixed race experiences, the structural forces of particular colonial and post-colonial environments and political regimes, and historical influences on contemporary identities and cultural expressions of mixedness.
It is December of 2007 just outside Antwerp, Belgium, when Richard Van Pelt storms out of the dining room of his fathers residence. Time is running out for their familys copper-tubing company. With the Chinese nipping at their heels and the Brazilians not far behind,Optitube is doomed if the family does not take action soon. With a willing Japanese partner waiting in the wings, it seems everything is in line for a successful merger of two companies. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees. In Japan, the young and beautiful Natsumi Honma anxiously awaits the joint venture between her fathers company and Optitube. She has not only a fi nancial interest in the merger, but also a growing love interest in Richard. As the two continue to develop a passionate relationship across the ocean, jealousy, greed, and ambition drive a wedge between family members and instigate the creation of multiple plots that soon threaten both Richards and Natsumis lives. In this intriguing tale fueled by age-old confl icts and cruel ambition, a merger hangs in the balance as Natsumi suddenly goes missing. Now it is up to Richard to save both her and his companybefore it is too late.
