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First up today is an interesting piece from kamo over at this is how she fight start. In lieu of a review of two short introduction books, we have a post on Japan as the archetypal sci-fi nation, with some fascinating thoughts on Japan and 'first contact' - click here to have a look :)
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You may have heard of the Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes, but do you know exactly what they are? The Japan News fills you in with some useful information on the two prizes in one of its recent articles. It's good to have this background information...
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...because the latest winners have just been announced!
The Akutagawa Prize was awarded to Hiroko Oyamada for Ana (Hole) while the Naoki Prize was awarded jointly to Makate Asai for Renka (Love Poem) and Kaoruko Himeno for Showa no Inu (Dog in the Showa Era). This time round it's a female trifecta :) For anyone interested, there's more information here courtesy of the English version of the Mainichi newspaper. Don't hold your breath waiting for an English translation of the books though...
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It's been a big week on the January in Japan blog too. Wednesday saw Yasunari Kawabata's belated induction as a J-Lit Giant, while Thursday was the day when participants posted on our first readalong choice, Yoko Ogawa's The Diving Pool (reviews collected here). Finally, this week's Golden Kin-Yōbi giveaway was revealed as Natsume Soseki's Light and Dark, his final work, and widely considered as his masterpiece - click here to have a chance of winning one of three copies :)That's quite enough for one Sunday - time for Momotarō and I to have a well-earned rest. See you next week...
