Junk Edition

24 May 2026

I happened to be checking my junk email folder when I discovered some emails from an old friend, indicating that they were actually reading this newsletter. I can’t afford to be passing up that kind of encouragement. I think that means I should be more organized about my processes.

Monday

I may have mentioned that I wrote a review for the Cha online journal about a book called Samurai with Telephones which analyzes the use of anachronisms in Japanese literature. In any case, that book referred to a scene in Phoenix, an unfinished multi-volume manga by the god of manga Osamu Tezuka. Our library system only had a few of the volumes and I was hoping that one of them would have an image of a samurai with a telephone. So I borrowed it, and even though it didn’t have what I was looking for, I figured I might as well read it. Probably it might have been better if I had known more Japanese history, so I could tell which characters were based on historical figures, but it was interesting in any case.

Tuesday

The Fox Wife is a wonderful historical fantasy by Yangsze Choo, a Malaysian author of Chinese descent living in the States. She read the audiobook I listened to it and I loved the way she spoke. The story has an interesting structure, alternating between a third person narration of Bao, a geezer around my age, who has the ability to tell if people are lying (which I am not so good at), and a first person story of a woman who is a fox. I liked how their situations become connected and how they do not quite find what they were looking for, but get what they need. It is set in the Qing dynasty, in the late 1800s. I have read other stories of foxes and when I lived in Japan, they had a shrine to the fox god nearby. I remember my elementary English students coming to my house in the evening, shouting “shiro kitsune!” (white fox). Usually you only hear about female foxes causing trouble, but this story includes two male foxes who are responsible for most of the mayhem.

Wednesday

An Artist’s Journey is a short documentary on CBC about a Japanese Canadian artist from Toronto, tracing the path of her ancestors out to the west coast. Even though I am familiar with the general history, I was interested to see her response to the stories and places. In some ways, my moving to Vancouver was motivated by a similiar interest in understanding the lives my parents and grandparents. Recently, I saw someone talk about immigrant grief, for appreciating a new life, while regretting the loss of a life that could have been, whether or not the paths are chosen or imposed.

Thursday

It probably served me right for trying to buy shoes too quickly, while I was waiting for a take-out order to be prepared. Good thing I tested them out at home first and realized they were not going to work. I had the receipt although I had originally asked for no box. That seemed to peeve the clerk a little, but maybe he was appeased by my buying a more expensive pair.

Friday

I hadn’t realized that Men and Cartoons was a collection of short stories when I found it in a Little Library, but I saw the word “cartoons.” Many of the stories by Jonathan Lethem contain a kind of cartoon element to them, of a strangeness that reminded me a little of Haruki Murakami, though maybe with a more aggressive tone and some of Doretta Lau without the Asian perspective.

Saturday

The other part of this incident that I didn’t draw was that after she escaped, she pooped. And as I was picking that up, she trotted across the quiet street. That was when I thought she might take off, but she waited. And then would stay ahead of me as she trotted home. She seemed to lose interest in the bone after a while and my partner distracted her with a treat. This was just after we had interviewed a person to house and dog sit this summer when we go away and told them how our dog is generally no trouble. And I guess she was not.

Sunday

This is the continuation of my graphic memoir in progress about my life in Japan during the 1980s when I was in my twenties. I went to a small island called Zamami in Okinawa with a fellow grad student named Nishihama. The boat was mostly good-looking, cool people around our age, but we were on a separate mission.

In other news, I had a review of Happiness Falls posted on Cha online journal. I had talked about that novel a little in a previous newsletter. I will be out of town next week and I’m not sure whether I’ll get around to doing a newsletter or not.

That was my week. I hope you had a good one, with a better one to come.