#edokko

[bookloversofbath]

Hokusai :: Matthi Forrer

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[nat-reviews-books]

Edokko by Loren Greene

Lily is excited to be going to Tokyo for her foreign exchange, but when she gets to Japan, she finds out that her placement fell through and she will instead be staying in the small town of Ajimu.

I genuinely loved this book. Having been an exchange student when I was in high school, I actually had a similar situation as Lily. Originally, I was supposed to spend 6 months in Dubbo (a smaller town in what is known as "The Bush") and the second 6 months in Newcastle (a city on the coast). I was extremely excited to go to Newcastle, especially as I neared 5 months in and had not gotten along great with either of my host families and not made a lot of friends at my school. It was around that time I was informed that they had too many students in Newcastle and I would be staying in Dubbo. And honestly, as much as I probably would have loved Newcastle, I made friends and grew to love my host city.

So, as you can tell from my personal anecdote, I really felt for Lily. I understood her frustration and I felt that Greene did an amazing job of writing those feelings.

Having also been to Japan, I could also understand the bits of culture shock that Lily experienced. There were definitely times when Lily could be taken as selfish or ungrateful, and even in those times, as a former exchange student I understood exactly what was going on. I remember the first day or two at my school I was super popular and everyone wanted to talk to me, then after that, I was old news and people would just come over and ask me if school buses were real (yes, that is something that Australians will ask Americans).

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and loved Lily's character arc.

[nat-reviews-books]

Currently Reading: Edokko by Loren Greene

Already loving this one. Having been an exchange student (almost ten years ago now), the thoughts and emotions to that first few days was very similar to what I experienced. The overbearing mother not wanting me to leave, although the main character, Lily, actually got to sleep in her flight to Japan; on my flight to Australia, I was kept awake by a baby kicking my seat. Also, a huge difference: since I was an exchange student in Australia, I only had to learn a new dialect, not a whole new language.

[bahbak]

江戸っ子夢

My View from Tatekawa, Sumida, Tokyo.

Research residency at Tokyo Wonder Site. Living the Edokko Dream.

[mylittlevenices]

T O K Y O   x   V E N I S E 

- the Venice of Japan -

VENICENESS : 0.8 OVERALL EXPERIENCE: 8.1

TOTAL : 8.9/20 "Il est difficile au promeneur d'aujourd'hui d'envisager Tokyo comme une ville d'eau. Elle a pourtant été comparée à Venise. La vie des Edokko tournait autour de l'eau du fait de nombreux sites de pêche dans la baie, et de l'importance du transport de marchandises provenant de Kyoto et Osaka, le fret étant chargé sur des navires à un mât spécialisé dans le transport de tonneau de saké ou de biens en vrac. Le transport de marchandises sur les routes était interdit, sauf pour les biens craignant l'humidité, comme la soie. Le déchargement s'effectuait directement sur des quais jouxtant les habitations occupées par les marchands. Tous les bateaux comportant plus d'un mât ont été détruits lors de l'entrée en vigueur du sakoku."

- Portait de ville : Tokyo, Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Olivier Zamias

- photo#01 :  Transport de marchandises dans la ville basse de Tokyo en 1880, Hulton Archive, Getty Images 

- photo#02 : pont de Nihonbashi, point central d’Edo, aujourd’hui surplombé par l’expressway ( source Wikipédia )

- photo#03 : canal à Nakameguro

[yeecancook]

Edokko's inari sushi