Hiromi Kawakami

Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love. Perfectly constructed, funny, and moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance. This edition contains the bonus story, 'Parade', which imagines an ordinary day in the lives of this unusual couple.

Strange Weather in Tokyo

Tsukiko is in her late thirties and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, Sensei, in a bar. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake and come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly into love.

Maureen

"I used to think that we complemented each other - as the saying goes: even a cracked pot has a lid that fits. But, as it turned out, I suppose I didn't fit my wife very well." 

***

A quiet read. The translation makes use of simple words that leave a resounding impact. It's a slow burn romance, but it's precisely for this reason that we are able to witness the growth of their relationship--from awkward strangers to sincere lovers. 

I think they fit each other very well.

sani

this was my first kawakami book and i am too stunned by the emotions. it was a book with no plot, but ah, the feelings. i personally felt seen by tsukiko. and sensei. i don't know how to feel about him. he was not really the best man out there but then again, i liked him, so i don't know what that says about me. the hopeless romantic inside me died at the realistic ending though.

Colton Ray

This was fairly enjoyable, but the translation to English always seems to take away something.

Meg Ma. Guerrero 

** spoiler alert **
           Really wanted to like this book but I think I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would because of where her relationship went with Sensei. I guess it made me a little uncomfortable but that's on me, not the book. 

The end left me feeling nothing in particular, unfortunately. Was just happy to get a glimpse of Tokyo through the story.

i enjoyed how tsukiko’s thoughts and feelings were written out—made her very relatable.

ellie

I adore Kawakami’s writing sooo much. Aside from the fact that the age gap was bothering me, this book just makes you feel like you’re there. The way loneliness is portrayed in the simplest moments like staring at a bathroom window or something is perfect. I love the melancholic mundanity!

merliah

Sophie Wang

3.75 stars rounded up. it was captivating in its mundaneness and i ended up warming to and understanding the unconventional love described.

y✦

✦ charming read
✦ main character's frustrations of being a 30 sumth yr old baby? super relatable
✦ very midnight diner
✦ 1-sitting read

beautifully written. personally not a fan of the age gap but huge respect for how loneliness is written with such consideration for its realness. this is the reality of many people which is what makes it so empathetic to a generation that has more often than not encountered what it is to feel truly alone and to long for intimacy.

Janelli

diya

as you grow older and the world gets bigger, you somehow end up getting smaller in your own world. the hustle and bustle makes it loud the moment you step out, but then inside, this deafening silence, and the realisation of loneliness sets it. it doesn't hamper your day to day living, you go on spending your day quite diligently, that's what most of us do. and then ever so slightly does this cold breeze blow over you and you turn around to see an empty space. two somewhat lonely strangers meet, meet again and again and then find the breeze a little less colder when they do. that's all there is to this tale, but every chapter paints this scene that plays over and over in your head, be it a warm hand to hold or just a living being sitting there besides you sharing a meal. maybe you don't need the chatter and the focus on you all the time, most of the time, all we need is one other person right there, whose breathing itself makes us sigh slightly warmer.

Abigail

Me solté a llorar en las últimas páginas.

While the couple have their tender moments, I can't help but constantly be uncomfortable by the age difference and how that impacted their perception of each other. It's a romance difficult to cheer for at times.

Mari Sivoney

erin

This was great. It made me cry. Yeah, it's a may/december romance between a 70-something and a thirty-something, but it's also just about loneliness, nostalgia, modernity, and being outside the flowing stream of society. The sex is one throwaway vague sentence, which suited me just fine. I'm here for the quiet vulnerability and the power of eating and drinking between humans. ¯

\_(ツ)_/¯ can't explain why I liked it so much, but there it is.

renni

Uma história sobre solidão né. A solidão da Tsukiko fala num volume alto.

Acho que a estranheza que senti pelo romance não me conectei tanto assim com a história. Talvez tenha ficado numa expectativa alta depois de ter lido Querida Kombini. Não que tenha sido ruim, só não foi pra mim.

Insana a quantidade de saquê que os dois queridos consumiram durante o livro, haja fígado.

half of the book is boring tbh.. but i think it's because i don't like slow paced books HDHSBSG

B Sai Sushma

The author's writing is so pretty and soft.

charisa

this book made me hungry and sad, but not hungry enough for me to leave my bed, nor sad enough to make me cry. so it only gets 3/5.

Joana da Silva

Please, do not interpret my 2-stars as this book's worth, I simply think it wasn't the one for me. I did like it but also feel that I have yet to reach my Asian literature era. I saw a good review about this one and since it was a short novel, I thought it would be a good way to test the waters yet again, after hating my one trip to Murakami town. It's not a bad book and I'm guessing it will be highly appreciated by other readers. I enjoyed some aspects of it, it's an unusual romance and there were some bits that I really enjoyed such as the writing - it's very clean and somehow able to carry some heavy feelings within its simplicity. This might be my longest 2-star review ever with zero hate in it as I'm trying really hard to perceive that I liked this book, it's just not very memorable among all my other reads. EDIT POST-READING OTHER REVIEWS: there's one thing this book does extraordinarily well and that is portraying loneliness and its effects on our lives. I give a 5-star rating to that aspect.

I'll leave you with 2 quotes I really loved:

"I feel pity for these batteries that worked so hard for my benefit, and I can't throw them away. It seems a shame to get rid of them the moment they die, after these batteries have illuminated my lights, signaled my sounds, and run my motors." (a very creative way of justifying one's tendency to dabble in hoarding, will for sure use it in the future)

"Sensei, were you a wimp when you were little?"
"I'm still very much a wimp, even now." (Same, Sensei, same. Never felt more understood by an old Japanese man.)

tina

dnf @ 80% bec it’s so boring and i just couldn’t take it anymore. i’m counting it as a read though because i wasted so much time on this book

this was a very gentle, very delicate novel. it is very quiet but very atmospheric regardless.

i am afraid that it did not leave as strong of an impression on me as i had hoped for, though i can appreciate its strengths. i believe this is partly due to the love story being between a woman nearing her 40s and her former teacher in his 60s-70s. the stages of their lives where they are at may have been a little too removed from my own for me to be able to truly immerse myself in the story (as in i kept thinking the main narrator was my age which made the story a bit uncomfortable to read).

this was a very gentle, very delicate novel. it is very quiet but very atmospheric regardless.

i am afraid that it did not leave as strong of an impression on me as i had hoped for, though i can appreciate its strengths. i believe this is partly due to the love story being between a woman nearing her 40s and her former teacher in his 60s-70s. the stages of their lives where they are at may have been a little too removed from my own for me to be able to truly immerse myself in the story (as in i kept thinking the main narrator was my age which made the story a bit uncomfortable to read).

雪 xue

now on my bucket list: mushroom hunting, reminiscing over my schoolgirl youth at a cherry blossom watching party, and collecting littlenecked clams in a hot springs town by the sea with my lover at night… tsukiko is such an endearing, silly girl. truly, what a lovely girl you are, tsukiko

Ada 

his is what I wanted from Ogawa’s ‘Housekeeper and the Professor’. This was pure, authentic, and beautifully described. It lost a star for me because it was quite dragged out in the beginning, but otherwise I definitely recommend this! 

Shantesh Patil

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, a story of loneliness and love that defies age.

A Novel

Ken Yuen

Very slice of life! Sometimes it feels good to luxuriate in the relaxing times of other people and imagine yourself there. Eating, drinking, and enjoying good company

Wait, this story is about the relationship between the main girl and her former teacher??!!

Actually it's not as scandalous as it sounds. The focus on the nuances of forming a relationship with another person are fully explored and the awkwardness from their age difference isn't the whole thing.

I don't feel like I understand the last part of the story, but sometimes stuff just happens in slice-of-life. That's life.

Strange Weather in Tokyo

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