Catalog Search Results

Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a seasonal cherry blossom sits on the river. Nearby is the Marble Cafe, where a woman writes in a notebook and a young waiter prepares her favorite hot drink. Both wonder about each other and about the other lives of the clientele who frequent this charming little cafe behind the trees...Without even realizing it, we may touch and change someone else's life. Taking a walk along the river, cooking the...

"Tucked away on a narrow side street in Tokyo is the Torunka Café, a neighborhood nook where the passersby are as likely to be local cats as tourists. Its regulars include Chinatsu Yukimura, a mysterious young woman who always leaves behind a napkin folded into the shape of a ballerina; Hiroyuki Yumata, a middle-aged man who's returned to the neighborhood searching for the happy life he once gave up; and Shizuku, the café owner's teenage daughter,...

Murakami paints a portrait of Tokyo through its night people: fashion model Eri and her studious sister, Mari; a jazz trombonist; a Chinese prostitute; and more (summary from online).

What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it. A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound...

Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyoku stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength...

In a quirky Tokyo pet shop, seven struggling customers take home "blanket cats" for three days, hoping these temporary companions will help them escape their realities, including a couple facing infertility and a woman on the run, but the cats challenge their expectations and perceptions of happiness.

"In this charming and emotionally resonant follow up to the internationally bestselling Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa paints a poignant and thoughtful portrait of life, love, and how much books and bookstores mean to the people who love them. Set again in the beloved Japanese bookshop and nearby coffee shop in the Jimbochi neighborhood of Toyko, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop deepens the relationship between Takako, her uncle...

"From the bestselling author of the wildly inventive Strange Pictures and a phenomenon in Japan -- unnatural layouts, trap doors, windowless rooms -- a sinister conspiracy is concealed within a house's warped and unsettling floor plans. When a writer fascinated by the macabre is approached by an acquaintance, he finds himself investigating an eerie house for sale in Tokyo. At first, with its bright and spacious interior, it seems the perfect first...

"After shoplifting some bread one chilly night, former high school track-and-field star kakeru Kurahara runs through the city streets. Though he has grown disillusioned with the sport, he feels as if he could keep running forever. However, his reverie is broken by a mysterious boy on a bike: Haiji Kiyose, a fellow runner who also happens to attend Kakeru's univeristy. impressed by Kakeru's agility, Kiyose persuades Kakeru to move into Chikusei-so,...

In Moshi-Moshi, Yoshie's much-loved musician father has died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimo-kitazawa, a traditional Tokyo neighborhood of narrow streets, quirky shops, and friendly residents that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, despite their attempts to move forward, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left...