Miraculous Gift of Sunday

Dear Mr. M,
Hello. Hope life is treating you well.
I have been a big reader of your work since my late teens, and your TV People was the very first book that ignited my love of reading novels…

Last weekend, a certain realization hit me and I decided to adopt a kind of new outlook on life. I won’t go into detail here, but among the things I’ve decided to incorporate into my daily schedule is…

Early one morning last summer, we stumbled upon this elegant, sleek, white bird in the river while crossing a rather lonely, dingy bridge around 5:10 or so. As soon as Doc noticed the bird, he…

If you’d like to join in on a little theater as I present my strange fascination with leftovers, please strap into your seatbelt and ride with me for a moment. It’s an appreciation not unlike a love affair…

The back story on that famous picture of Osamu Dazai at Bar Lupin is one you won’t want to miss… Dazai’s got some moxie!

Read this exclusive excerpted English translation of Taiyo Fujii’s “Hello World!”, and learn along with the original Japanese! Taiyo is a respected voice in Japan’s science fiction community and author the best selling books, Gene Mapper and Orbital Cloud. Enjoy!

We just love this little back’n’forth between Buraiha masters Dazai Osamu, Sakaguchi Ango, and Oda Sakunosuke… reading it these many years later is like being the proverbial fly on the wall. Enjoy!
Bungo Stray Dogs fan? You’ll love this chat between these timeless Japanese literature masters.

The first in our JLit, Unvarnished series. A little bit of sass, a little bit of crass. So, probably more than a few swear words. How we think some of this dialog might’ve actually been spoken… and strictly for fun. 😉
Check out this excerpt from Dazai’s Tsugaru.

People have hobbies. Some are into music, others like gardening. My brother, for example, is into cars. He can be forever out there in the garage fixing up and messing with his scrap cars. My friend, Mina, likes Doraemon, so when she…

Art is everywhere if we extend our antennae to sense it. In the street. At the shop. Or, on the bus. If polished daily, our antennae stay bright like sharp knives, and we will surely be able to pick up, appreciate, and savor life’s beauty. You certainly don’t…

As last year was coming to a close, I chose the word, “beautify” to be my focus word for next year. This word choosing event for the year is something we do here at Maplopo. Doc chose “thrive” as his word for this year. I picked…

Last night, Doc and I just finished reading Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Doc is a great reader (like the character, Michael, in the movie The Reader), so I very much enjoy the opportunity of being the sole audience member of such theater each night before bed. To be frank, I hadn’t been…