Volume 22 🇯🇵
I have watched and ardently loved anime since I was a child. My childhood was full of shows brimming with magic and fantasy. Anything could happen in the anime world. It was a step ahead of all American cartoons. 2020 was the year of bringing back anime back into my life. I watched (and re-watched) almost every Ghibli movie on Netflix in 2020. (How are Ghibli movies not mandatory watching?) Netflix's enormous anime collection is a gift to the world. I re-watched Cardcaptor Sakura which was one of my favourite shows as a little girl. I watched a bunch of other short shows as well. After watching Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (FMAB) back to back towards the end of 2020, I was on the lookout for similar intense anime.
In 2021 I started watching Naruto. I know I'm outrageously late to the party. Watching close to 13 episodes on some days and listening to the OST on repeat almost daily has given me the status of 'hooked'. I also happen to have an enormous crush on Kakashi Hatake and I don't know what to do about it. I have watched more than half of the original series and know that I have the commitment to watch 21 seasons of Naruto Shippuden.
Anime is intense but so so good. It is absurd how much the protagonists (who are often children) go through and how quickly they mature. I was eating Cheetos to collect Pokemon tazos at the age when Edward and Alphonse from FMA and FMAB were taking down a corrupt government. No pressure, kids.
My love for Japanese art runs deep. Their attention for detail and general awesomeness has always drawn me back to it. Be it paintings, architecture, manga, literature or anime. Can we talk about how awesome Akira is? (I read the manga, I haven't watched the show) When it came to Japanese novels, I had only read Haruki Murakami. I read a LOT of his books in college. I think everyone who encounters his books has a Murakami phase of their own. I'd had enough when I read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage which I believe is one of his worst books. I stacked my reading list with Japanese novels of all kinds by different writers this month. I'm in a bit of a reading funk so I couldn't get through it all but take a gander at the list below to see if anything catches your eye.
This month is all about reveling in how awesome Japanese books, music and TV shows are. I have a long-standing cultural crush on Japan and have always wanted to visit. I don't know what Covid has in store and when it will be safe to travel abroad. Till then, I will have to find contentment in reading about spectacular cherry blossoms, mouth watering Japanese street food and quaint Japanese neighbourhoods.
BOOKS
⭐️⭐️ Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - I have not been able to stop thinking about dorayaki since I started reading this book. This book revolves around (as the title suggests) sweet bean paste, which is the filling used in traditional dorayaki. Sweet Bean Paste is about two people with dark pasts brought together by circumstances and (of course) dorayaki. Sentaro has a criminal history and aspirations of becoming a writer. Fate had other plans for him. He runs a dorayaki stall where he makes average dorayaki until he meets Tokue, a 70 year old enthusiastic master bean paste maker with a dark past of her own. This story is gorgeous and brought me to tears. I love books about friendship and its redemptive power.
(Nobody makes or sells dorayaki in Mumbai. I want some. Help! 🥞)
⭐️ The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa - This book blew my mind. It is eerie and haunting (in a good way) This can make such a brilliant movie. The subtlety and weightlessness in Ogawa's writing is the book's ultimate strength. An unnamed novelist lives in an unnamed island in Japan run by unnamed people kept in order by the frightening Memory Police. The people who run this island 'disappear' an object at will and it leaves the memories of the inhabitants almost immediately. There is no logic behind why an object was chosen or what one achieves by removing it from their collective lives. The inhabitants in turn have to dispose of those objects for good. As one would expect, some people can't forget these things. The protagonist isn't one of them. Her mother was one of those anomalies and so is her beloved editor. This book moves slowly but I couldn't help but gobble it up. You can see the protagonist lose parts of herself as things dear to her began to disappear. Nobody can protest. The Memory Police is powerful and ruthless. People have called this book Orwellian but there's something far scarier in this novel. To lose something inside of you in addition to having your actions policed is truly
I sometimes wonder how a writer comes up with a plot so out of the ordinary. Yoko Ogawa made me wonder. This book was weird but I liked it.
+ (A review of the Memory Police on the Guardian)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - (I haven't finished this yet but whatever I have read, I enjoyed) What if you could travel back in time? Who would you want to meet and what would you do/say? A cafe in Japan that is over a hundred years old allows you to go back in time but the caveat (one of many) is return before the coffee they have served you turns cold. The book has 4 stories of time travel set in the cafe, each with different characters and stories.
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri - This book was heartbreaking, mournful and somehow gentle. Kazu was born on the same day as the emperor of Japan, his son was born on the same day as the prince. People born around the same time face such radically different lives. Kazu's life is marked by poverty, hard manual labour, misfortune and loss. He barely spent any time with his family. He worked through his entire life only to lose people he loved. Tokyo Ueno Station is a commentary on disparity and the history of Japan told by Kazu's spirit. To be honest, I couldn't tell the narrator was a spirit until I read a review later. I felt a little lost in some parts because the writing oscillated between being poetic and factual. I somehow stuck through the book.
I don't recommend this to everyone. It is difficult to read but it is still a good book.
📚EXTRA
⭐️ Do you want a book recommendation for your mood? (+ a PDF/ePub if I have it)
Reply to this email and tell me what you feel like reading.
(It can be a genre or a vibe you're looking for in a book and I will get back to you within a week)
ARTICLES
Is this the end of forests as we know them?
+ 'I get better sleep': the people who quit social media - Stories from people on the other side.
The edge of our existence: A particle physicist examines the architecture of society
Why do we love Japanese fiction so much when it is so elusive?
Stop Keeping Score! - "We have every evolutionary reason to want to keep score in life—passing on genes is a competitive business, after all. But there is no evidence that Mother Nature gives two hoots whether we are happy or not. And, in fact, this kind of scorekeeping is a happiness error for two reasons: It makes us dependent on external rewards, and it sets us up for dissatisfaction."
I am a scorekeeping addict. I made a to-be list when I was 8 about the personality traits I wanted and the ones I wanted to discard. If only I knew how much more than a list it would take to achieve that. Brooks doesn't just comment on this tendency but kindly provides other questions to ask yourself while you measure your life with arbitrary milestones.
+ "Success Addicts' Choose Being Special Over Being Happy - Arthur C Brooks is BACK and he is calling us out on our addiction to success.
"Imagine reading a story titled “The Relentless Pursuit of Booze.” You would likely expect a depressing story about a person in a downward alcoholic spiral. Now imagine instead reading a story titled “The Relentless Pursuit of Success.” That would be an inspiring story, wouldn’t it?"
++ 4 Rules for Identifying Your Life's Work - Did I just go on an Arthur C Brooks column reading spree? Yes, I did. I've now run out of free articles the Atlantic has allotted. I love Brooks' analogies and how he gently tries to explain how to change your way of looking at life. He almost reminds me of Cheryl Strayed's advice in Tiny Beautiful Things. Read this article and tell me what your marshmallow is.
🎵 AUDIO GOODIES (PLAYLISTS)
This month's newsletter was written while listening to these playlists -
ChilledCow's live lo-fi hip hop radio
+ Anime Hits by Spotify
++ The OST of Naruto Part I
(I am making my own Anime playlist which I will share soon)
ART AND OTHER COOL INTERNET THINGS
⭐️ Sylvia Boorstein's guided Lovingkindness meditation.
The 'Feel Wheel' to extend one's emotional vocabulary.
Brave Browser and why you should use it instead of Chrome - I switched to Brave this week. Not having ads in my face every moment is great.
Flyleaf Illustrations.
Vault of VHS
👾EXTRA
What would you want to read in the coming newsletters? Is there anything you like/ dislike or would like to see more? Let me know.
That's it for March. Didn't this month feel like a blur? The slowness of January and February vanished completely. I don't feel ready for April or May for that matter. I want to force time into a screeching halt. I want to ask it to slow the fuck down so I can catch my breath and consciously move through my life. It won't slow down for me. This reminds me of John Mayer's song Stop This Train. He reaches the same conclusion. You can't stop the train no matter how much you want to.
Thank you for sticking with me and reading my newsletter every month, I appreciate it! I hope you found something interesting here this month. I also hope you chase your interests and enjoy your time doing so.
Warmly,
Sachi
When I think of all the anime there is to watch.
⭐️ Do you enjoy reading this newsletter? Share it with a friend, a colleague, a pet, and/or a neighbour. ⭐️
You can support my projects and writing by sharing this with a friend or supporting me with a book. 📖
Find the Volumes archive here.
In 2021 I started watching Naruto. I know I'm outrageously late to the party. Watching close to 13 episodes on some days and listening to the OST on repeat almost daily has given me the status of 'hooked'. I also happen to have an enormous crush on Kakashi Hatake and I don't know what to do about it. I have watched more than half of the original series and know that I have the commitment to watch 21 seasons of Naruto Shippuden.
Anime is intense but so so good. It is absurd how much the protagonists (who are often children) go through and how quickly they mature. I was eating Cheetos to collect Pokemon tazos at the age when Edward and Alphonse from FMA and FMAB were taking down a corrupt government. No pressure, kids.
My love for Japanese art runs deep. Their attention for detail and general awesomeness has always drawn me back to it. Be it paintings, architecture, manga, literature or anime. Can we talk about how awesome Akira is? (I read the manga, I haven't watched the show) When it came to Japanese novels, I had only read Haruki Murakami. I read a LOT of his books in college. I think everyone who encounters his books has a Murakami phase of their own. I'd had enough when I read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage which I believe is one of his worst books. I stacked my reading list with Japanese novels of all kinds by different writers this month. I'm in a bit of a reading funk so I couldn't get through it all but take a gander at the list below to see if anything catches your eye.
This month is all about reveling in how awesome Japanese books, music and TV shows are. I have a long-standing cultural crush on Japan and have always wanted to visit. I don't know what Covid has in store and when it will be safe to travel abroad. Till then, I will have to find contentment in reading about spectacular cherry blossoms, mouth watering Japanese street food and quaint Japanese neighbourhoods.
BOOKS
⭐️⭐️ Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - I have not been able to stop thinking about dorayaki since I started reading this book. This book revolves around (as the title suggests) sweet bean paste, which is the filling used in traditional dorayaki. Sweet Bean Paste is about two people with dark pasts brought together by circumstances and (of course) dorayaki. Sentaro has a criminal history and aspirations of becoming a writer. Fate had other plans for him. He runs a dorayaki stall where he makes average dorayaki until he meets Tokue, a 70 year old enthusiastic master bean paste maker with a dark past of her own. This story is gorgeous and brought me to tears. I love books about friendship and its redemptive power.
(Nobody makes or sells dorayaki in Mumbai. I want some. Help! 🥞)
⭐️ The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa - This book blew my mind. It is eerie and haunting (in a good way) This can make such a brilliant movie. The subtlety and weightlessness in Ogawa's writing is the book's ultimate strength. An unnamed novelist lives in an unnamed island in Japan run by unnamed people kept in order by the frightening Memory Police. The people who run this island 'disappear' an object at will and it leaves the memories of the inhabitants almost immediately. There is no logic behind why an object was chosen or what one achieves by removing it from their collective lives. The inhabitants in turn have to dispose of those objects for good. As one would expect, some people can't forget these things. The protagonist isn't one of them. Her mother was one of those anomalies and so is her beloved editor. This book moves slowly but I couldn't help but gobble it up. You can see the protagonist lose parts of herself as things dear to her began to disappear. Nobody can protest. The Memory Police is powerful and ruthless. People have called this book Orwellian but there's something far scarier in this novel. To lose something inside of you in addition to having your actions policed is truly
I sometimes wonder how a writer comes up with a plot so out of the ordinary. Yoko Ogawa made me wonder. This book was weird but I liked it.
+ (A review of the Memory Police on the Guardian)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - (I haven't finished this yet but whatever I have read, I enjoyed) What if you could travel back in time? Who would you want to meet and what would you do/say? A cafe in Japan that is over a hundred years old allows you to go back in time but the caveat (one of many) is return before the coffee they have served you turns cold. The book has 4 stories of time travel set in the cafe, each with different characters and stories.
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri - This book was heartbreaking, mournful and somehow gentle. Kazu was born on the same day as the emperor of Japan, his son was born on the same day as the prince. People born around the same time face such radically different lives. Kazu's life is marked by poverty, hard manual labour, misfortune and loss. He barely spent any time with his family. He worked through his entire life only to lose people he loved. Tokyo Ueno Station is a commentary on disparity and the history of Japan told by Kazu's spirit. To be honest, I couldn't tell the narrator was a spirit until I read a review later. I felt a little lost in some parts because the writing oscillated between being poetic and factual. I somehow stuck through the book.
I don't recommend this to everyone. It is difficult to read but it is still a good book.
📚EXTRA
⭐️ Do you want a book recommendation for your mood? (+ a PDF/ePub if I have it)
Reply to this email and tell me what you feel like reading.
(It can be a genre or a vibe you're looking for in a book and I will get back to you within a week)
ARTICLES
Is this the end of forests as we know them?
+ 'I get better sleep': the people who quit social media - Stories from people on the other side.
The edge of our existence: A particle physicist examines the architecture of society
Why do we love Japanese fiction so much when it is so elusive?
Stop Keeping Score! - "We have every evolutionary reason to want to keep score in life—passing on genes is a competitive business, after all. But there is no evidence that Mother Nature gives two hoots whether we are happy or not. And, in fact, this kind of scorekeeping is a happiness error for two reasons: It makes us dependent on external rewards, and it sets us up for dissatisfaction."
I am a scorekeeping addict. I made a to-be list when I was 8 about the personality traits I wanted and the ones I wanted to discard. If only I knew how much more than a list it would take to achieve that. Brooks doesn't just comment on this tendency but kindly provides other questions to ask yourself while you measure your life with arbitrary milestones.
+ "Success Addicts' Choose Being Special Over Being Happy - Arthur C Brooks is BACK and he is calling us out on our addiction to success.
"Imagine reading a story titled “The Relentless Pursuit of Booze.” You would likely expect a depressing story about a person in a downward alcoholic spiral. Now imagine instead reading a story titled “The Relentless Pursuit of Success.” That would be an inspiring story, wouldn’t it?"
++ 4 Rules for Identifying Your Life's Work - Did I just go on an Arthur C Brooks column reading spree? Yes, I did. I've now run out of free articles the Atlantic has allotted. I love Brooks' analogies and how he gently tries to explain how to change your way of looking at life. He almost reminds me of Cheryl Strayed's advice in Tiny Beautiful Things. Read this article and tell me what your marshmallow is.
🎵 AUDIO GOODIES (PLAYLISTS)
This month's newsletter was written while listening to these playlists -
ChilledCow's live lo-fi hip hop radio
+ Anime Hits by Spotify
++ The OST of Naruto Part I
(I am making my own Anime playlist which I will share soon)
ART AND OTHER COOL INTERNET THINGS
⭐️ Sylvia Boorstein's guided Lovingkindness meditation.
The 'Feel Wheel' to extend one's emotional vocabulary.
Brave Browser and why you should use it instead of Chrome - I switched to Brave this week. Not having ads in my face every moment is great.
Flyleaf Illustrations.
Vault of VHS
👾EXTRA
What would you want to read in the coming newsletters? Is there anything you like/ dislike or would like to see more? Let me know.
That's it for March. Didn't this month feel like a blur? The slowness of January and February vanished completely. I don't feel ready for April or May for that matter. I want to force time into a screeching halt. I want to ask it to slow the fuck down so I can catch my breath and consciously move through my life. It won't slow down for me. This reminds me of John Mayer's song Stop This Train. He reaches the same conclusion. You can't stop the train no matter how much you want to.
Thank you for sticking with me and reading my newsletter every month, I appreciate it! I hope you found something interesting here this month. I also hope you chase your interests and enjoy your time doing so.
Warmly,
Sachi
When I think of all the anime there is to watch.
⭐️ Do you enjoy reading this newsletter? Share it with a friend, a colleague, a pet, and/or a neighbour. ⭐️
You can support my projects and writing by sharing this with a friend or supporting me with a book. 📖
Find the Volumes archive here.
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