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The Kamogawa Food Detectives

The Kamogawa Food Detectives
  • Author(s): Hisashi Kashiwai, Jesse Kirkwood (Translator)
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Cosy Mystery, Food and Drink
  • Era(s): Contemporary

The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just...

The Tale Of Murasaki

The Tale Of Murasaki
  • Author(s): Liza Dalby
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 11th Century

In a wonderful world shaped by beauty and poetry, ancient traditions and popular intrigue, a young woman at the centre of the eleventh-century Japanese imperial court observes the exotic world around her. Murasaki sees everything, the Emperor and Empress,...

The Kimono Tattoo

The Kimono Tattoo
  • Author(s): Rebecca Copeland
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Crime, Fiction, Mystery
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Fictional dangers become real to American translator, Ruth Bennett, in this high-octane multicultural thriller. Recently returned to her childhood home in Kyoto, after losing her job in the United States-and her marriage-Ruth was hoping her new job would offer...

A Single Rose

A Single Rose
  • Author(s): Muriel Barbery
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

The temples and teahouses of Kyoto are the scene of a Frenchwoman’s emotional awakening in the stunning new novel by international bestseller Muriel Barbery. Rose has turned 40, but has barely begun to live. When the Japanese father she...

I Love You So Mochi

I Love You So Mochi
  • Author(s): Sarah Kuhn
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Young Adult
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Kasie West, I Love You So Mochi is a delightfully sweet and irrepressibly funny novel from accomplished author Sarah Kuhn. As sweet and satisfying as actual mochi… a tender love story wrapped...

Cutting Back

Cutting Back
  • Author(s): Leslie Buck
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Travelogue, Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): Modern

At thirty-five, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning...

Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto

Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto
  • Author(s): Victoria Abbott Riccardi
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Two years out of college and with a degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Victoria Riccardi left a boyfriend, a rent-controlled New York City apartment, and a plum job in advertising to move to Kyoto to study kaiseki,...

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
  • Author(s): Yukio Mishima
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1950s

Because of the boyhood trauma of seeing his mother make love to another man in the presence of his dying father, Mizoguchi becomes a hopeless stutterer. Taunted by his schoolmates, he feels utterly alone untill he becomes an acolyte...

The Old Capital

The Old Capital
  • Author(s): Yasunari Kawabata
  • Location(s): Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): post WW2

The Old Capital is one of the three novels cited specifically by the Nobel Committee when they awarded Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. With the ethereal tone and aesthetic styling characteristic of Kawabata’s prose, The Old...

The Office of Gardens and Ponds

The Office of Gardens and Ponds
  • Author(s): Didier Decoin
  • Location(s): Honshu, Kyoto
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 12th Century

The village of Shimae is thrown into turmoil when master carp-catcher Katsuro suddenly drowns in the murky waters of the Kusagawa river. Who now will carry the precious cargo of carp to the Imperial Palace and preserve the crucial...

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