Visiting Japan

Reading Challenge 2017: book by a person of color. Rereading for summer school, I have not read The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima since 2008. It is a simple love story between Shinji, a fisherman, and Hatsue, the daughter of a fishing boat owner. Japanese culture infuses the story with mention of so many festivals and organizations that do not exist in America. The communal bathhouse, or sento, and lunchbox packed by loving mothers, or bento, are just a couple of things that American students are unfamiliar with. Even the discussion of peaches and pickles is something that might be shocking to my students. Reading this novel makes me want to visit Japan.