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[dracereads]

The Easy Life in Kamusari

Drace's Star Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Like I had originally mentioned in the blurb, I actively could not shut up about this book. There was so much I wanted to touch on and use my words to explore with this book because it was actually super touching and gave me a great sense of relief to read it!

Getting Some Sense of it: If you've ever seen my first ACNH Island, the occult, it's not a big secret that I have a huge crush on rural aesthetics*, especially that of rural Japan. While doing research for the Occult, I spent a good amount of time gobbling up documentaries, travel blogs & vlogs, books, and about anything that I could to just be inspired. It's been a longstanding goal of mine to do an apprenticeship in the Japan at some point in my life to one day fulfill my dream of being a Tea Master / Tea Sommelier. COVID and my personal health has put a huge damper on this dream of mine, but ya'know. It doesn't mean I still can't dream about it while reading. Anyway, I was flipping through the Amazon Prime Reads while I was at work, and I happened upon this lovely little gem. I 100% started to read it between waiting tables**, and I just could NOT put it down or stop. I was super into it. I definitely got two hours of sleep because I tried to finish this book in between a closing shift and a turnaround. The context I provided above is probably ultimately why, but at the same time, it has an atmospheric vibe and cadence that lends itself to being extremely interesting. Synopsis: The premise du jour of the book is the main character, Yuki Hirano, is pushed into joining the Green Initiative in Japan by his parents who are kicking him out of their house immediately after high-school. The Green Initiative is a way to re-introduce people to dying rural industries. Yuki so happens to get stuck into the Forestry sector, and without a choice he is whisked away by a family member to the train station and sent to a remote location known as Kamusari Village.

The book is all about his struggle to find his place in the world, and decide if this life he was practically foisted into is really something he can be proud of. Along the way you meet an absolutely HILARIOUS cast of (somewhat feral) characters, and get drawn into the local culture just as he is. What I really love about this book is that it is extremely well-paced. As you're learning information and themes, you're met with lovely imagery and absolute shenanigans. The book knows how to tell you a good story, and knows when to let your mind have a breath of air and a break with a slow but AMAZING mental imagery of a backdrop of remote wilderness. The characters: So the narrator of this tale is Yuki Hirano. He's a freshly graduated young adult at the age of 18. He's a bit on the cowardly side, and just seems to be all around awkward and shy. His spinelessness is something he rags on about himself, but he's very good-nature and ruefully goofy, which gives him an endearing and down to earth vibe. He has a lot of growing and coming to terms with certain things in this book to do, but he takes to the task quite well.

The Nakamura Lumber Boys: Yoki will get his own mention in a second, so set aside our lovable wild-man for a second. The entire team of Nakamura lumber from the wild boar man, to the elders who spend time with Yuki teaching and boosting his confidence are such a good band of characters. They all have their drawbacks and faults, but they do their best to show their good nature to the very strange boy who most of them have determined won't actually be staying in Kamusari very long. That doesn't deter them from trying to persuade him to stay though. Yoki: Yoki is the character that Yuki seems to be in the most conflict of at the beginning, but by the end the two of them are extremely close. Yoki may be an expert at all things forestry related, but he is absolutely shit at keeping himself in check as a human being. This brings a very humorous balance to the very one-sided relationship at the very beginning. It helps Yuki to humanize Yoki a lot. (Even though Yoki's problems are to his own admission-- his fault.) Yuki gets along well with Yoki's wife (to the point where they would be on best-level in the best book) and his grandmother, Shige, has adopted Yuki as her second grandchild. The Plot: The plot is basically snippets of Yuki's first year in Kamusari, told as a reflective journal. He calls himself out for his own cowardice and lines of thinking, reflecting on the growth he's done as a person while recalling the most vivid and life-changing experiences he lived through during his year in Kamusari. The whole point of him working on this journal was for him to ultimately decide whether or not he wanted to continue on as a forester in the new life provided for him.

Some of My Drawbacks: My only issue with it is that this is definitely a Y.A. book. The author, Shion Miura, has a collection of different works in relations to jobs and professions of Japan. She is an absolute wizard at being able to craft lovely tales of people living their everyday lives and is amazingly good at imparting the Japanese Pride in Traditionalism. Because of this, Kamusari is 100% geared at younger readers, and has a goal of inspiring and gently nudging the reluctant to look into doing something that inspires them. It's pro-capitalistic propaganda for sure. [Future Drace, if you can find that Let's Ask Shogo about Japan's work culture again, please link it here. If not Drace, I'll update it if the link is provided. I would rather it be Shogo or a reputable source please. ] Overall Impression & Score: Nuances of social issues aside, Good book is good people. Anything that inspires me to read well into the night and to the detriment of my own health will usually get glowing praise. Whether or not other people will get the same sort of elated buzz I did out of it is another story, but. for me solid 5/5***. Honestly, writing this review felt like a nice good leg stretch. I edited together a lot of broken tangents from the original blurb, and I think I have this settled. I am not sure if I will be doing a full length or blurb for the second book in the Kamusari series, Tales Told at Night... However, I will probably do a series wrap because I think Kamusari is the first series that I have finished blogging through. As always, if you stuck around to the end of my blathering, I really appreciate it!

Footnotes section: *I think my particular aesthetic niche is called "Mori", based off of MoriGIRL. Do not Quote Me as being anywhere near correct or an authority (**Aside: For those of you that are aware, yes, I am a Kitchen Manager. However, that does not mean that I do not possess the ability to wait on tables and occasionally get dragged out of the devil's den to go make nice with the guests. It's extremely rare, but it does happen! ) ***Go Read some of the reviews on Amazon. My favorite is the person who asked "didthe authordo any research on living in Japan before writing this because it seems so unrealistic and under-researched" I like. laughed for twenty minutes.