Books/movies about real life in Japan?
 

Hi, everyone! I'm new.

I've read a lot of Haruki Murakami (in English!), watched anime, played a million games, read a lot of manga, watched many movies... I have many books on Japanese history, culture, life and politics. I even have books of advice for foreigners living in Japan.

However, bearing in mind that the only way to really understand life in another place is to live there, I find myself wondering if there are books or movies that accurately depict life in Japan. Fiction is okay! In fact, it would be a lot of fun to read some Japanese fiction that shows how life really is in Japan.

Stuff like Maison Ikkoku is great, but I was curious if there is anything that shows the very menial details of everyday life as well, whether in the city, the country, or small towns. I've tried Googling and did not come up with much! In fact, I can't even think of any examples of the kind of thing I'm looking for.

How can someone like me, thirsty for more, find out what life is REALLY like in Japan? Are there books or movies, fictional or otherwise, that you'd recommend? For now, I can only really understand English.

Thank you in advance! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Movie: Nobody Knows

Book: Yakuza Moon

Personally, I think that the more anime you watch, the more misunderstood you will become about Japan. Games are out of the question if I may say so.

You have raised a good question, though. It's something that many self-claimed "Japan fans", which are numerous right here on JF, don't seem to ask themselves.

My recommendations are:

Books
Japan, Past and Present by Edwin O. Reischauer

Pictures from the Water Trade by John David Morley

A Mature Woman by Saiichi Maruya

Films
Tora-san series
Tsuri-baka Nisshi series

Putting this out there for everyone; you may also come across 'The Chrysanthemum and the Sword' by Ruth Benedict which a lot of people still cite as being a definitive anthropology text about Japan. It IS interesting, and it was a defining text on Japan but take it with an enormous pinch of salt if you read it now because A) it's vastly outdated; hello WW2. and B) the author never went personally to Japan whilst she wrote it. All her information came from interviews with japanese ethnics living in America and some other media. Worth reading for the history of international relations; not worth taking as verbatim fact.

"Kitchen" by Yoshimoto Banana is a modern novel that's... not exactly about normal people (transsexual parents, huzzah!) but is a lovely story with lots of little details about everyday life around a surprisingly uncomplicated yet subtle plot. I didn't actually like it much when I read it; i thought it a little dull, yet it's one of the few stories that's really stuck with me, so there's clearly something in it that resonates.

See also if you can't find some of those morning soap drama type programs. They're like... 15 minutes long or so and show daily and are often set in small, real-world settings. I was watching one called "Hitomi" ( I think), about a year ago, about a girl who wanted to be a dancer ( more or less an OAP's intro to hip-hop kind of show). But it was set in one of the declining, old-fashioned tokyo suburbs and also featured her grandfather and his shop/customers a lot, and the ordinary stuff that went on down the road with the people who lived there.

Joy Hendry is another anthropologist, and she HAS been to Japan. 'Understanding Japanese Society' is probably her best and most well known book, but I have actually had her has a professor and I'm inclined to say that as a person, she tends to form strong opinions of things and people and dislikes being challenged on them. I'm not alone this perception either; other students say the same, sometimes rather more crudely. In my opinion, if she is like this with her day-job, she's likely to retain these traits as an observer, which might skew her writing towards observational bias. Read them by all means, she's still a very smart writer and they're not dry books, but again, take the time to form your own opinion and bear in mind this is Japan viewed through a foreign lens.

Does this mean that in Japan people don't sword fight after their giant mechs break down in battle?
I'm disappointed.
*puts sword away*

Hey you guys, I'm super late in replying! Sorry about that!

Thank you so much for the recommendations. I will check out each of them (really!). The only one I had, amazingly was, yup, Chrysanthemum and the Sword. ha! Have not read it, though.

Speaking of outdated books, I bought one just for laughs, written in the early 1900s, actually got an original copy. I will find out the title and author. She's a woman who went to Japan, had a Japanese guy for a servant (basically a slave) and generally just traveled around demeaning the countryside. Would make a funny anime, and it is, indeed, hilarious to read. She was almost completely ignorant of Japanese culture, and the conclusions she drew were frequently laughable.

Anyway, thanks again everyone, and I'm always open to more. The 15-minute dramas sound like a REALLY cool idea. Oh, and I guess I do own one more of the recommendations, and that's Kitchen. Really enjoyed that one, actually, probably because it did kind of feel like "real-life" Japan in a lot of ways.

Got a good laugh from that last post about the swords/mechs. :)

Thanks again. Got this thread perma-bookmarked.