Japanese books?

[ChisaChi]

I'm interested in reading a Japanese book or two (translated to English, I'm afraid my Japanese skills aren't up to scratch yet) before going off to teach there next year - does anyone have any suggestions? Classics, the kind of thing they probably make the kids in highschool literature classes read would be good, although I'm interested in contemporary authors too.

Recommendations?

[Paul11]

Abe Kobo - Ta nin no Kao (The face of another)
Yoshokawa Eiji - Taiko or Musashi

James Clavell - Shogun (ok. that was just a joke. But I liked the ones above)

[suishinshi]

How about Shusaku Endo?
He was a Christian since forever since be baptized when he's a child, and he wrote a lot of novel about Japanese christian,
if you want to know about Japanese Christian, I recommend to try to read his novel once.
Especially " The deep river"
is by far the greatest and marvelous novel I think.
the other novels, his typical novel is "Silence"
in japanese, "Chinmoku".
if you find them, please read it.

They must be useful to understand about Japanese piety.

[Saffron]

Taichi Yamada (mostly supernatural what I have read so far).

[ThirdSight]

978-4-7700-3057-3
978-4-7700-3058-0

Check out those two ISBN numbers. One is a collection of essays, another short stories, with the original kana on one side, with their English translation on the other. Plus it comes with an audio CD that reads it to help with listening and reading comprehension.

[Kai13]

I got "Genji Monogatari" for christmas, I think its very good, Murasaki Shikibu.
I also recomend "I haven't dreamed of flying for a while" by Yamada Taichi.

Also..."Quill", a story about a guide-dog, you read it in one hour.

[GhidXoraH]

If interested in Haiku, I recommend the works of Matsuo Bashō, and especially his work titled, "Oku no Hosomichi". It is very beautiful!

[Teto]

I think you should read Yasunari Kawabata's books, it's so good and he received a nobel price

[Gackt21]

Half Price Books has some if you are looking for Japanese Lit.

[ivyart]

I recommend the oxford collection of SS that takes you through the Meiji Restoration to pretty near now. Then there is the collection of Japanese Modernism edited by Donald Keene. There is a small collection but very nice selection: Autumn Wind and other Stories. There is a definite book to avoid: Monkeybrain Sushi. If you are tempted, read and pay attention to the introduction.
FOr individual writers as mentioned here some great ones include:
Natsume Soseki
Junichiro Tanizaki
Mori Ogai***
Yukio Mishima
Motojiro Kajii
Yasunari Kawabata
Nagai Kafu
and Kobo Abe.

If you venture into Oe Kenzaburo read his Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness first.

After this little list you can laugh at and understand why the Japanese consider Murakami fans to not read/think much.