Amy Chavez

Okayama

Author, writer, The Japan Times, Nikkei Asia, Bali Times, HuffPo. Most recent book: The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter

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Articles

The best books about Japan’s countryside

Oct 8, 2024 | shepherd.com | Amy Chavez |Alex Kerr |Rebecca Otowa |John Ross

This is one of the first books on Japan that I read when I moved to the country in 1997, and it still resonates with me. While still a college student, Alex Kerr buys a rundown farmhouse in the Iya Valley of Shikoku, re-thatches it, and maintains the traditional Japanese architecture of pre-WWII Japanese wooden houses. Kerr went on to write many more books on Japan, most of which have become classics.
Review—Mami Suzuki: Private Eye - Books on Asia

Nov 2, 2023 | booksonasia.net | Amy Chavez

Review by Tina deBellegardeWith Mami Suzuki: Private Eye, Simon Rowe delivers a delightful twist on the traditional private investigator (PI) novel. This charming new sleuth is a middle-aged single mother from Kobe who sleuths in her off-hours to help cover the household expenses for herself, her mother and her young daughter. Suzuki is no Miss Marple. Fashionable but frugal, professional and low-key, she struggles to make ends meet, and often turns to a beer or a whiskey to ease her burden.
Sailing Japan's inland sea

Sep 27, 2023 | asia.nikkei.com | Amy Chavez

SHODOSHIMA, Japan -- I am peering over the prow into the cold placid water of Japan's Seto Inland Sea. My partner is at the helm and has his eyes trained on my back as we navigate out of the port of Omi on Shodoshima, an island in Kagawa prefecture where we had tied up overnight. It is a cool, pink-hued November morning and the sun has not yet fully risen. The motor of our yacht chugs sluggishly, reluctantly.
Review—The Nature of Kyoto - Books on Asia

Sep 6, 2023 | booksonasia.net | Amy Chavez

Reviewed by John RucynskiThe Nature of Kyoto is the fifth anthology from Writers in Kyoto (WiK), a “group of published and self-published English-language authors working or living in the city.” Anthologies always run the risk of focusing on too narrow a theme, attracting a certain number of readers, but giving pause to many others who wonder whether the volume will sustain their interest.
Review—A Passion for Japan - Books on Asia

May 12, 2023 | booksonasia.net | Amy Chavez