First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

One night when she is drinking alone in a local bar, Tsukiko finds herself sitting next to her former high school teacher. Over the coming months they share food and drink saké, and as the seasons pass – from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms – Tsukiko and her teacher develop a hesitant intimacy that tilts awkwardly and poignantly towards love.

Happy Friday everyone! Technically it is already Monday; I know, I am beyond late once again. Last Friday, I was too tired to write a post because I just came off an exhausting climb. I reached the summit of Yushan, the highest peak in Taiwan, for the second time around. It was a fulfilling experience as always. It was even more memorable because I got to lead the climbing team, the first time I was allowed to do so. However, it zapped my energy because it also entailed climbing steep slopes toward the summit and walking/running roughly 27 kilometers of trails. Anyway, I hope everyone had memorable experiences as well in the past three days. I hope everyone was able to spend the weekend resting or pursuing their passions. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

I also can’t help but notice how time has been flying fast. Just like that, today is the last day of March which also means the end of the first quarter of the year. Tomorrow, we will be welcoming a fresh month and quarter. Time really waits for no one as it simply takes its natural course. Regardless, how has your 2025 been? I hope it is going great or how you wanted it to. If the year goes otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune in the coming months. I hope all positive energies flow into you. I hope that you are well on your way to achieving your goals this year. Personally, I have several goals, reading-wise. One of my goals this year is to expand my foray into translated literature. As such, I kicked off my 2025 reading journey with the works of East Asian writers.

This brings me to my current read, Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo, the book I am featuring in this late First Friday Impression update. In a way, reading Strange Weather in Tokyo aligns with some mini-goals. For one, I have been exploring Japanese literature further; the primary reason for opening the year with works of East Asian literature was my failure to host a Japanese literature month in 2024. the first time in a while that I failed to do so. Further, I have been reading works of female East Asian writers in March in commemoration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. Speaking of Kawakami, her latest translated novel, Under the Eye of the Big Bird, has been longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. I already read the book. However, if there is one work that made Kawakami a household name, it would be Strange Weather in Tokyo.

Originally published in 2001 as センセイの鞄 (Sensei no kaban), the novel won the 37th Tanizaki Prize. In 2012, the book was made available to Anglophone readers with a translation by Allison Markin Powell with the title The Briefcase. It was later republished as Strange Weather in Tokyo. The novel charts the fortunes of thirty-seven-year-old Tsukiko Omachi, a woman living a solitary existence in Tokyo. She used to work at an office and spent her free time alone in her apartment, reading books, bathing, and talking to herself. The landscape of her life was altered by a serendipitous encounter with an individual from her past. At a local bar near Tokyo Station called Satoru’s, Tsukiko ran into sixty-seven-year-old Harutsuna Matsumoto.

Matsumoto had been observing Tsukiko for some time before finally approaching her to confirm if she was indeed Tsukiko Omachi. Tsukiko soon realizes that the man who approached her was once her high school teacher. As such, Tsukiko started referring to Matsumoto as sensei. Over the following months, the two kept encountering each other at the bar even though they had never arranged to meet at the bar. As fate plays its fiddle, the two soon forge a friendship built around their encounters at the bar. They were slowly rebuilding their connection through their memories and shared interests. Tsukiko also soon learns that her sensei is living alone like her; he is a widower. Sensei is also rather old-fashioned and is very critical of Tsukiko’s unladylike demeanor.

Like in Kawakami’s other works, the novel feels like a patchwork, fragments woven together into a cohesive whole. It does remind me a lot of The Nakano Thrift Shop, the first Kawakami novel I read. What is slowly rising to the fore is a story about loneliness in a city that is teeming with life. I am slowly unpeeling the layers of the story and I can’t help but be embraced by tenderness through their heartwarming friendship. It seems that there is nothing romantic developing; it was all platonic. Not that I mind. I can’t wait to see how the story pans out and how the two main characters find meaning in their niche amid Tokyo’s bustling metropolis. How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!