a book review, sort of

I finished Memoirs of a Geisha last night. I am not much of a reader, although I should be, I just need a little help getting started. My friend Jenn gave me this to read. Most of the novels I've read are books people have loaned me.

This was great for my mind... the writing was incredible.

I just love the use of words in this book to describe things. Here are a couple of examples...

"I'd sometimes hear her stomach making noises from hunger that sounded like an enormous door rolling open."

"She seemed to regard her hair the way a train regards its smokestack: it was just the thing that happened to be on top."

In my mind I saw some of the characters as people I know, and it brought back memories of my 1994 trip to Japan. I stayed with my friend Kaori and her parents and sister in Shizuoka. We did some traveling too, including Tokyo and Kyoto.


This is our friend Kazumi. When I thought of what Mameha in the book must look like, I thought of Kazumi. I used to joke that Kazumi is the lady on the box of orange Celestial Seasonings tea.







We went to a sumo tournament in Tokyo. This was nothing like watching American sports!





Here's a guy with a rickshaw in Kyoto.

Kaori's neighbor was a professional kimono dresser, and another neighbor was a photographer. The lady here dressed us up and then we got our pictures taken. Yes, I know I'm sporting a headband. I'm not the only one who wore a headband in 1994.





We visited another friend, Tomoko, who lives in a house surrounded by rice farms. Nobody in the book made me think of Tomoko, because there is nobody like Tomoko, real or fictional. She is the one there on the moped.







Tomoko's dad there on the left of this picture, for some reason came to my mind as Chiyo's father in the book, even though his head looks nothing like an egg.
This boy is Tomoko's nephew, proof that Japanese kids are not much different from American kids. I love the face he's making. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Here's Kaori and her mom. I guess you could call this the livingroom. That sumo wrestler on T.V. is the one who won the tournament while I was there. Takahanada. I still remember his name. People were so excited they kept yelling it when he came into the ring.

Anyway, back to the book... as soon as I read the first chapter I couldn't put it down. I brought other books along with me on vacation to read in St. Martin, but all I read was this.

On Friday Jenn, who loaned this to me, is coming over to my house and we're going to watch the movie. We're going to make it a matinee, while George is still at work. This is not a guy kind of movie for sure. George is not the least bit interested in this.