Strange Weather in Tokyo
A Novel
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Strange Weather in Tokyo
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Narrated by:
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Allison Hiroto
About this listen
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age.
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time's passing is marked by Kawakami's gentle hints at the changing seasons: from warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Strange Weather in Tokyo is a moving, funny, and immersive tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.
Photo credit: ©Hisaji Hara and Natsumi Hayashi
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Convenience Store Woman
- By: Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori - translator
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,755
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,069
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5,061
Tokyo resident Keiko Furukara has never fit in - neither in her family, nor in school - but when at the age of 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of national convenience store chain Smile Mart, she realizes instantly that she has found her purpose in life. Delighted to be able to exist in a place where the rules of social interaction are crystal clear (many are laid out line-by-line in the store's manual), Keiko does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and mode of speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Am amazing and different story
- By D.R. on 04-10-19
By: Sayaka Murata, and others
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Moshi Moshi
- By: Banana Yoshimoto, Asa Yoneda - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 8
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8
Yoshie's much-loved musician father died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimokitazawa, a traditional Tokyo neighborhood of narrow streets, quirky shops, and friendly residents, that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, despite their attempts to move forward, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left behind on the day he died, or on which she is trying—unsuccessfully—to call him. Is her dead father trying to communicate a message through these dreams?
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4 out of 5 stars
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The story is good but the performance is lacking
- By Juliana on 10-24-24
By: Banana Yoshimoto, and others
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The Ten Loves of Nishino
- By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Story4 out of 5 stars 13
Best-selling and beloved Japanese author Hiromi Kawakami (The Nakano Thrift Shop) tells the story of an enigmatic man through the voices of 10 remarkable women who have loved him. Each woman has succumbed, even if only for an hour, to that seductive, imprudent, and furtively feline man who drifted so naturally into their lives. Still clinging to the vivid memory of his warm breath and his indecipherable sentences, 10 women tell their stories as they attempt to recreate the image of the unfathomable Nishino.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable
- By Rose on 08-08-21
By: Hiromi Kawakami, and others
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Kitchen
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 223
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Story4 out of 5 stars 223
Mikage is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend, Yoichi, and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.
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5 out of 5 stars
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First Time is the Charm
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-22-19
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 502
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 435
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Story4 out of 5 stars 436
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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Sweet Bean Paste
- By: Durian Sukegawa, Alison Watts - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thank you, it was a joy to listen
- By Wendy Agnes on 05-03-25
By: Durian Sukegawa, and others
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There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
- By: Kikuko Tsumura, Polly Barton - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story4 out of 5 stars 131
A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I LOVED it
- By Rose on 09-29-21
By: Kikuko Tsumura, and others
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Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Scott Keiji Takeda
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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Story4 out of 5 stars 364
Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great listen
- By Anthony on 07-30-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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Vanishing World
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 13
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Story4 out of 5 stars 12
As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Chris Reich on 04-28-25
By: Sayaka Murata
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How Do You Live
- By: Genzaburo Yoshino, Bruno Navasky, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, 15, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend.
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5 out of 5 stars
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pure joy
- By greta shlafmitz on 01-09-22
By: Genzaburo Yoshino, and others
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The Travelling Cat Chronicles
- By: Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 820
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 715
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 714
With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe. With his crooked tail - a sign of good fortune - and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a wonderful story
- By V. Brown on 11-22-18
By: Hiro Arikawa, and others
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What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
- A Novel
- By: Michiko Aoyama
- Narrated by: Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 408
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 357
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 356
What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it. A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose. In Komachi’s unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The power of honesty and an open mind
- By ili pika on 09-10-23
By: Michiko Aoyama
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Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 570
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 506
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Story4 out of 5 stars 503
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
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Diary of a Void
- A Novel
- By: Emi Yagi, David Boyd - translator, Lucy North - translator
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 53
When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job to escape sexual harassment at her old one, she finds that as the only woman at her new workplace—a manufacturer of cardboard tubes—she is expected to do all the menial tasks. One day she announces that she can’t clear away her coworkers’ dirty cups—because she’s pregnant and the smell nauseates her. Except Ms. Shibata is not pregnant. But she has a nine-month ruse to keep up. Before long, it becomes all-absorbing, and with every stage of her “pregnancy,” the boundary between her lie and her life begins to dissolve.
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1 out of 5 stars
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whiny lost woman
- By Pam Haynes on 12-01-23
By: Emi Yagi, and others
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All the Lovers in the Night
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Mirai
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4 out of 5 stars 81
Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copyeditor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyoku stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable listen
- By Rose on 05-16-22
By: Mieko Kawakami
Great Story
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Loved it
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Lovely story
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enjoyed. not my usual
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read this gentle love story
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Beautifully written work about life
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Very charming
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A Little Too Cool for Me
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I've listened to the book twice in a row. It's a nice leisurely listen, especially if you are interested in Japanese daily life, Japanese food, culture, nature, or quiet and gradual romance.
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
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Beautiful descriptions, lackluster characters
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