Sunday Salon: Eat Sleep Sit and Supermarket

Tomoe, from Kodansha International, sent me a copy of Eat Sleep Sit this week. I'm so excited to read it I almost want to start the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 right now! Here's a blurb to whet your appetite:

"At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a Tokyo designer to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen monasteries in Japan and head temple of the Soto sect of Buddhism. This book is Nonomura's account of that year, and his quietly determined quest to imbue his life with Spiritual meaning."

Shocking, moving, insightful, funny and warm, Eat Sleep Sit is a warts and all story of the life of a novice Buddhist monk, grappling not just with the day-to-day mytsteries of Buddhist practice-how to eat, how to sleep, how to sit-but with fear, exhaustion, hunger and loneliness.

A bestseller in Nonomura's native Japan, this beautifully written and inspiring memoir is a fascinating insight into a life of hardship that few people could endure. Eat Sleep Sit will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism and to anyone with an interest in the story of one ordinary man's search for spiritual enlightenment."

Also, thanks to Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of, I have this treasure, Supermarket by Satoshi Azuchi:

"A perennial bestseller and modern classic in Japan, Supermarket is an epic journey of one man's attempt to find meaning in life and a brilliant evocation of Japan's postwar economic and cultural upheaval.

Set in Tokyo in the aftermath of WWII, Supermarket tells the story surrounding the management of a supermarket chain at a time when the phenomenon of the supermarket, imported from the United States, was just taking hold in Japan.

When Kojima, an elite banker, quits his job in order to help his cousin manage Ishiei, a supermarket in one of Japan's provincial cities, a host of problems ensues. Kojima discovers that store managers are stealing products, the books are in disarray, and the workers seem stuck in old-fashioned ways of thinking. As he begins to devote all his time to the relentless task of reforming the store's management, a chance encournter with a woman from his childhood cuases him to ask the age-old question: Is the all-encompassing pursuit of business success really worth it?"

Look for reviews covering both of these books in April, and please, consider joining the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 when it comes around in July.

Quite possibly you'll discover them among the prize giveaways.