All Intensive Purposes

At Green Apple Books in San Francisco, I picked up a book called Kuhaku, the first (and only, thus far) book published by Chin Music Press, out of Seattle. It's a collection of a variety of short pieces about Japan, often about the experience of American expats there. The topics and styles range widely -- sometimes jarring, but more rewarding than the sort of obvious choices that a larger publisher would make. It's an eclectic mix. I particularly appreciated the art, and a piece describing Japanese dog owners.

Once we had Boss, my wife began booking us at "pet pensions," inns that cater to guests with pets (they should actually be called "dog pensions." I have yet to see someone bring a raccoon or an arachnid). At these inns, your pet can go everywhere you go, including the dining room. At the first pet pension we went to, there were small anchors in the dining room to which you could hook your dog's lead. Everybody eats a French dinner and their dogs lie at their feet. The dogs are not allowed to eat in the dining room; they are merely permitted to help reproduce a Norman Rockwell-like setting. Well, Norman Rockwell in kaleidoscope, because there are fifteen couples and fifteen dogs.

Much more about the book can be found here at Chin Music's site. The preface, by editor/publisher/impresario Bruce Rutledge, is here.

The book itself was printed in Iceland, by Oddi Printing, and without confirming this I'm going to surmise that they're the same folks who have printed McSweeney's -- how many Icelandic printers can be willing to take on jobs of this sort? It's a lovely little book, if you are about such things. I don't know the proper term in the trade, but it's got a string or ribbon sewn to the binding that you can use as a bookmark, a small touch that I appreciated. More information than you perhaps want to know about the cover is here.

From the Glossary:

yakuza

Buy it by clicking the very first link above, and Amazon will give me a cut. Or buy it direct from Chin Music Press.