Sam Baldwin tells John Ross about some ingredients behind the success of his self-published memoir For Fukui’s Sake: Two Years in Rural Japan (the subject of a previous chat between them on the Bookish Asia podcast). They touch on Sam’s latest memoir, Dormice & Moonshine: Falling for Slovenia. But the heart of the conversation is some travel book recommendations – and Sam’s new project: a review website dedicated to travelogues and travel memoirs: https://travelmemoir.review

Sam's Recommended books (in order of mention):

Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan (1999) by Jamie Zeppa

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer (Eng. 1953)

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (2003) and Burma Chronicles (2007) by Guy Delisle

Tonoharu (parts 1-3, 2008-16) by Lars Martinson

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001) and Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory (2010) by Peter Hessler

Lost Japan (1993) by Alex Kerr

The Same Moon (2020) by Sarah Coomber

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

In his novel China Running Dog, a young man in his early twenties lives in Shanghai in the year 2000, in a greed-crazed free-for-all moral and lawless vacuum created by the Chinese Communist Party. Johnny Trent, small-time entrepreneur from Basildon in the UK, ends up in China, where he meets Felix Fawcett-Smith, fresh off the boat and from the other side of the tracks. An unlikely friendship begins.

Johnny impresses the well-bred Felix with his street smarts until Felix takes Johnny’s advice too literally – and too far – and slips into Shanghai’s murky underbelly. He enters a world where the Party and power, and connections to them, are all that matter, where criminals are given sainthoods and saints sent to hell.

Johnny tries to stop Felix’s spiral, not least because Felix is taking a sweet, angelic girl, Anita, down with him and Johnny has feelings for Anita that he has never dared to put into words. But Felix thinks he knows best. Like Johnny, all he wants is respect.

It’s up to Johnny to save whoever he can, besides himself.

Books mentioned in this podcast: Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui, Shanghai by Richie Yokomitsu (transl. Dennis Washburn), Candy by Mian Mian

Mark’s recommended books on Asia:

Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu.

Frank Dikötter’s trilogy of China,

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers – Tim McGirk

The novel tells the story of archaeologist Ned Sheehan's discovery of two ancient Chinese tombs at a Maya site in southern Mexico. One tomb belongs to Xu Fu, a famous Taoist priest who vanished on a quest for the elixir of immortality at the behest of China’s First Emperor. The other houses the emperor’s own mother, scandalously revealed to have been Xu Fu’s lover.

Tim and John talk about what is known about Xu Fu, a historical person, and Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s obsession with immortality. They speculate on what happened to Xu Fu’s large expedition – could he have reached the Americas? Or Japan (where he is known as Jofuku)?

John recommends John Dougill’s Green Shinto website, which has several pieces regarding Xu Fu in Japan.

The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers is published by Plum Rain Press (which John runs), and is available as a paperback and ebook on Amazon stores.

Tim McGirk’s Book recommendations:

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom (2008) by Simon Winchester

The Grand Historian (also Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian (there was various translations – the original was published circa 91 BC.)

The China Voyage: A Pacific Quest by Bamboo Raft (1994) by Tim Severin

Visit Tim McGirk’s website

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

Lauren Scharf talks about Japan's minka, kominka and akiya houses in Japan.

MinkaCon 2025, is an event to be held from Nov. 7-9, in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture. The two-and-a-half-day event features discussions, presentations, workshops and a writers panel for those interested in life in the Japanese countryside and preserving traditional Japanese houses. There will be a bevy of authors present, many of whom we've featured in previous episodes of the Books on Asia podcast: Azby Brown, author of Just Enough (Ep 26); photographer and writer Everett Kennedy Brown; Alex Kerr (Lost Japan, Finding the Heart Sutra) (Ep 8) who will be beamed in via pre-recorded message; Iain Maloney author of The Only Gaijin in the Village (Ep 24); and David Joiner, author of The Heron Catchers and Kanazawa (Ep. 19).

Lauren's recommended books on Japan's countryside:

Inaka: Portraits of Life in Rural Japan (various authors)

The Only Gaijin in the Village, by Iain Maloney

The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter, by Amy Chavez

Just Enough by Azby Brown

Lost Japan by Alex Kerr

Hokkaido Highway Blues, by Will Ferguson

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

Asia Bookroom exhibits their most precious items at rare and antiquarian book fairs in Melbourne, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Look for them at the Sydney Rare Book Fair from Oct. 23-25.

In this podcast we discuss some of the items on offer at the Sydney Rare Book Fair:

The Disputed Islands Controversial Japanese Map by Hayashi Shihei from around 1790. This is a manuscript copy (written by hand), and includes the Takeshima/Dokdo islands indicating they belong to Korea.

A silk sample book from the 1950s

A Japanese policeman's notebook from shortly after Japan took over Taiwan. It details experiences with indigenous people of Taiwan.

Materials from Communist China

Books:

The Tokyo Higher Normal School: Life of the Japanese Women of Today (from 1937)

Samurai Tales: Manuscript Writing's on Revenge Killings and Loyalty

Books mentioned in the podcast:

The Shortest History of Japan, by Lesley Downer, China Running Dog by Mark Kitto, Samurai and Silk, by Haru Matsukata Reischauer.

Books recommended by Sally Burdon:

Myself a Mandarin by Austin Coates, about Hong Kong,

Country Driving by Peter Hestings

Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry

You can visit Asia Bookroom online at https://www.asiabookroom.com/

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

Adelstein introduces the people behind Mt. Gox, one of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges, based in Tokyo and run by Frenchman Mark Karpeles. As a reporter for The Daily Beast, Japan-based Adelstein starts researching Mt. Gox, to figure out how it got hacked, and how it collapsed i 2014 with over 650,000 Bitcoins gone missing. He covers the laws, customs and quirks of Japan's hostage-justice system and how the entire investigation into Karpeles and Mt. Gox played out. And yes, it includes cats!

The Devil Takes Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Crimes and the Japanese Connection will be published by Scribe, Oct. 14, 2025.

Jake is an book junkie who reads across a variety of genres. He is currently reading:

1. The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto by Benjamin Wallace about the founder of Bitcoin.
2. The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom
3. 大阪府警暴力団担当刑事
4. Yellow Face by R.F. Kuang

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

In this episode we cover traditional Japanese gardens and how ancient gardens were related to nature, geomancy, literature and Japanese concepts of wabi-sabi, yugen, and mono no aware. but how garden design shifted from symbolism and representation to a more naturalistic style as seen in Murin-an, a garden in kyoto. Essays on garden design include entries by Ogawa Jihei (1860-1933), Kengo Kuma, Mira Locher, Japanese monk & garden designer Masuno Shunmyo, and garden historian, critic, and author Tim Richardson.

Some of the gardens discussed are: Kagawa Prefectural Office in Takamatsu city, Kengo Kuma and Nezu Museum, Osaka Station Roof Garden, Hyakudanen on Awajishima Island in Hyogo (designed by Tadao Ando), the Carbon Fibre Garden in Tokyo, and the pop-art garden at Teshima Yokoo House.

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

Books discussed include:

Korean Wilds and Villages (1938) by Swedish zoologist Sten Bergman

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters, by BR Meyers

Absurdistan, by (2006) by Gary Shteyngart

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

The Cuttlefish (2005) by Chris Tharp

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.