タグ: Food_ENG

★★★★★  For a woman to eat oily food, gain a few kilo and have a fun life is a shameful thing. She must give up a lot, including her sanity, to go beyond. Then, there is a place where she can eat what she wants, a life of rich and luxurious butter.

🔽 log 🔽
Butter
Asako Yuzuki, 2017
Read in 2025.11


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Finally read Butter, the book everyone is talking about, in Japan, in the UK and beyond.

The power of Kajimana is the core, a pale chubby middle aged woman with an undeniable attraction, who is a suspect of murdering her lovers - she hates two things, margarine and feminist.
The book is about the power struggle between the two women; Kajimana and Rika a journalist.
Well actually no, it is always Kajimana who has the control over everything Rika does, including when she sleeps with her boyfriend and what she should eat afterwards when and where, as if her pale chubby arms is grabbing the life of Rika.
It's a struggle to escape the chubby arm of control.

It's a bestseller worldwide, but this is very Japan.
You'd enjoy it more if you know how horrible Japanese society is to women, even today (and if you know how expensive butter is there)
It's a very normal thing to criticise or joke about the weight of a woman in public, and a woman is expected to worry about her appearance constantly and forever.
For a woman to eat oily food, gain a few kilo, have a fun life is a shameful thing. God forbit.
So especially in Japan, for a woman, to have a good life for herself requires more energy.
You must give up a lot, including your sanity, in order to get there.
But as you get there, there is a place where you can eat what you want, a life of rich and luxurious butter.

This book is not merely a feminist book, that'd be an easy observation.
As women become free from the society's cruel and unrealistic expectations, men are also freed from the unreasonable expectation of manliness.

The novel is based on a real life crime in Japan, but before you know it it becomes less about the crime and the mystery but more about you and me and the society we live in.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Butter: The Cult Japanese Bestseller about a Serial Killer Cook (Food and Murder) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Butter: THE No. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING SENSATION

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Butter (italiano)

★★★★★ It’s often said that being useful for others is the meaning of life, but maybe, the meaning of life, the meaning itself, is simply to feel “ah this is good”. The happiness that the humble sweet beans can bring will give you that feeling.

🔽 log 🔽
Sweet Bean Paste
Durien Sukegawa, 2015
Read in 2025.12


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

It's so warm, like a hug, you feel the warmth that's probably happiness.

It's often said that being useful for others is the meaning of life, but I'm not sure, isn't it more like a feeling of significance living in a society, and that's a great thing.
But maybe, the meaning of life, the meaning itself, is simply to feel "ah this is good"

Here the main characters had all suffered, and they met, and they shared the same sweet beans.
Tokue suffered from leprosy the disease, and after recovering, she suffered from the society's prejudice and ignorance.
I myself also didn't know that there were facilities until the 90s in Japan, and that is the horror of ignorance and I'm part of it.

By chance, I made my first sweet beans last year, and I also made dorayaki several times after that.
I found a "quick and easy recipe" online, "quick" but you'd still need to soak the beans from the night before and cook for several hours.
I'd love writing about my first delicious, slightly hard, sweet beans I made all day here, but I instead I tell you the feeling was definitely the happiness.
The happiness that the humble sweet beans can bring, something that takes hours to make but needs 2 seconds to eat, to say, ah this is good.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Sweet Bean Paste: The International Bestseller

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Sweet Bean Paste: The International Bestseller

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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