Mari Takabayashi, illustrated by Mari Takabayashi,
I Live in Tokyo.
Houghton Mifflin, 2001

Oh, to be male in Japan on Valentine’s Day! It is the custom there, seven-year-old Mimiko explains in this cheerful month-by-month introduction to her city and culture, for girls to give chocolates to boys on February 14. Mimiko adds an aside: "This year my father gets more chocolates than my brother. He looks really happy!" Readers of I Live in Tokyo will understand how Dad feels, because the book itself is like a box of confections: each component of the winning narrative and appealing toylike illustrations is as enticing as the next.

At the book’s beginning, Mari Takabayashi’s diminutive postcard-style scenes capture both the Tokyo shopping areas’ bustling graphic overload and the Royal Palace grounds’ pastoral tranquility. Once a sense of place is established, the focus quickly shifts to Mimiko’s calendar, which details how she and her family – and presumably many Japanese people – celebrate different events throughout the year. The simply-drawn, round-faced figures exude a genuine sweetness: even the tiger in the Japanese zodiac wears a smile. Often a pleasing collection of objects accompanies Mimiko’s descriptions. In January, for instance, when Mimiko talks about how her family welcomes the new year, the colorful illustrations show examples of Japanese New Year’s cards as well as typical holiday food and an elaborately decorated kite and badminton racket. In April, when Mimiko’s class studies kanji, the characters used in Japanese writing, a frame composed of the characters for common words (mother, sun, eye) surrounds an illustration depicting the students at their desks.

While I live in Tokyo looks at tradition, it undeniably does so from a kid’s perspective, and a modern kid’s at that. In May, Mimiko discloses "My Top Ten Favorite Meals," and number four on her list is hamburger, preceded by omelet rice, tempura, and curry rice. Mimiko sits through her grandmother tea’s ceremony, but admits that "the long ceremony gets boring and my feet fall asleep." On the Shichigosan holiday in November, Mimiko at first feels "like a princess" in her kimono. Then she gets itchy and frustrated because she can’t run in all that confining material.

The book includes a short glossary of Japanese words and teaches other basic information, such as how to wear a kimono. More importantly, it reveals Mimiko’s everyday life as a vital, joyous blend of the traditional and the new. She is at once a Japanese child and any child: she sometimes does origami after school, sometimes watches TV.

Renée Victor
Winter 2001-2002