When my husband and I were in Cavendish (Avonlea), P.E.I. several years ago, we both noticed there were a lot of Japanese tourists visiting the Green Gables site. I asked one of the Japanese schoolgirls there why Anne of Green Gables was so popular in Japan, and she held her hand over her mouth and giggled.

Then another girl who could speak some English touched her own braided hair and answered, “Akage no Anne. She’s very popular in Japan. Akage no Anne means ‘Anne with red hair.'” She told me they read about Anne Shirley in their English textbooks at school.

This is a little fact I tucked away for years until I ran across this site that explains more detail. This is from the Prince Edward Island government website: Anne of Green Gables.

I’m quoting directly:

“In Japan, Montgomery became part of the school curriculum in 1952. In 1939, when New Brunswick missionary, Miss Shaw, left Japan, she gave to her friend Hanako Muraoka her prized copy of Anne of Green Gables. Secretly, the respected Japanese translator rendered Montgomery’s text into Japanese, Akage No Anne (Anne of the Red Hair).

When the Second World War ended and officials were looking for uplifting Western literature for the schools, Muraoka brought out her translation of Anne. Ever since, Anne has been a part of Japanese culture, with her exotic red hair and comic outspokenness.

Yuko Izawa’s recently published bibliography of editions gives some idea of the continuing popularity of Montgomery in Japan (see Credits under Works Cited). Today, there is an Anne Academy in Japan; there are national fan clubs; one nursing school is nicknamed “The Green Gables School of Nursing” and is sister school with the University of Prince Edward Island’s School of Nursing.

Thousands of Japanese come to Prince Edward Island every year as visitors to Anne country and the Land of Green Gables. When the National Park house called Green Gables caught fire in May 1997, the Japanese responded immediately by sending money to restore and repair the building. Dozens of glossy Japanese magazines have devoted whole issues to photographs of Island scenery and crafts and of course to the sites devoted to Montgomery and her works.”

This completely fascinates me!

As I’ve been reading through the Anne of Green Gables series this year, one thing really strikes me about Montgomery’s writing — her descriptions of setting. The beauty of Prince Edward Island is what attracts us so much to the world of Anne — and I can’t help but imagine how Japanese readers feel when they’re reading it.

Japan is densely populated, with many people living in high-rise apartments surrounded by noise and concrete. Anne’s world was one filled with beauty, quiet, nature, and peace. It’s something few of us have, yet all of us long for.

I can’t believe this video — this is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen! It’s the little Shopping Penguin who waddles to the fish store to buy fish for his family. Now my kids want to go to Japan to meet this little guy. You gotta see his Pingu backpack!

Brandy at The Building Brows tagged me for this meme. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve done one of these. Here are five things people (probably) don’t know about me that I don’t mind sharing:

1. I played Mary Todd Lincoln in our 8th grade play, “The Blue and the Gray.” I wore my mom’s old prom dress with hoops, made by my grandmother. I was a nervous wreck practicing my speech — but when I got in front of the audience, it was mysteriously fun. I couldn’t see people’s faces because of the bright lights — and I felt … like I was … Mary Todd Lincoln. Weird.

2. I used to dream of going to the Olympics as a gymnast. Really dream. I came home from gymnastics practice every day with new bruises, covered in chalk from the bars. I loved having special friends who only knew me from the gym, separate from school. At school, I was painfully shy; at the gym, I was outgoing and fun. (It was like having my own private Terabithia, for those of you who get that.)

3. Our family owned a horse for three years named “The Bandit’s Delight.” My sister and I went riding every day after school at a stable a few miles from my house. (It’s now a subdivision). Bandit liked carrots and sugar cubes — and he’d tilt his head to the side and finish off a Coke, if we wanted to share with him. Those were very happy days for me and my sister. I still love the sweet smell of hay in a barn and the sound of rain on a tin roof.

4. I may or may not have a fake talent for clogging. Whenever I pretended to clog in college, it got all my dorm friends laughing. This led to my being nominated for the “Rodeo Queen” contest by my sorority. I actually had to go be interviewed for this role by the president of the agricultural fraternity, and the day of the rodeo, the five of us who were finalists were driven around the arena in the back of a pick-up truck. I wore a borrowed cowboy hat and boots. When they called my name, enough people whooped and hollered for me, so I received a silver tray engraved with my title, “Rodeo Queen.” My husband gets a kick out of calling me this.

5. I’ve eaten fugu before, the Japanese blowfish that, if prepared the wrong way, is so poisonous it can kill you. I ate some at a ryokan (Japanese hotel) with my homestay family on the island of Kyushu. It tasted good — and was very expensive. After we ate fugu, we played a rowdy card game of “Uno,” our favorite.

That’s my five. I’m tagging YOU because I don’t know who hasn’t done this yet. Thanks, Brandy!

I’ve been culling my book collection today … no easy task for me. But I simply MUST! I’ve received so many great books lately, I’ve got to find places to put them. So that means cleaning off my shelves to make room. (I’m donating them to our local public library, which has a permanent used book sale.)

As I was going through our books, I wished I had more time to organize them into categories. One day when I have time — ha! I would really LOVE to organize my Japanese books. I bought quite a few at Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore in Osaka. They had the most fantastic Japanese language section — and I actually made a lot of friends there with fellow gaijin (foreigners). That’s where I learned to teach English!

Today I came across my all-time favorite Japanese language book, and I was near breathless as I typed it into Amazon to see if it’s still in print. It is! Read Japanese Today by Len Walsh was published in 1969, and it is the most wonderful introduction to Nihongo I’ve ever read. If anyone has any other favorites, please let me know!

Here’s what the back of the book says:
“Far from being a complex and mysterious script, Japanese writing is actually a simple, fascinating pictographic system, easily understood and readily mastered. It need no longer baffle visitors to Japan — with the new approach in this concise and entertaining book you will be able to read 300 of the most common and useful characters in just a few hours …”

If you have any interest in Japanese language or culture, you MUST read this book. It will simplify all the kanji down to pictures, showing you how the picture became the written character. I’m going to reread this book again tonight. It’s a quick, enjoyable read.

Before I studied Japanese, I didn’t understand the people over there. Everything was weird and different — and though I wasn’t a bit homesick, I felt like an oaf with a “high nose” and American accent. But God led me to an English-speaking church in south Osaka which met on Sunday nights, where the pastor and many church members were from New Zealand. They were all fluent in Nihongo, and told me I must study it or the country would never make sense to me.

So I did. Very intensely. I took language lessons at least two hours a day, five days a week, mostly for free taught by volunteers or in exchange for English lessons. Then I pushed myself and got into a Japanese university, which was incredible. I’m sure I’ve written about this before here, but I don’t feel like scrounging around in my archives right now.

This book opened my eyes and heart to Nihonjin (Japanese people). Reading it again brings back so many memories. Sometimes I wonder what in the world God wants me to do with these little tidbits that rumble around in my mind — certainly not handy for most polite dinner conversation. For now, I’m having a fascinating time researching my novel for NaNoWriMo. Maybe I’ll find a sympathetic editor someday who is looking for a children’s writer crazy about Japan. (If you are this editor, please contact me!)

I’m off to read … Oyasumi nasai.

P.S. The character on the front of this book is higashi, which means East.

If you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month, how’s it coming? I’ve read on a few people’s blogs the up-and-down woes of pounding the keys day after day, trying to reach that magical 50k mark at the end of the month. I’m simply amazed at people who can write, then blog about what they’re writing and get feedback from readers. I can’t do that!

In fact, I was feeling guilty a couple of weeks ago that I’m not telling anyone what I’m working on. Why do I feel this need to keep it all a secret? There’s nothing new under the sun, of course. My story is simply a recycled theme, coupled with my own life experiences and imagination.

Then I started doing some research on children’s author, Katherine Paterson, and I came across her acceptance speech for the Scott O’Dell Award. She started her speech by saying, “As many of you may know, I do not talk about a book while I am working on it. Even my husband is left in the dark until I present him with the messy first draft.”

Ah, relief! It’s OK not to talk about a work in process. It gives me freedom to create while my piece is still in the quiet darkness of my mind and heart. I’ve already changed some character’s names — and I’m sadly thinking about letting one of my characters go. It’s painful, but I think he might be better off in another story.

The more I’ve gotten into writing, the more I’ve realized my need to study how the masters do it. I thought it would come naturally from all the reading I’ve done, but there’s a craft to novel writing — and I don’t have it yet!

I read through Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method, and I’ve worked on several of his steps with my plot and characters. He forced me to think about the design of my whole story, instead of letting my characters plod along and do as they pleased. And I’ve come to a horrible realization about my main character.

She’s too nice.

At least she’s too nice in the beginning. In fact, as I’ve plotted my book’s design using the Snowflake Method, I’m realizing that the problem with my book right now is that there’s not a major problem at all. I’ve just got some nice characters meeting each other, getting involved in a few humorous situations, helping each other, and then we tie things up nicely.

Nice does not a novel make.

I realize now I’ve got to go back and rewrite my first chapter and make my character not so nice. She’s got to have some flaws, some areas for growth — so that by the end of the novel, she’s changed a bit. And I’ve got to include more danger, more action, more antagonists. If everything is so nice and spiffy, then what will readers gain from reading the book? My readers don’t lead perfect, shiny lives — so they’re not going to care about characters who are polished up in the beginning.

It’s going to be hard. Since I’m the one writing the story, and I know how it’s going to end up, I don’t want to change the beginning and poke all these holes in my character. I love her, and I want readers to love her right away too. But she’s got to come to a “shocking realization” about herself (which appears in my one-sentence summary of the book).

So now I see how I must try to rewrite that opening chapter — actually much of the book will need to be rewritten. You see, my readers will be kids, and kids are smart. Especially kids who’d rather be reading a book than watching TV or playing boring video games.

As for my NaNoWriMo progress, I’ve decided to rename my file “The Process of Writing (Novel Title).” In this file, I’m tossing in everything I’ve worked on this month. My daily journal entries that go along with writing out scenes, my character’s autobiographies, my prayers (Lord, please help me write what you want me to write), a few emails from encouraging writerly friends, and bits of dialogue my own children say.

With all this, I’m up to 37,000 words. So I will hopefully keep going a few more days and reach the finish mark. But I’ll have to write by long-hand when we’re traveling to visit family this week because I don’t have a laptop. (sigh.)

Yet Robin Lee Hatcher says she writes her character autobiographies by long-hand, so maybe this will be good for me after all. I think you use a different part of your brain to write by hand as compared to typing.

Many times during this busy month of writing, I’ve felt God speak to me. I know it was Him because the experiences are so powerful, I’ve been overwhelmed to tears. For example, part of my story takes place in the 40s, and one day I was feeling frustrated that I needed so much more time to research.

Then I went to a meeting, and we had a guest speaker, a well-known writer in my hometown who writes a weekly newspaper column. (I’d met her once, when I bought a book she edited.) When she stood up to give her speech, she showed us all some newspapers from the 40s, with headlines screaming about important events that appear in my novel. She talked about what it was like for her. I hope no one in the meeting saw me scrunch down in my seat and wipe away tears.

Another time, I was thinking, This whole writing thing is such a waste of my time. I’m no good. I can’t possibly write a novel. There are several Japanese elements in my story, and I was thinking that there are tons of people who could write about this better than me. I was pushing my cart through Wal-Mart, blessedly alone, while I thought these things. Then I looked up, and I was standing in the Asian section of the store.

There were boxes, packages, and cans of my favorite foods that I remember eating in Japan! The Japanese words jumped out at me, and I could still read them. For example, Wal-Mart carries the “Sapporo Ichiban” brand of Ramen. I could hear the commercial in my head that I watched on TV hundreds of times when I lived there. Again, I was moved to tears, and even though the store was packed, there was no one but me on this aisle, so nobody saw me. Write, my child. Write what’s on your heart.

One day, I got an email from my husband, asking if I’d be interested in going to a particular writing conference next year. This was all his idea. We talked about it, and I decided to get up in the morning and use my NaNoWriMo word count goal to register for the conference. I also signed up for a one-day intensive writing workshop, where you read a part of your work out loud to an editor or agent.

A few days later, I got a package in the mail, confirming my registration. When I went back to the site to check something online, two words jumped out at me: SOLD OUT. The workshop I’m signed up for is now sold out. I couldn’t believe it. If it weren’t for my husband’s prodding, I wouldn’t have a spot. Again, I was overcome with tears!

So, as you see, I’ve become quite an emotional basket case this month! I have so little time to write, only in the wee morning hours, but as I go along my days, I’m listening to my children more closely than ever, jotting down their exact words on sticky notes, studying their actions … and moving … slowly … along … in my dream of writing a children’s novel.

In living this way, I’ve never felt such JOY of being a mom! It’s like my characters are alive in my own home!

And you? What are you dreaming about this week?

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. May God bless you with a wonderful celebration of His love!

My ten-year-old son loves origami — don’t most kids? He’s made hundreds of paper airplanes, perfecting his technique to figure out which ones fly best.

His next favorite thing to fold from paper is a cicada. I find these all over his room, made from every kind of paper imaginable. He really loves making these things. They look good if the paper is different colors on both sides, like origami paper. But newspapers work fine too.

I found a video showing how to make them, and found her hands easy to follow along. Origami is something fun to do together with your kids when it’s cold outside. It’s cheap too — that’s important! And when you’re done, you can throw everything away without adding to piles of clutter in your house (if you have that problem too.)

This colorful site also has nice diagrams of how to make a paper ship, rabbit, frog, and other animals.

Is anyone reading here joining in NaNoWriMo? November is National Novel Writing Month, and last year there were 59,000 participants in this crazy month-long writing jamboree.

I’m in, I think. At least I signed up, and I’ve been jotting notes into a couple of computer files the past week. A few people in my online writing group are signed up as well, and they’re all involved in local kick-off parties this weekend.

Instead of attending novel writing parties, I’m helping out at two Fall Carnivals — at my kids’ school and at our church. My husband and I are actually manning the “football booth” at one of the carnivals, so that should be interesting.

But my head is in the clouds a little bit, and I’m still dreaming of writing a novel. I’ve given some thought lately to the genre. I’ve read a lot of great Christian fiction lately and have decided I’m a huge fan of humorous chick-lit and mom-lit — Kristin Billerbeck and Tracey Bateman both whisk me away by making me laugh.

I don’t see how these women do it. Tracey and Kristin are around my age, both have four children, and yet they write CBA-bestselling novels. Tracey’s publicist sent me her Claire Knows Best book, and I felt like I’d just met my new best friend when I met her character, Claire Everett. You’ll love her too, if you like humorous mom-lit. Somehow Tracey has found time to publish 25 books — and did I mention she’s my age?

Both these novelists cut their teeth on writing romance. Did you know half of all fiction sold is romance? It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. But I don’t want to write adult romance. At least not now. That seems kind of weird to me, like sneaking around to watch another couple kiss. You’ve really got to live with your characters to write about them — and I don’t want to live with another couple.

I’m not a chick-lit writer either because I just don’t know all that much about fashion and shoes — and you’ve really got to if you jump in that genre. Allison Bottke’s character Dee in A Stitch in Time is a fashion aficionado, and all of Kristin’s characters are into shoes, handbags, the works. Unfortunately, I’m not into shoes — can’t be, unless I want to sell a car or maybe our house. My shoes come from Target or wherever else I can find something on sale. I don’t even look at the name brand — just see if it fits and doesn’t hurt to wear.

But writing for kids — now it’s no problem for me to listen to how kids talk, see what they’re interested in, what they’re reading. Why not write stories my kids would want to read? I was praying for inspiration yesterday and took my fivesome to the library after school to replenish our book supply. I wandered through the kids’ stacks and noticed which authors have a shelf full of books.

Judy Blume, of course, still selling books she wrote 30 years ago. Beverly Cleary — what a wonderful writer — didn’t she have fun living with her character, Ramona Quimby, a few years? Betsy Byars has two shelves in our library — I checked out her memoir about three years ago, and so I checked it out again yesterday to see if I could find one of my all-time favorite quotes. (I just visited her website, and she’s still going strong from her home in South Carolina — she’s published over 60 books since 1962, including the Newbery medal-winning Summer of the Swans.)

Ah … found it. From Betsy Byars, The Moon and I. Betsy tells her readers, “Plenty of good scraps are as important in making a book as in the making of a quilt. I often think of my books as scrapbooks of my life, because I put into them all the neat things that I see and read and hear. I sometimes wonder what people who don’t write do with all their good stuff.”

And here’s another quote that made me laugh. Betsy is a mother of four, and she started writing back in the late 50s when she had two children. There’s a picture of her family in the book, with her husband and two oldest. The caption reads: “Urbana, Illinois, 1956. Behind us are the barracks where I began to write. I really had two choices — write or lose my mind.”

Ha! I can relate. Writing is a good thing to do when you have little kids in the house and you feel like you’ve lost a sense of who you are, but you don’t want to lose your mind.

Yesterday, my 18-month-old pulled some books off a bookshelf in our living room, and when I went to put them back up later, I saw this book that I’d forgotten about, Novelist’s Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book from Boring to Bestseller.

So that’s what I’m reading through this weekend as I prepare to write next week. My plan is to hold all my email correspondence and take some time away from the blog — and pour all my word count into this novel. It’s a plot I thought of a couple of years ago, and I started writing it, but then our computer crashed for two weeks, and I lost it. That’s when I decided I’d focus on personal essay writing and devotionals for a while. Which I’ve done for two years now.

I’ve also had this character in mind since I was 19. I wrote about her in freshman composition — while everyone else in my class wrote adult short stories, I wrote about Sadie. I wrote about her again in my children’s literature class, and my professor asked me to read my story to the class, and they laughed at the right places. So I think this Sadie character is pretty funny.

My daughter had a friend over a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn’t believe it when her friend started saying, “I’m crazy about Japan. I wish I could learn Japanese. I want to go there someday so bad.” What!! I started speaking some Japanese to her, and I got out my Nihongo dictionary and showed her the characters and how to write her name in katakana. I kept wanting to listen to this little girl talk, and it turns out her big sister is also crazy about Japan, and wants to go live there when she graduates from high school.

So I invited their family for supper, and that night, we got out my Japanese scrapbook, and they were fascinated. This was just more fodder for my imagination. I’ve got all these plot and character seedlings … now I’ve just got to write.

I’ll be blogging light — if at all — during November, though I do have two interviews with outstanding people coming up — and I’m about to die to tell you who I’m interviewing for December Book Buzz — let’s just say she’s a pretty famous novelist, and I can’t believe I get to ask her questions. I love my day job!

Well, I wish you a happy pre-Halloween weekend — if you’re a parent, I’m sure you’ve got parties and carnivals out the wazoo. But if you’re jumping into NaNoWriMo next week, I’d love to know there are at least two of us out there who have decided we’d rather write than lose our mind!

I learned something new today — there is a Green Tea flavor of Pocky!

You Are Green Tea Pocky

Your attitude: natural and zen Peaceful yet full of life. Deep and thoughtful. You’re halfway to tantric bliss!

I read about this on Iris’ Sting My Heart blog — her son is preparing to go live in Japan, so she’s interested in Japanese culture. She is Strawberry Pocky. What flavor are you?

I’m surprised I wasn’t chocolate — because actually that’s my favorite flavor of Pocky. My mom sometimes goes to a Japanese store in Atlanta and buys some of my favorite Japanese snacks — like those adorable Koala Bear cookies that are delicious!

When I taught English in Japan, my little elementary-aged students knew that I loved Pocky, and they’d buy some for me. The strawberry kind is good too. I miss Japanese snacks — especially the “fast food” I’d eat before I taught a lesson. I’d jump off my bike, dash into a little shop, and buy some nori (seaweed) wrapped around rice and tuna. I’d eat that along with an iced green tea or a “Georgia Coffee” and be good to go for a few more hours.

Thanks, Iris, for bringing back those fun memories.

Tomorrow is the 5-year-anniversary of 9-11. There are several blogger projects going on to help us remember, such as Project 2,996.

Reading all of your stories about your moms made me think of one of my favorite memories with my mom. I posted this picture a few months ago, but it’s sitting on my desk and worthy of another story.

Let’s see — I was in my early 20s when this picture was taken. I was living in Osaka, teaching English and working for a church. I LOVED living in Japan. In fact, my mom was afraid I might never come home, so she called me every Sunday. I guess it would be different now with email, but our phone calls and paper letters were our link back then.

She came to visit me in April, at the height of the cherry blossom season. We spent the whole week in various places enjoying Ohanami, as the Japanese say. (“hana” means flower, and “mi” means “to see.”) You spread out a blanket under the cherry blossoms and enjoy a picnic. We traveled to visit friends in Tokyo and were able to stay in a little house, just the two of us. Then we took a train to Hiroshima, so Mom could do some research on the aftermath of the atomic bomb. She’s a high school chemistry teacher, and she’d been corresponding with a Japanese high school science teacher — whom we were able to visit.

Did you know that when a Japanese teacher walks into a classroom, the students all stand up and then bow to the teacher and say, “Thank you for teaching us.” We were of course in total shock. And they all wore sharp navy blue uniforms. A teacher is called SENSEI. If you study the Japanese characters (kanji), the character for “sen” means “before” and “sei” means “life.” So, if you’re a teacher, you’re a life going before your students. To be called a “sensei” is an honor, much the same as it was to call Jesus Christ “Rabbi.”

This picture was made in Kyoto, I think, in front of one of the shrines. One of the best things about living in Osaka is that it’s in the heart of the Kansai region, right in the center of Japan. Within a half-hour train ride, I could get to Kyoto, Nara, or Kobe, three of the most beautiful cities in Japan. I went to each of those places dozens of times. I had some kind of adventure nearly every weekend.

I used to be in such good shape back then — I rode my bike and walked everywhere, teaching about three classes a day in people’s houses or in jukus (after-school schools.) I also studied the Japanese language several times a week in various places. There were volunteer organizations everywhere that offered free lessons in language, culture, and art. I showed up for everything!

When my mom came to visit, she had to run to keep up with me. I didn’t even realize what a fast-paced life I was living. I had to catch the exact bus I needed to make it on time for my lessons, and if I was running late, I just had to jog or pedal faster. I never had to do housework or cook because I lived in a single room both of those years — one year with a Japanese family and another year in a gaijin (foreigner) boarding house. I ate most of my meals out — fast food in Japan means fish and rice, with a side of miso soup.

We spent a great week together, but what Mom was most interested in was, “Heather, when are you coming home?” She made sure I knew that I’d left a gap back in Georgia.

I thought about staying there forever. But, eventually, I came back home to fill in that gap. And I’ve been here ever since.

Amanda of following an unknown path is hosting the Carnival this week. Our topic is “The Beauty of Flowers.” Very timely, don’t you think? What are the flowers like in your part of the world?

In thinking back to the time I lived in Japan, I remember how passionate my Japanese friends were about the plum and cherry blossoms. Everyone went to the park together to celebrate the spring flowers! I lived with a Japanese family for a year, and I remember being in awe that my homestay mother received a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers every week — delivered right to her front door.

She arranged them in a special alcove in the entrance hall, the tokonoma. She taught me that in the Japanese art form of arranging flowers, ikebana, the space between the flowers was just as important as the flowers themselves. That advice has always stuck with me. It’s the same as in music — the pause between sound is what makes the melody. I once attended a national ikebana exhibition, and I was amazed — not only at the flowers but at the people — they seemed to be in no hurry and would stop to stare at an arrangement, seeming to admire the perfect placement of every delicate petal.

I’m not very good at arranging flowers. I wish I were. My mom and mother-in-law have that touch of being able to make anything look pretty in a vase. I keep piddling around and make things look worse. I do have the knack for putting a small tuft of freshly pulled wildflowers in a vase on the kitchen table — I give myself grace since they look childlike. Those are the bouquets I enjoy the most around here. And like my Japanese homestay mom, they’re always delivered fresh.

Our spring is just beginning here in the Southeast U.S. We’ll soon have bright bursts of azaleas all over our hometown. The dogwood trees are popular as well, and maybe I’ll remember in a few weeks to blog about the spiritual meaning of the dogwood blossom. It has a lot to do with Easter.

Here’s a picture of some native azaleas and dogwoods. This little chapel is on St. Simon’s Island, off the coast of Georgia. Wouldn’t his be a nice place to sit and ponder the beauty of flowers?

True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.
Isaiah 40:8 (The Message)