I know that the MOST awesome way to resume posts after a long absence is with an impersonal list of links to other sites...and I am awesome....
When I was home, my father asked me for some recommendations of Japanese authors to read. I sat down, thought about it, came up with a good list, wrote it all down for him. Unfortunately, random bits of paper have a nasty way of disappearing, as we all know, and this bit of paper suffered that very same fate. Thus I am inscribing this list on the everlasting electronic ether, making it available to all the fine folks who have given up on this blog long ago. Enjoy!
Authors!
Edogawa Ranpo wrote detective fiction of all sorts.
Natsume Soseki is one of the fathers of modern Japanese literature and beloved by most folks here.
Yukio Mishima had a short but intense career...Shiosai (Sound of Waves) is his most accessible work and by far the most popular amongst the Japanese...but his suicide by ritual seppuku at the JSDF Headquarters eclipses his body of work in most people's minds.
Banana Yoshimoto is widely translated in English and apparently more important than I initially gave her credit for.
Haruki Murakami is much more popular abroad than he is in Japan.
Kobo Abe wrote an almost Kafka-esque book called The Woman in the Dunes. His wikipedia page offers a very tantalizing list of surrealist fiction.
I'm sure I'm leaving a few people out, but that'll get you started.
