I realized almost too late that today marks one full year of tracking English translations and intermittently reporting on Japanese publishing and literary news.

When I started the site, I was unemployed and looking for a way to funnel my energies into something somewhat productive. Now I work, and while it has proven difficult to be as active with this site as it was when I began, I am proud of what I have accomplished, and the tiny service I provide to those interested in Japanese literature. To those of you that have stuck around, discovered me in the meantime, or else just found me yesterday looking for Murakami and Nobel Prize news (too bad for you), thank you for coming, and I hope you continue to add me to your RSS and Twitter feeds and weekly/monthly/whenever visits.

Book reviews should be back up and on a regular schedule shortly (I’ve been stuck on one book for months that has kind of drained me for all others), and I’m thinking I’ll start doing the new release tracking again, if on a smaller scale, i.e., highlighting only the books that seem interesting to me.

And now, for no real reason, my favorite enka song: