Moresukine: Uploaded Weekly from Tokyo: Expat in Japan Experiences All Things Japanese as Ordered Online [Paperback]

Dick Schwieger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During a year abroad in Tokyo, German comic artist Schwieger issued a dare to fans on his blog to send him assignments to complete and document. In this collection of entries, Schwieger successfully blends travelogue and graphic novel as he chronicles his time among the Japanese. The assignments range from the expected (eat sushi with plenty of wasabi and try the deadly fugu) to the bizarre (ride a rooftop roller coaster; go to a para para trance dance). The most endearing entries are often those where the assignment is vague: when asked about his most awkward social interaction, Schwieger depicts his battle with complicated Japanese toilets. In addition to his own assignments, Schwieger sent messages to comics artists around the globe, tasking them with finding and drawing their interaction with a Japanese person. Among the participants are James Kochalka (American Elf) and Ryan North, a Toronto artist who uses the same illustrations with different captions for his daily Dinosaur Comics. Schwieger's black-and-white ink drawings beautifully evoke the wide range of Japanese culture, from the serene to the absurd. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

From January to June 2006, Schwieger devoted his comics blog about a sojourn in Japan to his readers’ choices of topics. Bizarre youth fashions, his most awkward moment as a foreigner, rooftop roller coasters, gender conventions, para para dancing (in which everyone simultaneously executes the same motions), going to a love hotel (Schwieger forebears showing with whom he went—and you need a partner to get in), yankii (i.e., slacker) youth gangs, the Bauhaus-style Hara Museum, and Japanese slang are some of the 24 cultural particulars he reports on in bold freehand drawings and lettering. Last comes eating the famous, could-kill-you delicacy tessa fugu, an episode that devolves in a cascade of images from all the assignments that ends with flat-black “cards.” Six months later, Schwieger challenged other comics bloggers to find and talk with Japanese where they (the bloggers) lived and report to him. James Kochalka (American Elf) is among the 10 who took him up, but the less famous others’ responses are as good or better than his. An intriguing variation of the travelogue comic. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: NBM Publishing (October 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561635375
• ISBN-13: 978-1561635375
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea, mediocre execution, February 4, 2010

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Moresukine: Uploaded Weekly from Tokyo: Expat in Japan Experiences All Things Japanese as Ordered Online (Paperback)

In 2006, the author, a German translator and artist working in English, was living in Tokyo. As a sort of social experiment, he put out a call for readers of his online comics to suggest places he ought to go in the city and people he ought to see and activities he ought to experience. He undertook to faithfully execute these commissions regardless of his own preferences and to report the results graphically. A very interesting idea -- but, unfortunately, a very mediocre execution. Some of the projects were obvious choices by third parties, like eating fugu, the potentially lethal fish which causes several dozen deaths in Japan every year. Some destinations are less known but very worthwhile, like a visit to Mount Takao, the unbelievably gorgeous wilderness area on the western outskirts of Tokyo which seems like a visit to another world. Some are kind of interesting, like spending the night in a pod hotel. Others, though, are puzzling and insufficiently explained: What is the purpose and method of operation of the "telephone clubs"? (Is this like phone sex, or what?) What, exactly, is the history and mission of the Studio Ghibli Museum, or the Hara Museum? (The author seems to know more than he tells, perhaps assuming his readers will know as much about certain comparatively obscure artists as he does.) Perhaps part of the problem is the brevity of the report on each assignment, which required the omission of what would have been useful context. At the end of the book are similar exercises by ten of Schwieger's peers who were asked to interact with a Japanese person. Most of these are not very good, with the exception of the anonymous Parisian creator of "Monsieur de Chien." which is also the longest contribution by far. This could have been a much, much more interesting work. The title, incidentally, is the Japanese approximation of the pronunciation of "Moleskin," the beautifully made (and not inexpensive) bound notebooks which are a guilty pleasure of writers, journalists, and artists everywhere.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is That All There Is?, June 21, 2009

By 

A. Flores - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moresukine: Uploaded Weekly from Tokyo: Expat in Japan Experiences All Things Japanese as Ordered Online (Paperback)

A young German man living in Japan asks people to email assignments to him that he will carry out, write about, and illustrate on a weekly basis, highlighting a foreigner's take on Japan. Interesting, but no more interesting than flipping through a travel guide like Lonely Planet or Let's Go. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book; I just feel that more insight, more laughs, and more illuminating anecdotes could be conveyed in a (photo)memoir, a novel, or a collection of short stories.