The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion MiuraMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Young guy from Yokohama is sent by his parents to the high mountain town of Kamusari to learn a trade, grow up and become independent. They are preoccupied with a new baby and don't have time for a teen-ager with time on his hands and no direction. Yuki hates the place at first sight--he's had to take several means of transportation to even reach it, the head of the forestry training program has taken away his phone and he hasn't a clue what he's meant to be doing with a chain saw. Once his basic training is over, he is taken farther into the mountains where he joins a cedar growing outfit and one of its crews.
This town is the worst--he is placed in the home of Yoki and his wife as well as an old lady, Grannie. The young couple fight constantly, Yoki cheats on her, she doesn't like it and Grannie just takes it all in. But, Yuki decides to write about his first year in Kamusari and his tales of caring for a cedar plantation throughout the year are fascinating and awe-inspiring. The ancient traditions, the tight knit community of a small town at the end of the earth, the ways of fighting boredom in a place with no movie house, or young people, learning about cypress and cedar trees and the endless work done to maintain them as well as Yuki's eventual love of place and people are riveting.
Having finished his year long record of how the seasons change, the work changes and how he has changed , I'm now ready for Forest #2 !
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