Hanami: You, Me, & 200 Sq Ft In Japan by Julia Cejas

Younger me would be absolutely shocked to hear that I no longer have the time to read full blurbs or the back cover matter of books anymore, but such are the perils of having so much to read, and so little time to do it in! Present day me was thus quite surprised to get several pages into this book and realize that the protagonists are both foreigners who come to Japan to live for an extended period of time, and aren’t a Japanese woman and her foreign boyfriend, as many of these biographies tend to be. Perhaps that is just my confirmation bias tho, as an Asian woman and reader who is often exposed to same.

But that worked out okay because this book was even better than I expected! I was thinking that this would be the portrayal of a Japanese woman’s struggle to integrate her foreign boyfriend into her local community and culture, so was admittedly a little wary of what this actually is: the tale of two Spanish citizens with no ties to Japan besides their ambitions, moving to Tokyo to see if they can make a go of life there. Marc has just lost his job as a civil engineer and Julia is still struggling to get her career as an illustrator to take off. In their early 30s and with no dependents, what better time to pool their savings and severance pay to try to live for a while in Japan? If they happen to get jobs while they’re at it, then even better, as Marc figures he can finally pursue his lifelong dream of composing music whereas Julia can basically work from anywhere with Internet.

The couple prepare for their trip by taking language lessons in advance of enrolling in a Japanese language school while staying in Tokyo. But nothing really prepares them for actually living in a country where they know so little of the language and customs. Fortunately, Julia and Marc are ready to learn, as Ms Cejas herself beautifully and hilariously details in this autobiographical graphic novel.

Each chapter of this book is a small but powerful vignette of their stay in Japan, detailing how they learned to adjust to not only an entirely different culture but also to the forced proximity of living in a much smaller space that they’d previously been used to — excellent practice for the pandemic that would eventually tear through the world, as Ms Cejas wryly notes. Illustrated primarily in shades of red and blue, the art took me a little while to get used to, particularly when figuring out who was who, but flowed smoothly once the narration actually takes us to Japan.

The title vignette is likely the most powerful, as Ms Cejas masterfully transmits the hold that Hanami, or the traditional viewing of the cherry blossoms that bloom for such a short window once a year, has on those who experience it. I also really enjoyed her take on the local yokai, and would definitely read a whole book of hers on the subject.

But where this book really succeeded for me was in the respectful and loving way that Marc and Julia especially treat their time in Japan. They devote themselves to learning how to fit in, whether it be via something as rudimentary as language classes or something as seemingly menial as sorting out the garbage. Sure Marc thinks that the Japanese are overdoing it with the refusal to jaywalk, but they both concede that the adherence to community values likely informs why, on a micro level, no one feels a need to lock up their bikes or, on a macro level, take bribes in order to do their government jobs. Julia and Marc never stoop to making themselves feel more secure or superior by making fun of the locals: they always strive to learn what they don’t know and honor their host country. I had worried, initially, that this wouldn’t do that, but I should have had better faith in the publisher. Humanoids’ Life Drawn imprint puts out some of the best slice-of-life graphic novels I’ve ever read, and I couldn’t recommend them or this title more highly. Hanami is a wonderful reminder of how easy it is for people from all over the world to get along, so long as we set aside our egos and truly strive to understand each other.

Hanami: You, Me, & 200 Sq Ft In Japan by Julia Cejas was published August 6 2024 and is available from all good booksellers, including