Read, Review, Travel: Murder at Mount Fuji
My husband and I recently traveled to Japan for two weeks at the end of May and early June of 2025. We had an absolutely lovely time, and I will certainly be writing and posting about our travels to share our experiences with you!
I had brought a book with me on the trip to read at the airport and at the hotel. I finished it part-way through our trip during our second week. On the Saturday we were to fly home, we woke up to a text and email saying that our flight from Tokyo to Detroit was delayed by three hours. We still went to the airport at our planned time because we couldn’t check out late from our hotel. I guess we could have asked, but we would have also had to change our Uber reservation. I think we would have had to pay a fee to change the reservation, so we just ended up getting to the airport very early.
Checking in our suitcase and getting through security was a breeze. After walking around some souvenir stores inside the airport and buying both some banana flavored and matcha latte flavored Kit Kat’s, we found a store called Books and Drugs. I wanted to find a book since I knew I would have at least 3 hours to read. Unfortunately, there were hardly any books sold in this store, even though it had “Books” in its name. The books it did have were all written in Japanese and appeared to be travel books or magazines.
We walked around some more and found a store that sold coffee and books. Thankfully, this store sold books written in English. I found a book written by Japanese female author, Shizuko Natsuki titled “Murder at Mount Fuji.” It was written in 1982 and translated from Japanese to English in 1984. I read a good chunk of it before our plane left for Detroit, and then I was able to read even more at the Detroit airport waiting for our flight back home. I finished reading it a few days after returning from our epic trip.
The book is about an American woman studying at a university in Japan who ends up tutoring a Japanese woman studying English at the same university. The Japanese woman, Chiyo, has a thesis due on January 10, so she invites Jane, the American woman, to her family’s estate over the New Year holiday to spend the holidays with her and to help her proofread her English thesis. Chiyo’s family’s mansion is on Lake Yamanaka which has a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji, the highest mountain, and the most famous mountain, in Japan. It’s actually an active volcano!
At the mansion, Jane helps Chiyo with her paper. But afterwhile, the pair are summoned to the living room for evening tea with the family. Chiyo goes to her great uncle’s room whom everyone calls ‘Grandpa,’ to invite him to the living room. She later rushes into the living room with blood-stained clothing saying that she has stabbed Grandpa in self-defense since he was about to sexually abuse her. I am not familiar with Japanese law, but I would think that someone killing someone else in self-defense would be determined innocent. However, all of the family members decide to cover up Chiyo’s action by making it look like Grandpa was killed by a thieving intruder later in the night.
What I have just described happens quickly in the book. First, the book starts off with Jane narrating it, but then it shifts to a third person point of view when the cover-up takes place. Once the family members tell the police about Grandpa’s death, the book shifts again to the police chief’s point of view. Several chapters focus on the police chief’s view and how he and his team uncover the mystery. I wish some of the ‘action’ in these chapters from the police chief were sped up.
In the end, there is a twist, but I was disappointed with Natsuki’s portrayal of Jane. She makes Jane out to be a woman who does seem to care about Chiyo, but in the last five pages, Jane dismisses Chiyo. Is this Natsuki’s view of all Americans? Also, the part about the inheritance was confusing. Thankfully, the translation was well-done, and I think I only noticed one or two grammatical errors. Overall, I did enjoy the book, and I really liked how I was able to read a book located in Japan and written by a Japanese author! I feel that most books in American bookstores are written by American authors, so I would like to try to branch out every once in awhile. The book did make me want to travel closer to Mount Fuji if I ever go back. On our recent trip, we saw the volcano from our plane as we landed in Tokyo! We also saw it when we rode the shinkansen (bullet train) between Tokyo and Kyoto. If we go back, I would like to get closer to the volcano, take in its beauty, and maybe even explore around Lake Yamanaka where this book takes place!
