Nov 28, 2004
Densha Otoko
Yuko was telling me about this book a while back. Seems like it’s really the big hit.
Ostensibly a true story, “Densha Otoko” – literally, “Train Man” – began as a series of postings on Japan’s most popular internet bulletin board after the protagonist, a young Japanese man, rescued a woman from a pushy drunk on the train.
[...]
The format of the book, which strings together emails peppered with slang and emoticons over 364 pages, could well give a headache to readers accustomed to literature as flowing prose.
But the look is familiar to the many young Japanese who spend an increasing number of hours each day chatting via brief text messages on cell phones and computers.
Read the rest of the article here. I saw the book the other day and it’s entirely written like a 2-Channel thread, including all the wacky ASCII art. Really wish I could read it.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
