“No Longer a Foreign Country” Indonesia Travelogue by Kashiwaba Sachiko

Kashiwaba Sachiko has been writing fantasy fiction for over 40 years. Several of her works have been translated and published outside Japan. One of these, the English edition of Temple Alley Summer, won the Batchelder Award in 2022. The Indonesian edition, Temple Alley Summer—Musim panas di gang Kuil Kimyo, came out in the Summer of 2024, translated by Andry Setiawan.

In February 2025, Kashiwaba visited Jakarta and Makassar to choose the winning entries from among the finalists for a Temple Alley Summer book-review contest that had been held on Instagram by the Japan Foundation, Jakarta. During her stay, she also gave talks with colleagues in children’s book publishing, and engaged with students at secondary educational institutions.

In steamy Indonesia, where flowers bloomed profusely and calls to prayer filled the air, Kashiwaba tasted vibrant desserts she had never had before, and conversed with many readers. Please take a moment to read her vivid account of her stay, translated for us from the Japanese by Temple Alley Summer translator Avery Udagawa.

Read “No Longer a Foreign Country” by Kashiwaba Sachiko.

Learn more about Ms. Kashiwaba’s Indonesia visit here.

Cocreco, Kodansha’s web media platform, features an additional essay by Ms. Kashiwaba about her stay in Indonesia (available in Japanese only).