“‘Kabahiko is an amazing hippo. People say that if you touch the area of his body that you want to make better on yours, he’ll provide a cure,'” (Aoyama 13).
Multiple residents at the new Advance Hill condominium find themselves at the children’s playground Hinode Park where an old hippo ride named Kabahiko can apparently heal a person based on the area you touch the hippo. One by one the residents visit Kabahiko and share their worries with him, hoping for some of his healing magic, and maybe finding their own answers in the process.
I’ve been reading more Japanese literature this year and one of my favourite things about the genre is that you either get the most disturbing books or the most light-hearted but that they will be fantastic. The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park was of the light-hearted variety, and what a delight it was!
The summary says it all: there is a supposed healing hippo toy at a nearby park and there are condominium residents who are all suffering with their own struggles or ailments and find the park and hippo hoping to be healed. It’s straight forward and predictable, but it’s nice. Each character seeking Kabahiko’s help gets their own chapter so essentially the book is a collection of short stories all connected by the infamous healing hippos, the setting of Advance Hill, and certain characters make appearances in other characters stories, but it is so lovely and hopeful. I read a lot of horror and darker books, so it’s nice every once in a while to read something soft and remember how important it is to hope.
The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park was a light, easy, and fun read. I can’t wait to explore the lighter side of Japanese literature more and will definitely be reading more from Aoyama!
Publication: September 21 2023
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Pages: 256 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Literary, Japanese
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Nestled at the bottom of a five-story apartment block in the community of Advance Hill is the children’s playground in Hinode Park, where you will find a very special age-old hippo ride named Kabahiko. According to urban legend, if you touch the exact part of the hippo where you have an ailment or wound, you will see swift signs of recovery. They call it “Healing Hippo.”
In The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park, the apartment residents each find their way to Kabahiko, confessing their troubles and drawing upon the hippo’s rumored abilities. From a struggling student who pets the hippo’s head to reverse his poor academic performance to the lonely new mother who hopes that touching the hippo’s mouth will allow her to better express herself, this heartwarming, eclectic cast of characters will all come to Kabahiko for healing in their lives—though they may not always find it in the ways they expect.
Sarah O'Connor 