I've been taking the Japanese literature in English classes on a Sunday morning and I can honestly say that I love it. I did part of my university degree in Japanese but only really studied the language, so to be able to dive into some of the culture of the country is fantastic. I always look forward to receiving the comprehension questions- I read the story and discuss the questions a bit with my husband over a beer on a Saturday night (it's a bit geeky, I know!), and am always surprised by how much there is to say about one short story. I've always loved reading but had been put off analysing the stories I read in any way because of the negative experience I had of English literature at school. The level of challenge of the questions is just right though, and sometimes there's some Japanese history to research too, to put the story into context, so I feel like I'm learning a lot.

Ikuya is a great teacher. He's enthusiastic, polite and leads the class with confidence. I really enjoy hearing about the author before we dive into the discussion part of the class; we are given a brief biography and told the main themes the author's works represent. I would highly recommend this class, and definitely don't think that you need to be a literature expert to take part. I'm not!