The delightful Japanese classic celebrating a lighthearted life

Readers, may I introduce you to Miss Ruki by Fumiko Takano?

A classic of Japanese manga, it focuses on the titular Miss Ruki, who, quite marvellously:

• is single, childfree, and happy

• works from home and is so efficient, she has three weeks off each month

• lives a lighthearted, whimsical life dedicated to her hobbies (stamp collecting, reading, visiting the library, lounging around, etc.)

• loves hanging out with her anxious but far more sensible friend, Ecchan.

Joy! Each installment of the comic is a two-page slice of Miss Ruki’s life, each with its own colour palette – and while not much really happens at all, it’s a gorgeous celebration of the small pleasures to be found in ordinary days.

Keigo Shinzo (behind the excellent slice-of-life manga series Hirayasumi) wrote of Miss Ruki, “To read it is to grasp something of the essence of Japan” – something which, I’m sure, is finest in the original Japanese. Still, the book has been adapted to English wonderfully by Alexa Frank for New York Review Books (published 2025).

The comics offer a refreshing and restful step back to a more offline world, and yet much is ahead of its time. Miss Ruki works from home (in the 80s!) processing medical claims, and is an adding machine whiz who feels zero shame about her excellent productivity that frees up most of her month.

Rather than doing more work, Miss Ruki has a different priority: delighting in life. She goes to the library, sometimes stopping for some yakisoba and a coffee, and on her way home she might go via the post office for some pretty stamps. Then, home for a bath and some reading.

Something about Miss Ruki speaks to me, or puts me at ease somehow – maybe it’s how light and carefree it all is. I’m reminded of translator Alexa Frank’s comment that Fumiko Takano “only draws manga when she feels like it,” which absolutely comes through in her work. These words from Aldous Huxley’s 1962 novel Island pair well here:

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.

Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.
I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.

Lightly, lightly—it’s the best advice ever given me.”

Elsewhere in Alexa Frank’s excellent contextualising translator’s note, she sings her love of Miss Ruki and writes quite irresistibly: “I’m especially fond of how Takano captures people lounging and lazing around.” An example of the lounging and lazing:

Alexa observes that Miss Ruki is “uncool and OK with it” – she collects stamps, skips in public, is a regular in the children’s section of the library – “which of course, makes her incredibly cool.” She adds:

“Takano is an excellent observer of daily life, and Miss Ruki is possibly her biggest flex: from washing hair to flipping through books to struggling with shopping bags, even the most mundane activities are animated by Takano’s pen with an impressive economy of line.”

And that’s just it. I adore how the book is a celebration of small and quirky pleasures, brought to life in gorgeous colour (pink, yellow, and lilac are the stars of the show). For example, drinking coffee in the bath:

Napping on tatami mats:

Making tea:

And visiting the library:

I wrote recently about how 2026 feels like My Year of Mail and Correspondence, but maybe it could also be a year of trying to be more like Miss Ruki?

Here are a few small pleasures I’ve stumbled upon recently, which I think Miss Ruki might also enjoy…

These Mind Wave Easy Day washi stickers, part of a series to capture the slow, cosy moments of everyday life, which I am finding a way to include in every piece of correspondence I’m sending lately:

This stamp I received from Finland earlier this week:

Using this beautiful ippitsusen paper designed by Midori Asano to share a small summary of recent reading and mini obsessions with a penpal in Florida (somehow I’ve acquired several penpals in Florida, all of them wonderful, which makes my heart sing):

And finally, the flowers by Enghave Plads metro in Copenhagen this weekend:

Happy Sunday 💙

Love, Lucy

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