Hello. I hope you are having a lovely yuri day. Here is a short list of yuri I really like, if you're looking for something good to eat ~

Even Though We're Adults by Takako Shimura
A bartender sleeps with a teacher, only to discover she's married. An exploration of the difficulties adults can have discovering and managing relationships.

How Do We Relationship? by Tamifull
Two college lesbians start dating on a whim, but run into problems when they try to express their needs. A genuine, heartfelt look at the difficulties of communication.

Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games by Eri Ejima
Girls at an uptight high school embrace their love of fighting games. Full of gorgeous renders of girls crying and screaming at games. There's a tournament arc. If you like video games at all, please read this.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All by Arai Sumiko
An introvert with a love of hard rock makes a new friend. Incredibly stylish, and written clearly by someone with a love of music.

Liar Satsuki Can See Death by Ryouko
Yuri-light. A high school girl, cursed to see death before it happens, tries to prevent it. A mix of detective mystery and slice of life, and very dark at times.

Otherside Picnic by Iori Miyazawa
Yuri-light. Two college women explore a horrifying alternate universe, full of unknowable monsters, to make money while searching for a lost friend. If you like creepypasta, this might be for you.

Bonus round:

• Futari Escape: Two young women do anything they can to avoid work.
• A Monster Wants to Eat Me: A high school girl who wants to die meets a mermaid who might grant her wish.
• I Don't Know Which One Is Love: A college woman falls ass-backwards into five relationships at once.
• She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat: Two lonely women befriend each other over their love of food.
• Lily (by Yy): A high school love story grows into a college love story. Slowly, deeply explores the growth of a relationship.
• Moonlight Garden: A secluded, otherworldly brothel hides the lives of it's mysterious inhabitants. One wants to escape.

I have read so so much yuri in the past couple of years... we really are living in a golden age. I have at least twice as many I could recommend.

At some point I'll make this into a full, thorough post, like I did with Lily Explores Ten Transgender Manga (which I would super recommend if you want some good trans stuff~)

happy yuri day <3

yuri day may be over but it lives on in my heart

Be sure to stop by the bike pump to aid in fixing him.

(click "read more" to open!)

Igarashi Daisuke, most famous for his work Kaijū no Kodomo (Children of the Sea), was born in Saitama prefecture, Tokyo and debuted as a mangaka in 1993 after graduating from college with a degree on fine arts. His first work consisted of short story compilations by the name of Hanashippanashi, which roughly translates to "Short Stories"  -  very self explanatory  -  and although each and every story may not be directly related to one another, they all shared a recurring theme: the portrayal of fantastical elements in the daily life, moreover, the conflicting relationship of nature and society, which according to Igarashi himself, was something inspired by watching Studio Ghibli movies as a kid, specifically Tonari no Totoro (My neighbour Totoro).

Hanashippanashi earned Igarashi high regards from the critics at the time due to his unique story telling and art style, and yet, despite of his breakthrough, instead of jumping into his next big project, he decided to step back and move to Iwate prefecture, Hokkaido, to dedicate most of his time to farming in a small village located there and live a self-sufficient life . Surely an odd move coming from a born and raise city boy, but according to him, the decision was based upon his interest on coexisting with nature and learning to make the most out of it on his own as opposed to having them for granted.

Three years living in the countryside gave him the inspiration to create works such as Little Forest and Kabocha no Bouken (Kabocha's Adventure) - the latter consisting of cute short stories revolving around Kabocha, Igarashi's cat, along his digressions/reports over their daily life in the countryside, but enough of that, we're not here to talk about cats, are we?

Now, without further ado, let's dive into our subject: Little Forest!

Little Forest story focuses on Ichiko, a girl raised by her single mother in a small community by the countryside known as Komori (小森) - literally meaning "little forest", hence the title. As she grew up, however, she also grew tired of the countryside life, moving to the big city instead just to find herself back home once again. The reasons as to why she moved out are uncovered as we are exposed to her daily life chores and memories of her childhood unfolds with each chapter focusing around the preparation of a dish or the cultivation of an ingredient while delivering some thought provoking questions about the way we perceive food as.

One could say this is but "food for thought"! ᵘᵍʰ, ʷʰʸ ᵃᵐ ᴵ ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ᵈᵒᶦⁿᵍ ᵗʰᶦˢ?

The first chapter, for example, has Ichiko recalling the time she was fooled into believing brand named foods such as Nutella and Worcestershire sauce were homemade recipes that her mother came up with, because they always prepared them with freshly harvested ingredients cultivated by themselves. One day, however, Ichiko learns about the truth and confronts her mother over it just to be retorted with another question instead: which tastes better? The ones pre-made and sold at stores or the ones we cook ourselves?

In another chapter, Ichiko and a friend debates over the concept of weed and whether they're damaging the crops or the other way around. Is it really that bad that a plant can easily sprout along others when a few years back they might have been near extinction? Just because we perceive crops as useful, we shouldn't disregard weeds as useless, after all, we as a society determined what's best to raise over the natural biome that these weeds used to naturally grow for our own benefits. At the end of the day, it's just a matter of perspective.

These are just a few things you can expect from this beautiful book and upon finishing it, you'll be able to better understand how much thought is put into cooking. It certainly makes you appreciate even more the food that is served, giving the Itadakimasu (I humbly partake) sentence before eating and Gochisou sama deshita (I'm thankful for the meal) afterwards a stronger sense of gratitude towards not only the one preparing the food, but the ones that raised and harvested them as well!

And for those that may interest, I highly recommend this interview with Igarashi Daisuke about his experiences in the farm and how much of it got into Little Forest.