In 2010 I joined the competition of “Book Debut” project jointly held by Intel and Magazine House with my second book “Tears of Mary.” The image of the book was broadcasted by Japan’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) during the morning news on May 23 of the same year which happened to be the Christian festival of Pentecost.

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I was deeply involved in writing “Tears of Mary” throughout the entire year of 2010, but the coverage in NHK as well as support from the readers of “Tears of Jesus” had certain impact for “Tears of Mary” to be chosen as one of the best 30 novels out of 8842 by online voting of the readers. 

Initially, they were planning to choose 10 novels, but expanded to 30 perhaps in order to give more weight on the adjudication by the company staff. After the final adjudication by the editor of Magazine House and the staff from Intel, my novel was chosen as the “Best Novel.” I was notified by email from both Intel and Magazine House in fall of 2010.

It was a happy surprise to me because I was thinking that my book “Tears of Mary,” which has a very strong Christian background, will never be chosen as the best novel by people at Magazine House or Intel who had nothing to do with Christianity or religion (according to what Magazine House people told me), so it was at the same time a big source of encouragement for me.

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My blog was inaccessible from overseas since before winning the award, which means about two years already passed since last time I was writing a blog.