{"id":27090,"date":"2026-08-03T17:20:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetatangerina.com\/?p=27090"},"modified":"2026-08-03T17:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:20:43","slug":"5-questions-to-kotone-utsunomiya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetatangerina.com\/en\/5-questions-to-kotone-utsunomiya\/","title":{"rendered":"5 questions to Kotone Utsunomiya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kotone Utsunomiya won the last edition of Serpa Award<\/a> and is the most recent author in our catalogue.
In the end of May she was in Portugal for her book launch, “The peach thief”<\/a>, at Serpa\u2019s Book Fair.
We chatted with the author about her time in Portugal and how it might have inspired her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hi Kotone,
Now that you\u2019re back home in Tokyo, we\u2019d like to ask you to share a little bit about your time in Portugal – so that we, together with your readers, can get to know you (and the \u201cpeach thief\u201d!) a little better.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Our first question is naturally about food (we\u2019re Portuguese, after all!) – what did you most enjoy eating while you were here?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Seafood! Am\u00eaijoas \u00e0 Bulh\u00e3o Pato was probably my favorite dish. Especially dipping the buttery bread into the delicious sauce!
I also loved the little croquettes I found at caf\u00e9s around Lisbon. It was so much fun eating them without knowing what was inside!\u00a0
They came in different shapes, and it seemed like each shape had a different filling.\u00a0My favorite was the half-moon-shaped one, filled with creamy shrimp. It was so good!!
And I can’t forget to mention how wonderful it was to have lunch in the garden at the Planeta Tangerina office. I loved all foods.
Obrigada!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Despite Portugal being a relatively safe country, did you have any encounters with thieves while you were here?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, yes.
This time, I was traveling with my parents. We were walking around S\u00e9 de Lisboa when three men started walking closely behind my father.\u00a0 Suddenly, he turned around and said, “What are you doing?!” They replied, “Your backpack is open!” and quickly walked away. At first, I thought they were just warning him that someone had stolen his wallet. But in fact, they were the ones trying to steal it.\u00a0My father had noticed one of them covering his backpack with a handkerchief while another tried to open it.\u00a0
Luckily, he realized what was happening before they could take anything.
It would have been quite ironic if we had been pickpocketed while traveling to celebrate my new book, The Peach Thief<\/em>, haha.\u00a0
The idea for the book actually came from experiences like this that I had while traveling in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Why does the peach thief in your book wear a green scarf on his head?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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It is actually a classic image of a Japanese thief.
Even if Japanese people couldn’t read Portuguese, they would probably understand that my book is about a thief just by looking at the cover.
The green furoshiki<\/em> (wrapping cloth) was a very common household item from the Edo period onward. Thieves were often depicted using a furoshiki<\/em> to carry stolen goods.
The image of thieves wearing a cloth over their heads and carrying a furoshiki<\/em> has long been part of Japanese popular culture, appearing in Kabuki<\/em>, and later in manga and cartoons.
Today, it is a well-known cultural stereotype rather than an accurate portrayal of real thieves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. What was the weirdest Portuguese souvenir you took back with you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know if these are made in Portugal or not, but I found interesting broken lighters at Feira da Ladra<\/em>.
They came in all kinds of shapes\u2014fruits, animals, and even cartoon characters. But I bought peach lighters!
Probably it was the peach thief’s personal belongings before.
Because it’s Thief’s market, right? haha.
I paid to buy the lighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5. We know that this was your second time in Portugal, and that the first inspired you for \u201cThe Peach Thief\u201d. Do you think that this time you also took away material for another story?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

My new idea didn’t come to me during my second trip to Portugal, it came after I returned to Japan.
Japan and Portugal have a long shared history, and Portugal has left its mark on Japanese culture in some ways.
A Japanese imaginary creature’s name comes from Que ser\u00e1, ser\u00e1…<\/em> I thought\u00a0it’s interesting to make the book.
Please don’t steal my idea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u21a6 You can read more about Kotone on her author page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kotone Utsunomiya won the last edition of Serpa Award and is the most recent author in our catalogue.In the end of May she was in Portugal for her book launch, “The peach thief”, at Serpa\u2019s Book Fair.We chatted with the author about her time in Portugal and how it might have inspired her. Hi Kotone,Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[484,262,485,204,486],"class_list":["post-27090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-5-questions","tag-blog","tag-kotone-utsunomiya","tag-serpa-award","tag-the-peach-thief"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 questions to Kotone Utsunomiya - News - Planeta Tangerina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kotone Utsunomiya won the last edition of Serpa Award and is the most recent author in our catalogue.In the end of May she was in Portugal for her book\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planetatangerina.com\/pt-pt\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Angelina Velosa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Angelina Velosa\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1d94201e10a9c35e5e7990e9814f48d\"},\"headline\":\"5 questions to Kotone Utsunomiya\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-03T16:20:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-03T16:20:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":699,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Banner_PerguntasKotone.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"5 questions\",\"Blog\",\"Kotone Utsunomiya\",\"Serpa Award\",\"The peach thief\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.planetatangerina.com\\\/pt-pt\\\/5-perguntas-a-kotone-utsunomiya\\\/\",\"name\":\"5 questions to Kotone Utsunomiya - 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