Tales of the Otori

I have a hard time getting into new authors. I absolutely love reading, but I'm quite picky about what I read, especially when it comes to fiction. Anyway, I just finished a trilogy called "Tales of the Otori" by Lian Hearn. I found it enjoyable, but it's main appeal to me was that it's a fantasy set in medieval Japan. I grew up in Japan, but since I can't read or write Japanese I never really had my curiousity satisfied on the folklore side of things, you know, with the Samurai and the Ninja and all that. It's kind of ironic, I end up learning about Japanese folklore from an Australian author, ha! Anyway, it was fun and I liked that the author sprinkled Japanese words and names throughout, it made me feel like I was an insider on the story since they all seemed so familiar.