In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. . .

I mean, it's going to be hard to write a response of The Hobbit. It's such an icon and I feel almost all that is to be said of The Hobbit has been said (Or turned into a trilogy of movies by Peter Jackson).

I think The Hobbit is one of the epitomes of the genre of fantasy for children, it also perfectly illustrates Joseph's Campbell's "Hero's Journey".
Essentially, the book begins with poor Bilbo Baggins who doesn't want to leave the comfort of his home despite Gandalf the Grey proposing an adventure for him to do so. Bilbo is more or less cast out from his home and forced to go on this adventure into the unknown. Of course Bilbo follows the rest of the "Hero's Journey" (Trials, tribulations, Death, Abyss, etc.) and eventually comes to his conclusion. What really made The Hobbit special was it's incredibly powerful storyline but also in compilation with the worldbuilding that occurs. Tolkien's world in The Hobbit is so incredibly described that it has inspired many other works of fantasy (E.g. Jim Hensen's The Dark Crystal).

It's hard to really go into detail on the monumental impact Tolkien's book has had on the genre of fantasy, but I highly recommend reading The Hobbit and the rest of his works. (And if not, at least try sitting through the movies)

J Horror

Though I will admit I have read a good bit of Murakami, I don't think he quite qualifies as J-horror. I think he falls into the category of "Magical Realism" similar to Kawabata's "House of Sleeping Beauties"

I already spoke about Uzumaki which I feel is a pretty solid example of Japanese horror. I find that there is no real "enemy" that things simply exist, whether it be good or bad, things simply exist in Japanese horror. The natural world collided with the supernatural world, and the outcome simply created what we consider horror. This is such a common thing in J-horror. It's all a mixture of pure coincidence or circumstantial things. It's not because someone committed a grave sin or anything along the lines of that. The reasoning behind the events can be as simple as "Oh, it's Wednesday. Supernatural things always happen on a Wednesday around here." Uzumaki also ends with a stereotypical jhorror ending, where no one really ends up happy. Things simply are, things that went wrong just went wrong and that's the end of that. The death of everybody in the village was a bittersweet thing, but that particular ending felt at home in the genre.

 After Chris Phelps spoke about Homonculus I went home and read that as well and found it rather fascinating. It was more of a trip into supernatural realism as well. Dealing mostly with the psychological aspects of horror; it was rather fascinating. Lots of guilt and sex, pretty entertaining, don't know if I'd consider it horror but that's just my western definition of the genre I suppose.

Oh and if we're talking asian horror, I'd recommend I Saw The Devil, Chaser, or any other Korean thriller. I find them to be pretty incredible, works of art in fact.