Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

I am finally reading Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman – 24 stories. I have to confess, I have borrowed his novels over the years but each time, I returned them unread because I just couldn’t stand long stories. But since Tony Leung likes him, my husband likes him, I picked one up again and this time a series of short stories. So just flipping the pages I stopped at one page in no particular order in the middle of the story:Tony Takitani. Man, it was so good. I was reading it aloud to my kids from mid-point onwards about an illustrator’s love story with his wife, how glad he was to have found a wife and married and no longer felt lonely until one day, he told her to curb her buying spree of clothes. OMG, by the time I finished the last sentence, my youngest son bursted into uncontrollable tears.  My youngest who is the most teary of all 3 kids. Now I just realized it has been made into a movie. I am going to search for it because they all want to see it now. When I finish the book, I’ll write which are my favorite stories. He writes very well indeed!

Reposted from an earlier blog dated September 19, 2008.

The Lady and The Monk by Pico Iyer

It took me a couple of weeks to finish this travelogue of Pico Iyer not because it was dull but because I didn’t want to finish it too quickly. Pico Iyer has English, American and Indian heritage and his writing is very witty. This book was written as he stayed in Kyoto for a year (initially in a temple) and therefore the title, The Lady and The Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto. I laugh when he describes some Japanese who celebrate themselves as Americans with a gaijin community and the general politeness of the Japanese community that after he has been constantly apologized to, he too took on the Japanese ways. In this book, he describes a relationship he had with Sachiko, a married Japanese lady with two children who yearns to be freed of Japanese restrictions of women and to be alive and individualistic. He describes her will to please as a woman, to leave a dream imprinted for him in his mind forever.  The English Pico Iyer used for Sachiko is very funny.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne – The Tragic True Story of Japan’s Crown Princess by Ben Hills

Not all princesses live happily ever after as in Disney cartoons. Here’s one very tragic story of a real life princess. Princess Masako, grew up in an itinerant family headed by a foreign service diplomat. She has lived in Russia, US, and speaks fluent English, French and some German, Russian and Spanish, trained in economics, graduated from Harvard and destined for the foreign service.  But one day, the Crown Prince met her at a function and it was love at first sight for him according to the book. She tried not to respond for she was really not interested, until five years later, after doing her masters in Oxford, but not completing it, she returned to Japan and she agreed.

The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson

An entire book about sushi!!

Sushi is to be eaten with fingers and the dipping sauce is actually diluted with wine and sugar. You are supposed to dip it fish side and not the rice side. The chef prefers that you don’t put wasabi in your soya sauce because they already put the right amount in the sushi itself.

何も言えなくて…夏/Nani Mo Ienakute…Natsu by J-Walk (Japanese, Romanji, English lyrics translation)

I have to say this is J-Walk’s best song back in 1991 and I couldn’t find any ready made English translation around so I translated it here.  Scroll to the bottom.  You could watch the live performance here and a better quality music video here.

何も言えなくて…夏 /Didn’t Say Much…Summer/Nani Mo Ienakute…Natsu
Performed by J-WALK
Lyrics by 知久光康/Tomohisa Mitsuyasu
Composed by 中村耕一/Koichi Nakamura

[Movie Review] Emperor (2012) by Tommy Lee Jones and Matthew Fox

Most of the Japanese war movies that we watch mainly deal with Pearl Harbor or the die-hard patriots from the Japanese side.  This post-Hiroshima movie about General MacArthur looking for a reason to hang Emperor Hirohito is very refreshing.  We know that the army and military had to follow the orders of the politician in power and the question was who was in power. The officer in charge of the investigation had 10 days to report his findings of where the guilt should be laid.  Interesting take on the subject and very well done.  See trailer here.

War continues to be an important subject of discussion at our home in view of recent developments of US’s position in the Middle East.  And even more so, the question of what is a just war.  When is the retaliation just and by how much.  Hiroshima went over and beyond morality, I think.

A Man With No Talents: Memoirs Of A Tokyo Day Laborer by Oyama Shiro

I have never really read a book written by a homeless person, let alone one from Japan.  But this is exactly what it is.  Oyama Shiro graduated from a second tier university in Japan, worked for a while in a corporate but because he didn’t fit in, he quitted his salarymen job and went on to become a day laborer in his 40’s in San’ya, the busiest place for day laborers.  But recession hit and jobs became fewer by the year, until he finally decided to not spend money on a sleeping berth and become homeless.  In the 12 years, he wrote about his life and one day submitted his manuscript out of whim, and won one of Japan’s top literary awards, the Kaiko Takeshi Prize.

On reading his reluctance to go to soup kitchen and missionary handouts, you could feel how principled he is despite his poor conditions. Sigh…very good book. Haven’t read one so good in the past few weeks. His words are so well written, so eloquent I feel an ache reading how he wants to continue his itinerant life.  It’s such a pity that someone so literary would be homeless. You could read another review here. 

Reposted from previous blog entry dated August 21, 2006.

Hardboiled & Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto

Banana Yoshimoto starting winning prizes at 22 year old with her short stories and to date, her short stories have been adapted for movies in Japan and Hong Kong.  I happened to have picked up this book Hardboiled and Hard Luck, a book of two short stories translated into English by Michael Emmerich. Neatly done.  The first story Hardboiled is about a girl who went for a hike to where her girlfriend and her last visited before the girlfriend died and it talked of her grieving process.  It’s actually quite spooky because she added elements of the spirit returning and ghosts visiting.  No wonder. Ms. Yoshimoto likes Stephen King’s works.  The second story also surrounded death. It is a younger sister coming to terms with her elder sister’s vegetable state and final goodbye and during this difficult time, she met someone special.  The second story rings very true in many ways in the process of grieving and letting go and sharing in the end.  The portrayal of the new friendship during this difficult time was very heart-warming.  Good story! You could check out her official site via here.

Reposted from previous blog entry dated January 15, 2007

Death at the Crossroads, A Samurai Mystery by Dale Furutani

I was researching on samurais  after around 10 books, I learnt a lot.

From The way of Kendo & Kenjitsu, Soul of the Samurai by Darrell Max Craig, I learnt that samurais truly test their katana (swords) in the old days by swooping it down on the neck of convicted prisoners.  Usually two to three times is enough but some swords have inscriptions that reads, “Cut through five bodies with one stroke by ____”.

ここにいるよ Koko Ni Iruyo by Soulja (English translation)

Since the last posting I have found out more about this song. The song was released in October and it was in the top 10 of Oricon charts. It went off the top 20 charts after the week of November 12 week. I’ve translated the lyrics into English. Here is the romanization. Video at youtube here .