Walking home the other evening, a man passed me on a bicycle with a cat riding in the front basket. While this wasn’t terribly unusual, what took me aback was that both he and his cat were wearing matching stripy jumpers and top hats (think Dr. Seuss). Even stranger was the fact that nobody else bat an eyelid. Read more
Search for haruki murakami - 12 results found
Getting Lost in Haruki Murakami’s ‘Town of Cats’
Book reviews are not usually my thing, but having recently finished Haruki Murakami’s epic three-volume novel, 1Q84, events conspired which were a little too coincidental to pass over. For those unfamiliar with Murakami’s work, he is one of Japan’s most famous authors whose work is humorous and surreal, often focusing on themes of alienation and loneliness. Many of his novels focus on the mundane lives of ordinary people who are suddenly catapulted into deranged circumstances. Read more
Murakami’s Tokyo: Part 3 — Otherworldly
All this week we’re celebrating the release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by taking a pilgrimage of our own to some of the places in Tokyo that were instrumental in his literary development and found their way into the pages of his characters lives. Read more
Murakami’s Tokyo: Part 2 — Jazz
All this week we’re celebrating the release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by taking a pilgrimage of our own to some of the places in Tokyo that were instrumental in his literary development and found their way into the pages of his characters lives. Read more
Murakami’s Tokyo: Part 1 — Beginnings
Even at a time like this, the street is bright enough and filled with people coming and going—people with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward.
Haruki Murakami is often described as one of the world’s greatest living novelists and has been compared with the likes of J.D. Salinger (he even translated The Catcher in the Rye into Japanese). His depictions of the loneliness and isolation of modern Japanese life ingratiated him with the country’s youth who often struggle to assert their individuality in the face of societal notions of conformity. Read more
Murakami is Coming
To celebrate the release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, on August 12th we have a very special series of posts lined up for Randomwire next week! Read more
Autumn Around Tokyo
Autumn, and indeed the entire year, seems to have passed in a heartbeat but before we enter 2018, I wanted to share some photos of the marvellous fall foliage that we are blessed with in Japan each year. The red leaves (koyo) of late autumn are a breathtaking sight, especially against a backdrop of a temple or a well-groomed garden. Read more
A Week in Tokyo Part 8 – Sugamo
While Harajuku and Shibuya are squarely aimed at the younger generations in Tokyo, it’s easy to forget that Japan has an ageing population with more than 20% of people being over the age of 65. So where do all these older folk go to shop? One popular place is Sugamo (巣鴨), otherwise known as “Grandma’s Harajuku”. Read more
A Week in Tokyo Part 1 – Kōenji & Kichijōji
At the end of last month I spent a week in Tokyo (including day trips to Yokohama and Kamakura) which was part-holiday, part-investigation for things I hope to talk about soon, but for now I thought I’d start a new series to share some of my stories and photos which I’ve spent the last week editing… Read more
Day 26: The Long Way Round
Being a sucker for following the “scenic route” I had chosen to take the longest trail (E) between Kongōfuku-ji (金剛福寺 – 38) and Enkō-ji (延光寺 – 39) which is around 20km further than the shortest. Read more
