Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of It All

[railcaider]

From browsing the racks of bookstores in Japan I was aware of the fact that he was well-known, but I had only a dim understanding of his popularity. I remember reading A Slow Boat to China in my Japanese class. It was one of the first things besides manga that I read in Japanese and understood well enough to enjoy. It was a nice, succinct little

Comments

[saiyajin71]

You should really be a translator for the Japan Times, dude. I remember when you were over I mentioned it, but you have such a better command of both English and Japanese than I. I need to read some Murakami. I read the beginning of Hard-Boiled Wonderland in English, and now I really want to read it in Japanese. Maybe I'll pick it up at the Maruzen upstairs. I remember I read the first 35 pages during a free of mine, and it was extremely intriguing... But, my friend asked for it back so I couldn't continue. I'll have to check it out soon... as I have a hefty vacation coming up. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to go along with the vacation, so I can't go to Hokkaido, Tokyo, or Fukuoka like I want to.

But I really think you have amazing writing skills, a great command of English vocabulary, and colorful writing that could get you a job as a translator for things like Novels or a newspaper. I'm sure you could be an enterpreter, too. You have such strong skills, you have no sense sticking to that stressful job that you're at now.

Great entry, I enjoyed reading it before my (last) day at Nova. I'll pick up the book on my way home!

[railcaider]

It's worthwhile to read through that one, though you won't be missing that much if you stop after that.

The first step will be to get back to a job where I have to use Japanese again, preferably without all of the baggage that goes along with my current one. I'm really looking forward to moving to Osaka again, and counting down the months left here.