Tigers and Cranes

haruki murakami, for those who are unaware, is one of the most popular writers of japan. his novels are usually very dreamy, with an undercurrent of nightmarish angst. and as such, many of his books share some similarities. here are a few of my observations:

1. in his books, usually written from first person perspective, has as the protagonist 30-40 year old japanese man(i guess it’s murakami himself).
2. little girls. and they are usually very helpful.
3. protagonist likes to cook, and listen to records. in almost ALL of his novels.
4. none of his protagonists ever hold down a real job. but are never poor.
5. most of the story has tokyo as its background, with the hero traveling a bit.
6. there’s always a mysterious woman, who is a fortune teller, a mystic, a prostitute, or just plain rich. and they seem to love the protagonist.
7. there is also usually a woman the hero likes/loves, but she disappears, and he must find her.
8. he has fascination with elevators.

so basically, if you’ve read one murakami book, some or most of these elements will be in it. there are exceptions, especially in his short stories, but even there you will find some of these 8 elements. not that he’s a bad writer… i happen to think that “wind-up bird chronicles” is pretty good. but i kind of got sick of pretty much same plot and same descriptions in many of his books.

interviewed on
digital chosun ilbo

for a really great japanese novel, check out natsuo kirino’s “out”.
the story revolves around four japanese housewives in tokyo who make a pact to deal with a dead body, to help out one of their friends. the book has everything, from workers working in a bentou factory(did you ever wonder where those bentous were coming from?) to yakuzas, prostitutes(sorry, hostesses), japanese detectives and sadomasochists.

ms. Kirino’s writing style is unpolished and abrupt, but at the same time refreshingly direct and at times shockingly descriptive, especially when she describes the housewives getting together to dismember a cadaver. kirino doesn’t mope about weighing the morality of murder and human dismemberment, but instead, chooses to focus on almost comically shocking things that these unassuming tokyoite housewives do. highly recommended.

“out” by natsuo kirino

“the host”, or “gweh-mool” in korean is a movie about a monster rising out of the depths of the han river in seoul.

what is particular about this movie is the fact that it looks to go head to head with hollywood blockbusters that are heavy into cgi. to that end, the film employs rather impressive special effects and cinematography. of course, korea has had some really great movies in the past, my personal favorite being “old boy”, (you haven’t seen it? what’s wrong with you? it’s the greatest movie ever made!!!!!) as well as “taegukki:brotherhood of war” among others.

most korean movies of the past have relied on tight, sometimes innovative story lines as well as character developments to make the movie memorable. the directors and producers have shied away from big budget, special effects laden movies simply because korean movie industry simply can’t invest that much financially.

this one is an exception.

though it pales in comparison to movies such as “superman” in terms of budget (which i believe doesn’t even approach 1/10th), it is one of the most expensive movies from the country. and people are flocking to the theaters to see it.

it will see release in japan on sept. 2, and americans can see it in october. it may even achieve a wide release in america, unlike other korean movies such as “typhoon” which were limited engagements.

from digital chosun ilbo

how many elves do samsung have working in their phone factory? samsung has announced new colors for the summer, using this unusually bushy eyebrowed woman to model with the phones. i don’t mean to sound catty, but has she not heard of “tweezers”?

the phones come in white, orange, silver and black, which i assume are the colors of summer. and they are slider phones, which unlike japan, are what almost everyone carries in the land of morning calm. hm… another interesting cultural distinction. japanese drive microvans, and koreans drive suvs, and japanese love folder phones and koreans sliders. i’m working on a cultural theory here. i’ll let the readers know what it may be once i have more exhibits and come to a conclusion.

from akihabara news

i think some in america would find this toy highly offensive, and quite disturbing. of course, this is the same country that has kids wearing helmets riding their tricycles, child seats until 12, and has warning labels on coffe cups that says that the beverage maybe hot. in other words, very litigious and over protective.

the games is where you load the toy gun with these cartridges and pull the trigger, in a truly fun and exciting russian roulette game.

i can’t imagine this toy ever making appearance in america. japan, on the other hand, doesn’t have citizenry that is armed to the teeth with firearms and don’t go nuts over something like this. in america, people blame video games for making kids violent. what, kids don’t play games in other countries?

kaba kick

i’ve been reading this excellent book by william craig. mr. craig chronicles the end of japanese empire during world war 2. his accounts are riveting stories of all the behind the scenes intrigue of what led to the formation of “kamikaze” suicide squadrons, the development of atomic bomb and its use in hiroshima and nagasaki, as well as probably the most disturbing of all, the possibility that japan may not have surrendered due to young officer’s coup to thwart the unconditional surrender by the imperial court and the emperor hirohito.

i am amazed at how much the author seems to know about the events during the last days of the empire, and he tells the story from both america’s eyes as well as japan’s. his breakneck pace and incredible recounting of the events make for some excellent reading, for pleasure as well for those who seek historical retelling of the events.

only thing that kind of bugged me was uneven printing of the book and some consistent typographical error. otherwise, i heartily recommend this book to any history buff, as well as those who enjoy suspense and thriller novels.

an excerpt

get it from amazon

in “zauo”, a japanese restaurant, the diners must catch their own meal before it could be served to them. actually, i’m surprised it took this long for this kind of concept to emerge from japan. i’m sure they knew about eating nigiri and sashimi off a nekkid lady, and compare to that concept, this seems a no brainer. but, japanese being japanese, they aren’t content to merely catch their own meal, as the lady in the article comments:

“Nice fresh food. Sea food, but I have one argument, too easy for fishing, so too quick.”

by the way, who wrote this article? is it intentionally atrocious? in which case it’s a coy insult at linguistic skills of japanese, or, cbs 13’s website intern who wrote this is 10 years old.

from cbs13.com

kia has lured away peter schreyer, boss of vw advanced design. this dude is one of the men responsible for designing the awesomness that is audi tt. he’s got work cut out for him ahead, as he’ll be asked to head the european styling department at kia.

mr. peter schreyer

of course you remember previous post about the hideousness of some of kia’s design…

from autocar

it’s called “ocean dome”, and you can find it in miyazaki. it is the largest indoor water park in the world. it’s in kyushu. you know kyushu? it’s one of the islands in japan(body surrounded by water)… honshu, hokkaidou, kyushu, etc… you can see from the photo that the water park is pretty close to a… beach! wha?

it reminds me of lewis black’s comedy routine in which he claims he has seen the end of the universe. and according to him, it’s in houston. he says he was in a starbucks, and as he walks out, he sees across the street.. another starbucks! well, here, you get out of the beach and walk a bit and… sonofabitch! another beach!

it’s nice, sure, and it’s an engineering marvel. but i still can’t understand why they just didn’t dump a lot of sand on a beach somewhere and called it a day.

what’s next, an artificial indoor ski slope? wait… they have that one already.

from joe-ks.com

this is the cover of january 1945 popular science magazine cover. the blurb:

japs rely on secret superplane for last ditch stand

eh? and what might this “superplane” be? from the cover, it looks like our mono-browed angry japanese pilot doesn’t even need a plane. he just, well, you know, tosses grenade-sized bombs while looking all mean and stuff to defend his homeland.

what a badass.

yes, his website has been around forever, and it’s not really japan or korea related. HOWEVER! i think his sublime creations have that very soft-focused japanese and korean style stationery look that is timeless. you know what i mean… those morning glory notepads or pencil cases or cutesy looking japanese characters like “rilla-kuma”.

morning glory pencil case

rilla-kuma

check out his website… but be warned… i am not responsible for your lost productivity.

orisinal