Nodame Cantabile

Nodame Cantabile bilingual version. I would say it certainly expanded the horizon of comics. featuring classical music which is usually stiff and formal, it sprinkles gags that put you in stitches. in the very end, it turns out to be soul-stirring.

sweets not sweet

This is one of our local specialty sweets. skewered dumplings.
in japan, people speak highly of sweets, saying ‘it is good being not too sweet’.
is there somewhere else where the same thing goes? what sense does it make if sweets are not sweet enough?
it has been like this since around ‘80’s.
Some foreigners say ‘yokan’(a bar of azuki bean paste) is too sweet, and that is another story.

what i got from shoes

There have been some decoration of fake autumn leaves around a shopping mall.

sadly, I have extremely feeble skin and easily get a blister on my feet. never forget to try walking round in shoes before I buy a new pair.
and YET.
I got a blister or should I say my feet began to skin around the toe in no more than 6 minutes…
the worst part comes afterwards. I managed to throw myself in a bathtub, keeping my feet above the water. after a while I noticed I was trapped in the bathtub. i couldn’t put my feet in the water, cuz they smarted. so what could I do other than crawling out of it like a ninja?

from Miyajima

Someone said in the U.S. you have cotton swabs to clean ears,
but not ear sticks that are available here.
the ones that have a scoop on the tip.

here,
somehow any tourist spots you go to, they seem to sell ear sticks of this type as a souvenir, sometimes featuring whatever is peculiar to the place.


this is from Miyajima, near Hiroshima.

unwrapping gifts

Persimmons are in. can indulge in for a while.

Yesterday watched ‘Trad Japan’.
one of the hosts who is from Britain, said how he was surprised with the way Japanese care wrapping of gifts and skillfully unwrap them without damaging the paper,
while back in his country, they even tear it open to show excitement.
This reminded me of what happened when we visited our friend to celebrate her new baby born.
she gave each of us a gift in return on the spot, and we all opened it.
she saw me and giggled, ‘ it’s just like you, you’re opening it just in your way.’ next to me, was another friend opening it so neatly and sophisticatedly.
that was the day I noticed my way of unwrapping was like children or men.
I wasn’t born Japanese, but I’ve grown to be Japanese.

TV coverage, unidentified

a friend of mine went all the way to Tokyo to see a live performance. some idol group.
she was hanging out with some fans just the outside Tokyo Dome, where it was held, when some guys came up and asked if it was ok to interview them.
That was tv coverage from Shanghai. They all got interviewed since nobody who know them can see it anyway, nothing to be embarrassed about they thought. If it was aired in Japan, they wouldn’t have, she said.
But you do not know if it was a real thing in the first place, they did not even ask the name of the tv station. So first thing you do next time(if any), get their business card.

'Norwegian Wood'

This is 'Norwegian Wood' from 1988.
The character style back then is different from the one available now, and it does make a big difference in appearance.
It is stiff and formal in 80’s edition, while it feels fairly easy-going in recent editions.
This year again Haruki Murakami did not win the Nobel Prize, which I personally think is good for us and him.
His work has been highly valued already.
everytime someone wins a prestigious prize or something, it starts going crazy, being blown out of proportion.