Haruki Murakami 村上春樹コミュのSelf-introduction

Moe: I just started rereading "Hardboiled Wonderland" from today!! I love it! I haven't tried it in Japanese though, so I think it's great you're trying it in English. Must be tough. Good luck, and thanks for joining the community!!

Hello.

I'm originally from Michigan, but spent several years living in Madison, Wisconsin before moving back to Japan. Currently in Nagano-ken.

I've read several of Murakami's books in English, but haven't made an attempt in Japanese yet. (I just bought Norwegian Wood at BookOff earlier this week).

I think that the Wind-up Bird Chronicle is still my favorite.

Hi there,

ive just started using Mixi and im so happy i could find this community!
My favorite Muramaki book is "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World".
i read several times but i can read it again :D

im so excited to talk about his books and to hear your opinions about it. Now im
living in U.S so i might try to read his novels in English. Has everyone here read
his books in English? or both(in English & in Japanese)?

亜仁: Thanks for joining! I also haven't tried reading one of his books in Japanese yet, though I am going to try this year. The thing is, I love reading for relaxation -- if I do it in Japanese it'll be like studying, not for relaxation. Anyway, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is excellent!

ゆきゆき: I actually just finished rereading Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World yesterday. I loved it more this time than when I read it before. It's excellent. I'm glad you found the community. I have only read his books in English, but I want to try reading them in Japanese.

Airbag: Thanks for joining. It's amazing to read the same thing in different languages, or even watch movies with subtitles, etc. It shows you that translation is a very difficult and interesting thing.

あさこXXX: Norwegian Wood is also my favourite. Thanks for joining, and I look forward to reading your comments.

Hello
I'm Akemi, nice to meet you.
Akenon is name my band gave me,
So you can use either one.

I'm happy to find the community~.
My favorite book is "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World"
Right now I am reading "The Elephant Vanishes"
(instead of doing my real reading assignment w )

I live in California and when I go to the bookstore
It seems that whenever it is restocked for Murakami's book
Then it gets sold out right away
I'm happy there are so many fans but~
I want to buy books too! ww

Anyway nice to meet everyone.

Akemi: Nice to meet you!! Hard-Boiled is an excellent book, and I just reread it for the third time recently. I'm also happy Murakami gets sold out there, though I know what you mean about wanting to buy them. Anyway, thanks for joining!! Be sure to look at all the old threads to talk about things. There is at least one about Hard-boiled, I think.

First of all, thanks to リック-san for creating this community!

I'm a newcomer to Murakami-san's works as I've only just
finished reading all of his novels about a week ago and plan
to get started on his essays soon.

In the past, I tried reading his novels in the original Japanese
but I had trouble accepting his writing style. For example,
the first couple of pages of Norwegian Wood were a bit
too "emotional" for my taste. In the case of Sputnik, again
the opening passages seemed too silly in a slapstick manner.
And when I read the first page of Wind-up Bird, where Toru
tells us about the right music for cooking pasta, I felt it was
somewhat pushy or pretentious. I never got beyond those
pages and decided that Haruki Murakami's works and I
weren't meant for each other.

After awhile though, I had a chance to pick up a copy of the
English translation of Wind-up Bird and found myself
intrigued with it. What surprised me first wasn't just the
story itself but that in the English version the
pretentiousness that I had felt when reading the original
Japanese text had evaporated. Since my mother tongue is
Japanese, though, I had somewhat felt awkward towards
reading the English translation instead of the Japanese text,
which I could read if I really wanted to.

To make a long story short, I eventually overcame that
awkwardness, found myself totally won over, and ended up
reading most of his books in English with the help of my
local library network, which has most of his novels in English
except two - Pinball 1973 and After Dark (I read those two in
Japanese).

Like I mentioned above, this is a wonderful community and I
hope to join in the discussions here.
Yoroshiku-onegaisimasu :D

Hi!everyone!
I am a his big fun when I was in high shool.(almost 10years back...)
And I am not only enjoy reading his novels but also essay(村上朝日堂とかね☆)
I like his way of thinking,am really agree with him.
I met a swiss guy in AUS.he had [Kafka on the Shore].
He is worldwide!!! I was start reading his book in English.
Oops,introduce myself.am living INDIA now.
(this is not like a murakami world…)
AND Hear the Wind Sing/pinball1973/the Wild Sheap Chase
Are my Favorite series.

groovemonk: Thanks for joining, and sorry for waiting so long to address your post. That's pretty impressive that you've read the books in both languages. I actually have some of his Japanese books, and I believe that books should, when possible, be read in their native language, but I haven't tried yet. Anyway, thanks for the compliments, and I look forward to some interesting discussion with you.

めぐっぺ: I also really like his way of thinking, and I think that many people in the world do too, which is why he is so popular. You're living in India??? Wow, that's amazing! I want to go there some time.

はちこ: I'm happy you like his books. I love them. Kafka is one of my favourites too, and I think I'll read it for a fourth time soon. I'm happy and thankful you could join too. Thanks.

Hi,guys!
i'm very beginer of his works but i like his short stories. now i start reading "blind willow, sleeping woman" these stories caught my heart and i really enjoy reading! i've barely read his works in english but i'll try all of his long stories in english.

yoroshikuonegaishimasu☆

Hi everyone,

I'm so glad there is a community like this! I love his works but i hav read most of them in eng..I wonder if there are lots difference between his Jpn books n Eng books(I hope not).I am reading Dance dance dance at the moment.

Happy reading day guys;)

Kovo: Thanks for joining, and welcome. I actually never knew anything about Haruki before I came to Japan, but it was a Canadian who recommended him to me, from Canada, by email. Anyway, I hope this community can help you gain some insight into the works, and I hope you can give some good comments sometime. Anyway, best of luck in London!

画鋲: Welcome!! Good luck reading the books in English, and I wish you the best. I'm glad you've started reading Murakami... he's amazing.

ayanappa: I'm happy that you're happy about the community. I also wonder what the differences are like in English and Japanese... so I'm going to try to read a book in Japanese from this week. Happy reading to you, too!!

Hi Mr Rick and else,

I studied at York university in Toronto for almost 6 years. I spent most of my 20s there. What part of Canada are you from?? I've read Murakami's work through my 20s. Particularly, 'negimaki-dori' was influential for my MA paper on wartime violence.

I am one of them waiting for his new book. I heard that he was working on long story a while ago. But who knows when he will finish it (or perhaps it's finished already!).

Anyway, it's nice to know we can talk about Murakami in English. Talk to you soon...

Dai_kooper: Hey!! Thanks for joining, and thanks for the comment. I'm actually from a small town in Ontario which is close to the city of London, but since no one in Japan even knows Canada has a London I always just say I'm from Toronto -- it's easier. And actually, Toronto is not that far away... maybe two hours or so by car. If I ever move back to Canada, it'll be either Vancouver or Toronto... or maybe Montreal, I think.

Anyway, thanks for telling me he's writing a new book. To be honest, I was really disappointed with After Dark; it seemed like a short story that had a lousy ending. The only unhappy thing about him making a new book is that I'll have to wait two years to read it in English!! I should try it in Japanese but, to be honest, my reading comprehension is weak, and when I read I like to do it to relax, not to study.

I look forward to chatting with you on these topics.

Yukie: Thanks so much for joining. I'm happy that you're interested in cross-cultural communication and like Murakami. Good luck reading them in English!! It's always good practice.

Hello everyone!

I'm happy to get to know this community.
My user name is Bay.
I'm keeping diary on my mixi site.
Please check it out if you have a chance.

What do you think of Haruki Murakami?
Throughout the world, Murakami has a great reputation. While in Japan, many literary critics underestimate Murakami despite of his popularity.

Murakami always beckons the reader to his world.
I'm one of those readers.

Murakami's world is predictable. A young and sensitive guy is lost in the real world. He is looking for a kind of shelter.
He comes across strange people or a beautiful girl who is also very sensitive.
This love stories always came to a tragic end.
Murakami provides detailed description of nice music, wine and food in his books which attracts his readers very much.

I have read "Norwegian wood", "The Wind -up Bird Chronicle", " Kafka on the Shore" and now I am reading "Dance Dance Dance".
These are all English version.
I read "Norwegian wood" in Japanese version.
I think Murakami's style is quite suitable to be translated in English.
I think it's because Murakami has followed the styles of Raymond Chandler, Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Jerome David Salinger.
These authors have influenced on Murakami very much, in terms of a style, a way of life, a viewpoint to real life.
I’d write an essay in English about Murakami in the future.

Bay: Nice to meet you, too! Thanks for joining. Sounds like we have a lot of interests in common. And thank you for mentioning the authours that have influenced Murakami... it's really interesting.

Crusoe: Yeah, the community's still active, and I apologize for the long time in commenting on intros, but I've been extremely busy lately.

Anyway, I didn't happen on Murakami so much by chance as I was introduced, but I think I would have found him eventually. Until then, though, like you I am amazed that I had never noticed him before. Since I read his first book, I saw him EVERYWHERE. I guess that's how life is, though,sometimes you can't see things right in front of you until you are told what to look for. Life is better for the learning, though, and in this case I am very happy to have bumped into Murakami, and grateful to the person who introduced me to him.

The community indeed hasn't had much action of late, as people tend not to comment too much on their own. If you know anybody who would like to join, by all means introduce them. Ultimately what I would love is for the community to grow enough that people freely create their own topics (more than they have been, that is, bless their hearts) and others freely interact on said threads.

Welcome to the community.

K-LOVE: Thanks a million! And thanks for joining. Hopefully we can get more action going in the community.

I happened to find this news on the You Tube.
Haruki Murakami was making a speech in English at the conferencefor for giving him the Franz Kafka award in Czech.
According to the commentaiter in the news, that oppotunity might be the first and the last time ever for Murakami to speak in the public.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkENf4ALHY&feature=related

I was so impressed with Murakami's good English speaking level.

べいさん：Thanks so much for the link! I have never heard his voice before, so I was happy to see him and hear him speak. Yes, his English is incredible!

Hi everyone,

My name is maggie and I'm a beginner (i.e. am not a 'fan' as such ... yet). I found his conversations with the late psychotherapist Hayao Kawai very interesting and decided to work on his work (academically - though not in the discipline of literature). And I've been enjoying reading his work!

However (and this is slightly off topic perhaps, in which case sorry) ... I've recently heard this news and am quite confused at the moment:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232292925579&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660005,00.html

Does anyone know anything about this 'Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society', or the Jerusalem International Book Fair where the prize is awarded?

http://www.jerusalembookfair.com/main.html

I don't want just to criticise him (!); I don’t know what to think especially without knowing what he intends to do there (or not). I'm simply curious how other readers of his work are feeling at the moment...

Any comments appreciated!!
Thanks very much ;)

i think murakami haruki is (almost) God.
now i am re-reading wild sheep chase cause i am heading to sapporo on sunday!

minasan yoroshiku.

たか：Thanks for joining!! My favourite book of his, and the first I read, is the same as you (Norwegian Wood). Like you, I want to read his book again in another language, in this case his and your native tongue.

maggie: Welcome to the site. I'm actually curious about a lot of the things you mention, too, and will try to check them out.

me love d: I think he's like a god, too. Yoroshiku to you, too. I have read Wild Sheep Chase threetimes, and the last time I read it I read it after "Hear the Wind Blow", in which the character of the rat first appears (second time in Pinball). Thanks for joining! Enjoy Sapporo.

Hi!! i've just found and joined this community.
i finished reading ' South of the Border, West of the Sun' yesterday. it was awesome!! i couldn't stop reading till the end. i still cannot get back from its world. What kind of life had Shimamoto been in? Has she really died? i really wanted to talk to someone about it, or wanted anyone to listen my feelings.

I'm 33 years old and currently in Perth, Australia. Because of such a famous author, not only in Japan but in the world, i of course have known about Murakami. When i was in junior or high school, 'Norwegian Wood' made a smash hit. But i didn't read it then, don't know why.

The first time i read his novel was just one year ago. i found 'Norwegian Wood' in the backpackers in Sydney. It smashed me. i was totally overwhelmed after finished reading. Before reading, I felt it was kind of weird because i 'm Japanese but i read it written in English, but it didn't matter at all, or maybe even better. It is one of the best book in my life.

Then yesterday i read 'South....' and was knocked out again. I think these two books have some similar parts, especially Naoko and Shimamoto. And i like that kind of Osananajimi story, or i could say Seishun story.

I've read 'After Dark' and 'When I talk about.....', but they didn't seize my heart, like the above two did. I'm thinking what i will read next.

Thanks!!

Hi everyone!

I,m Danshi. I love reading Murakami in English. My best one is NORWEGIAN WOOD. He knows how to involve readers to his world.
I also love his sence of humor. He knows what a foolish is. It means also he knows what a common sense is.

I,m one of the happiest one who cound reach special author.

I start reading Norwegian wood in English.
This book is strange but so beautiful. Topics involved mental institute is totally strange, but it remind me my old friends who was suffering of the depression who was teen that time.
It is very hard to fit in growing up in Japan. I sometimes thinking that that's why I left my
beautiful city and living in crap like NYC.
It's so rock to live in NYC. It's totally difference.
But, sometimes my memory come back just like I am in Murakami's world. Strange relationship....
In the bamboo forest in Saga Kyoto,,, Tons of cherri blossom flowing in the air,, Smith from my head phone. I loved all of it.
Thanks,,, for your great work,,,, That remind me my illusion,,,

Thanks to all the new joiners, and sorry I haven't commented in a while. I'm happy to meet so many fans of Murakami's. Yoroshiku!!