Reading, and Writing

I just finished organizing and dating what turned out to be 15 journals I've written since the summer I came to Japan.














(I just noticed #1 has slid underneath #2, maybe because it's shy. After all, it's the oldest of the bunch.)

Wow. Feels good, and I'm not quite sure why, but I have an idea or few. This is the stuff of stories. This is the basis of a book (or many).

In other news, I'm on page 416 now in Murakami Haruki's "1Q84." I won't say anything about it, though I have some things going on in my mind. Almost time for Book 2! I want to order Book 3 before it comes out next month and I go back to LaLaLand.

Listening to some old Japanese music (as in I got it much earlier in my stay here). It's nice. I'm hungry. I think I'll go eat something.

Oh man!

Oh man, I just made the best meal I've made in a long time! That was so good! I was just possessed with a sudden, quickly growing urge to make a good late lunch-early dinner, and it turned out aawwesomely. Mm, saba (mackeral) with a quickly done katsuo (bonita)-base shitake soup, freshly grated daikon (white radish) with ponzu (um...) on top, and warmed up rice. Oh my gosh, that was so good. I am happy and satisfied. I'm happy to have what seems to be a natural instinct to survive that makes me get really interested in cooking when I don't have a lot of money.

I wrote some character lists and story outlines today at the mall for one of the stories I'm thinking about. That's when the urge to eat/cook hit me! And I also saw one of my old elementary school students who was in 4th grade, I think, when I taught him. He was with his Mom when he turned around on the escalator, saw me, and instantly started smiling really widely and waving energetically! I did the same!

I've got an invitation to go to someone in town's house for dinner tonight, and though I'm pretty filled up, I have very little doubt I'll be able to eat a whole other full meal. Mmm :)

I

It's weird when you realize that the time you spend speaking (and even more so, speaking to other people) definitely makes up the minority of the time in your day. Talking to people feels something like a special occasion to me now.

Well, I've got my soy milk and green tea and cream pastry and am ready to write.

(lonesome pilot ~ young blossom street)

Ooh!

Okay, I've got until September 2011 to finish reading the first two volumes of Murakami Haruki's 1Q84 before the English translation comes out! And maybe a little more time after that until the English translation for the not-yet-released third volume comes out.

Actually, after reading that long Muri and then the short Kinosaki Ni Te, written in 1917 Japanese, going through Murakami's book has been pretty easy. Especially since I've taken the approach of just looking up words when I need to, instead of making a vocabulary notebook along the way. So, I finished the second chapter, which I was on before I stopped, reading about 16 pages in two days, so I think I should be able to do this much sooner than September 2011.

Also, I've been getting more and more inspiration to write my own books. I have two in mind, now. Neat.

*Teasi - Sando (album)*

P.S. Harry Gamboa Jr. just released a book called "Rider" that sounds really, really interesting and I want to read it, but I kept my self-discipline and didn't order it over to Japan because it's going to be expensive to ship back to the U.S. and I don't want to interrupt my Murakami reading anymore anyways.

:)