Another quick note before this week’s post: Last week I forgot to mention the importance of “projects” in Japanese study. Little projects—like this annual Murakami exercise or even something smaller as resolving to read an entire book or a certain … Continue reading
I’m in the Japan Times Bilingual page this week: “Repetition and role-play are crucial for speaking success in Japanese.” I was stunned to see that no one had previously written about 早口言葉 (はやくちことば, tongue twisters)…as long as the search engine … Continue reading
I read Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Chapter 30 “Hole” at least a month ago (perhaps even more…I can’t remember if I read it before or after I went to Japan in March) but didn’t write up … Continue reading
Chapter 29 has some clear changes right from the beginning: The chapter title in the Complete Works edition is “Lake, Pantyhose” while in English translation and in the original paperback it is “Lake, Masatomi Kondo, Pantyhose.” In this chapter, Watashi … Continue reading
Chapter 26 “Power Station” has very few cuts but many examples of how generous Birnbaum is as a translator. In the chapter, Boku and the Librarian wander out to the Power Station near the entrance of the woods in search … Continue reading
It took me long enough, but I finally finished Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Chapter 25 “Meal, Elephant Factory, Trap,” a 31-page monstrosity during which the scientist explains exactly what he did to Watashi: install a new … Continue reading
Welcome to the Eighth Annual How to Japanese Murakami Fest! With the goal of stirring up even more interest in Murakami between now and October, when the Nobel Prizes are announced, I will post a small piece of Murakami translation/analysis/revelation … Continue reading
@howtojapanese @japantimes @AkoKitamura always struggle with sentences like "he said she told him they were very happy". 主語と動詞が多すぎ — Brendan Hidenaga (@tintinaujapon) February 12, 2015 My March Japan Times Bilingual piece is up: “Avoiding the subject isn’t such a bad … Continue reading
Happy New Year, folks. Yoroshiku and all that jazz in 2015. Apologies for the delay with the Hard-boiled Wonderland Project. Two more posts in Chapter 21 “Bracelets, Ben Johnson, Devil” and I’ll be finished with half of the novel. Here … Continue reading
In my nostalgic reminiscing about the National Diet Library, I forgot to introduce one of the coolest parts of my new essay over at Neojaponisme, “Murakami Haruki’s Advertorial Short Stories”: While I was writing it, I found another cut in … Continue reading