The speech he makes is really interesting in the sense that we can know how one of the people in the USA thinks about the world around us.

Also this is a very interesting news that he seems t be publishing his book in Japan. Probably one of the publishers in Japan noticed his site and got interested.  He may be more popular with this chance.

This kind of publishing often happens in Japan these days, it means that publishers need to find topics through internet.   Nice topics for books are often found in internet website rather than in the news papers or personal contacts.

This is really devastating for publishers.  Information on the internet is already live there, but when it’s published it’s not live but a fixed information in the book.  Even if they publishers knew how it’s late and not exciting, only way for them to get popular information is by internet.  This means the books are already dead media.

For the public record and for a little profit of media, books, this idea might work. But basically as far as publishers have dead brain, their future will not be bright. 

This gentleman, Tony, is indeed interesting and brave person. So the watchers are a lot. Putting aside the publishing business, it could be one of the objective opinions when we look at what’s going on in the world.

I personally suppose that American media isn’t believed by people. That’s why this kind of YouTube site stands out.  If so, American media situation is totally the same as Japanese ones.

Haruki Murakami is already a famous novelist of Japan. His latest work,  1Q84, is published in many countries, and it makes a hit sales in Taiwan too.

In Taiwan, there are many people looking at Japanese pop culture or modern information through media.  It’s not a big surprise if Taiwan publishes this title.  But the sales seems to be bigger than usual big selling books.

I’ve ever heard about some anime fans in Taiwan.  I can’t get why Haruki Murakami books sell much in Taiwan too.

Not only in Taiwan but in some more countries, Haruki Murakami works are loved. It’s good.  But, to be honest, I don’t read his ones so often.  When the Norwegian Wood was published in Japan, that became his first big hit.  I also read it and enjoyed just like LOOKING AT TV DRAMA.

Since then, I don’t follow his works.  I think his works are like trendy TV dramas or something. So people can pick up his works and read though.

Maybe when I want to FEEL the time rather than wanting to knowing the meaning of the life, I may once again begin to read his works.

In that European power situation, some Japanese novelists are known to fans as Yukio Mishima or Haruki Murakami.

I’m pleased if someone knows SOSEKI NATSUME, who wrote many splendid books through Meiji Era of Japan, and he is said to be the Japan’s greatest novelist ever among pure literature fans.

SOSEKI NATSUME works has great sense of intelligence and wit. His debut work, Wagahaiwa Neko de aru ( I’m a cat ), has funny aspect of story told by the cat, at the same time, the cat observes sharply the world of human. His approach to human nature was continued to his next work, Bocchan ( A Boy). 

If we are asked what the best work of Soseki is, maybe many would answer “Kokoro ( Heart )”. In this work, the character’s pshycological inner conflict is written very clearly and we readers are introduced into his mental world of moral, tenderness, friendship, love and desire.  This should be called a Masterpiece of Japanese literature.  If we are allowed to recommend something for new readers of Japanese books, SOSEKI works are on the top selection as far as I’m concerned.

Maybe it’s hard to find the translation of his works, that makes distance from the world literature fans.

Again, as Japanese good novelists often are, Soseki is also very good at using just necessary words for the expression of story. His words are a little old fashioned for us modern readers, but the variation and depth of the selected words by Soseki always beat us with the irreplaceable importance. His words reaches our deeper mind and his story moves us with clear explanation of his intelligent words.

He loved British literature and studied in UK when he was young. But I don’t know how many people in UK know him actually today.

Until he died 49 years old of stomach ulser, he continued writing and remained works from him are real treasure of Japan still.

As a footnote, he is a model of present 1000 yen bill of Japan.

I’ve never read the translated books of Yukio Mishima. But I can imagine how it would be a hard work to translate his idea in the different language.

His stories are expressed by using very special words in Japanese, which are almost impossible for standard Japanese to read Mishima’sbooks without JAPANESE dictionary. His stories are exactly described by using only-one suitable words for express the situation of the stories. It’s like an art. No other words match better than Mishima’s choice.

Mishima was a very inteligent novelist, so his expression vocabrary was spreading wide.  Mishima knew how to express human soul and spirit by the Japanese language, or words. So for us readers, we need to struggle with his chosen words to understand correctly about his inner world. 

Yes, to read his novels was like to know his mind through his severely selected words.

That’s why I wonder how much correct meaning could be possible in translation into other language on his artistic works of novels.

Of course, it’s impossible. Language is based on the history and culture of the people, so as far as Mishima used Japanese for his books, 100% correct meaning of his intention can’t be translated. It’s all the same for any novelist in the world.

However, when we read very hard philosophical books written in French or German, we thought we understood what the author wanted to say in spite that translation can’t convey 100% correct meaning. But it was much better than we read nothing because those TRANSLATED books opened our mind and broaden our horizons.

There are Mishima fans in the world. For them, it’s surely hard to read the books in Japanese as it’s hard even for Japanese people.

Even in the translated books, judging from our experience, it’s much better if Yukio Mishima is read by people n the world because it surely gives idea of what the Japanese people are.

Michelin gourmet guide book is also famous in Japan. They buy this series of books when they go traveling.

Now do you know this series added Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto cities of Japan ?

I often hear that Tokyo is regarded as one of the gourmet cities in the world and Tokyo has more 3 star restaurants than NY city. I don’t know if Tokyo is really recognized such, but it’s true that we can find any types of foods in Tokyo and most of them are delicious.

Michelin guidebook of Tokyo sold more than 270,000 copies in total and it became the top seller in Japan too.

Today, Michelin Osaka and Kyoto were published. Both of them sells really well and only today’ sales recorded 40,000 copies to be top daily sales in Japan.

This means the Japanese already recognized Michelin very well and they use this book not only for outbound travel but inside of Japan.

I love Japanese food, but it’s really vague when we say “Japanese food”. Japanese food has many kinds. If I live in Tokyo, maybe I select Sushi, Tempura, Tendon, Katsudon, Sukiyaki, Soba or Tokyo ramen. But in Osaka, Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, Udon, Yakiniku ( Teppanyaki), Tarachiri ( boiled catfish ), and many others. Also in Kyoto, there are so many traditional Japanese style foods. 

Like that, each city in Japan has each food style no matter how small the city is.  That’s why we enjoy travels by eating.

If I think like this, Japan is a real gourmet country.  I’ve never experienced this kind of food excitement when traveling overseas although my experience is limited.

 Japanese Fall started. From now till the end of November, the trees in the mountain turn their leaves into red. Fall is the most beautiful season in Japan.

In the history, many poets were born writing about the heart of fall.  Dining table becomes colorful with seasonal food stuff.

For travelers, Kyoto’s fall is especially beautiful with historical buildings and the red leaves. Above photo is the Golden Temple in Kyoto, which is probably one of most popular sightseeing spots in Kyoto.  Red and gold match well now.

Golden Temple is also known to the world because the renowned novelist of Japan, Yukio Mishima, wrote a book with the title, Golden temple or Kinkakuji. It’s his masterpiece which represents his works. It’s translated into some languages, please read if you have some interest in Japanese novels.

Haruki Murakami seems to be the most popular or well known Japanese story writer at this generation. He used to be a popular writer among Japanese college students 20 to 30 years ago. It’s a kind of mystery why he became such a popular author in the world after that. Many read his book, Norwegian Wood when it’s published in Japan and it was like a fashion of non heavy book readers because that was easy to read and easy to put the readers into the world of story.

But now it seems that his popularity is more than a fashion. Actually his style is not that emotional, it’s more like a dry and modern urban life style when we read, but to our surprise, as we read his books, we go further into his world with deeper emotion that we never feel at the beginning.  That means we find ourselves in the story as we proceed.

If the world readers feel the same way, it again means that human nature is not that different whichever the racial group they belong to. And it also means Haruki Murakami has real sense of human nature that reaches at all kind of people living on this planet.