shinymonkey comes back from NY with chilling JLPT 1 textbooks from takumashii, and as we wait for her homeward bus tells me chilling stories of seeing ghosts in Japan. Biking home from work late at night, people out in the rice fields working. 'How did you know they were ghosts?' 'I could see through them.' The Japanese, sheesh. What do you wanna do in your afterlife? Work, of course. I always felt Japan didn't have enough there there to support ghosts, but Gunma was where the Christians holed up in, which doubtless makes Gunma weird by definition. There were no ghosts in the late night cabbage fields of Heiwadai, I assure you. (Apparently what there are is rice fields with pictures of Doraemon planted in them, but I can't find the article online. What I *did* find is OMG!!! pictures of my dorm there! ('ware pop-ups) written by an entitled male wrestling fan say-no-more. Poor Mizuno-san, having to deal with a jerk like that. But ohh, Mosburger and the Lawsons and the AM/PM and that street to the station, how this takes me back!! (right-click, right-click, right-click) And dear god, Azalea House has its own Facebook entry as well. And Youtube video!)
English
The Tale of Murasaki
The Death of Achilles
Death on the Leviathan
--Fandorin mysteries go down easy
Dick Francis, Flying Finish
--so do Francises
Pratchett, The Last Hero
--read the way other people read, in bits and skipping. Lovely book with pictures but the text very small and pale
Mushishi 3 (in translation)
Japanese
Kurotsubaki 8
