Eivind, Murakami & Passing Scenery

another great discovery, like a gentle breeze on a scorching day -






photos from here.

another Murakami story:

i was talking to the norwegian guy (Eivind) i met in my hostel in taipei when i noticed that he was holding a book in his hands. it looked like a japanese novel to me, so i said to him, "you should read Murakami's 'Sputnik Sweetheart'".

"This IS Murakami's 'Sputnik Sweetheart'!" he said, and then we laughed.

"You know what, just now I was trying to read the book again, and for the first time in my life I not only understood the japanese, but I also saw how beautiful that first paragraph was. fuck, I almost cried."

it was 2 in the morning in taipei, he'd just arrived from tokyo after binging on so many cans of beer he couldn't start to count, and i was one day away from going back home to singapore, and he'd just told me such a beautiful thing....

all we could do was smile. it was awesome.