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Things I Read During the Quarantine: Part 1, Introduction
Background
In this post, I won't talk about any of the books I read during the quarantine but on the books I read in the past, and about my reading habits.
The oldest book I remember reading is probably, everyone's favourite The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. May be that's why I can't stop eating. Anyways, it has nothing to do with what I will be talking about in this post. The early days in my elementary school I was into Sherlock Holms, and other detective novels. With that said, I realized that I've never read the books by Christie Agatha, so that's what I've been reading nowadays. DO NOT WRITE THE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENT SECTION!!!!!! Also I was reading a lot of books about mathematics (although I don't remember having the eureka moments, so probably I never understood them at all :P).
Middle School to high school, I was reading the scientific books. In the middle school, I remember I was reading about many books on biology. I think most of the biological knowledge I have now is from that time (I need to update myself I guess...). Mainly the translated one by Simon Singh. Big Bang, The Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book to name a few. From the translator, I learned about Leonard Susskind. Read few books by him. The book, "The cosmic landscape" influenced me in the deepest level; probably that's why I never really liked (read) Hawking. I seriously wanted to be a cosmologist and live in some really rural area and spending days gazing stars. The section on flying a balloon to do X-ray astronomy in the middle of Autralia pushed me to do undergrad in Australia. Although I'm currently in Scotland, where it's always rainy and crwoded during winter, which supposed to have the clearest sky (due to the low humidity); I still haven't given up on living in a rural county (I have a big plan, but won't reveal it here :) ).
In the university (undergraduate), I was busy studying, but reading was mostly focused on philosophy, philosophical foundation of science, rather than scientific facts themselves, and history to understand historical background on how amazing ideas had to emerge in that particular place and time. Penrose (the Nobel prize of the year!), William Hardy McNeill, and Jared Diamond to name a few. Seriously, it's fascinating to know various changes in climates, politics, etc... gave rise to scientific revolution and development of philosophy, democracy and so forth! Of course, complexity of the human society is not at all a thing that can be understood by a small brain of mine!
Nowadays, meaning after I finished undergrad till now, I am interested in psychology, especially how childhood development influences the adulthood. The modern philosophy on cognition and free will are deeply related to neuroscience and hence psychology. In fact, many psychologists were philosophers in the early 19s. Many of the original Fraud's ideas are later proven to be wrong or somewhat inaccurate (of course, that's like saying Isaac Newton was wrong for not discovering relativity); but there are many things we can take from his ideas. I think people are interesting, not like superficial psychology that you learn in psychology 101 or on some cheap self-help books you find in stores, but really trying to understand why certain people act in some way is fascinating. I think understanding them will make me able to understand myself better, hence to understand others better, and be a bit kinder (?). In regard to this theme I read few classic novels (I think the authors expresses the inner mechanics of their brain through fictional characters).
What's next?
Now you know what I've been reading, I hope this will help you with understanding how I ended up on drawing conclusions to each of the books that I will be presenting in the next few posts.
The first book I will be introducing is "Juvenile delinquents who can't cut a cake" (ケーキの切れない不良少年たち) by Koji Miyaguchi (宮口幸治).
Melon Bread doesn't have Melon in it.
お前は今まで食べたパンの枚数を覚えているのか？ - ディオ ブランドー
Do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten in your lifetime? - Dio Brando
I was missing eating メロンパン (Melon Bread), so I was planning to bake one since I was in Australia. But then, I always thought that Melon bread has melon extract in it. So I thought it's impossible to make one with non-industrial means. I thought I need some sort of chemical that smells like melon extract, that are only available in massive quantities. I was so sure that I didn't even googled it for more than 26 years.
But then, turned out, that is not the case. The truth is that melon bread doesn't have melon in it and it's super easy to make. Now I know this fact, I started to feel like the countless Melon bread I ate in Japan didn't taste anything like a melon. MY LIFE IS A LIE!
The name melon bread actually came from egg mélange bread, a stupid Japanese person who listened to Portugese trader misheard it. It is bread, so you need raise it with yeast, which I guess is the hardest part, but should be able to make it in UK. I'm going to be so rich.
May be the super-frog was eaten by the cat he abandoned - Part 2.5, the frog
The text
Part 1
Part 2
My plan was to write about abandoning a cat, but I remembered that I had something about the frog that I didn't write about; so I just dump it here. It is as essential as part 2; I think. Here we go.
So the problem I had is that the fact that the frog got the information about the Earth quake with his bug friends. Frog eats bugs, but then they are still friends. Also, frog eats worms, the worms are there to be eaten for a frog, and if they fight, there is no way that worm wins. But in this story, somehow, the worm is something to be defeated by a frog; frog should be naturally eating them.
In the usual situation, I guess that's the case. If I understand frog as consciousness and the worm as unconsciousness, then for most of the people for the most of the time, consciousness can suppress the unconsciousness without even thinking about it. In other words, in principle, the stress, should grow to crush you. However, under extraordinary circumstances, such collection of stresses can crush someone so hard, that it can even kill the most protected part in one's heart. Then, the world which a worm kills the frog is possible. This is why you need to support the flog, you don't even have to be with the frog for that.
May be the super-frog was eaten by the cat he abandoned - Part 2, impressions
What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real - Super-frog saves tokyo by Haruki Murakami
目に見えるものが本当のものとは限らない -村上春樹著「かえるくん、東京を救う」より
I hope you read my previous article or the English translation by some random person. In this article, I will briefly explain what I felt on the meaning of the story.
In order to understand the story, one must know the two important dates from the era. One is 17th of January 1995 and the other is 20th of March. Former is the day that the Earthquake in kobe, which killed more than 6000 people, happened. The latter is the day which Tokyo subway sarin attack, which is the first terrorist attack in the world that used the chemical weapon, sarin. With Nostradamus's prophecy saying that the world is end at the end of 20th century and the ending of the Japanese economic miracle, Japanese people around those times had a feeling of desperation and fear.
Super-frog saves Tokyo is a story that sets in that kind of the time period.
Given that the story was published in 1999, I think it's safe to assume it was written after both of the events. I don't think that it's a coincidence that it was published at the very end of 20th century. Therefore, this, I think, was aimed to such people who lost their hope to the future.
The frog, of course, is not a real being; although in the text, the frog said something along the line that if some one say the frog doens't exist it will get very angry, it's the worst insult that anyone can say to it. But come on, if nobody else can't see, touch, or hear it, and it is a 2m tall frog, then there is no way that it's the real being. But that's okay, Katagiri even tell himself that what you see is not everything.
Then what is the frog? The answer is easy, most boring and obvious. It's someone or it can even be part of you that tells you that you are okay as who you are. Everyone fights their own battle, win or lose, there are so many people in this world who, big or small, fought but the steps and outcomes were never recognized.
The story gives the solution to those people, and people who want to help them. The answer is written clearly in the text. It's the imagination. The understanding only comes when you have the enough pieces to complete the puzzle. But as I quoted, understanding is merely the sum total of the whole, even you cannot understand yourself without misunderstanding.
But that's okay, even though our understanding of ourselves or the hardship of others, is just a misunderstanding, the important thing is the outcome. At the end of the day, Katagiri found the frog as the most important being for him. He finally found the way to like himself through his imagination. But of course, his own imagination of himself is just his imagination; it's never as great as someone who really understands him. That's why the battle against the worm ended up with drawn. That is why the worm escaped through the frog's death. Katagiri has to fight his own worms till the end of his time.
The frog, in the end, managed to stop the worst. I think it's safe to understand that the timeline of Katagiri getting shot and the Earthquake happens in Tokyo to Katagiri not getting shot and Earthquake does not happen in Tokyo. The compensation for that is of course the Sarin attack and Katagiri's fainting. For a moment, we think that the story is a happy end, but reality is not. Harsh yet boring.... I guess that's why we want to have imagination and escape into euphoria through that.
Probably that is okay, at least he knows that he can be drawn with them and prevent the worst from happening to him... The most importantly, he finally found the way to love himself, "more than anybody".
I never cried after reading something, and this book is no exception. But after reading this I felt that I wish I could. Vodka is almost empty, so I am going to end for now. The part three and onwards will be on the abandoned cat.
May be the super-frog was eaten by the cat he abandoned - Part 1, synopsis
'Underrstanding' is merely the sum total of our misunderstandings - Super-frog saves tokyo by Haruki Murakami
理解は誤解の総体にすぎない - 村上春樹作「かえるくん東京を救う」
Haruki Murakami was mentioned throughout various conversations, the shows, and films I've watched in past few months. So I decided to spend an afternoon reading small pieces by him. Usually I write on things I read in Japanese in Japanese, but given the fact that more than half of the conversations were with non-native Japanese speakers, I will just dump this here in English.
I was watching Shoplifters, a film from 2018 for the second time from the boredom, and I was surprised that it had a strikingly similar theme to an animation show called "mawaru-pinguindrum"; but only few - at least on the internet - were writing about them comprehensively. I was surprised; but I guess that's a story for some other day (you should check out Shoplifters if you haven't seen it!). Anyway, on the show, a short story "Super-frog saves Tokyo" was mentioned as a key that connects 1995 and 2011. So I was hoping that the story might give me some better understanding of the theme.
Suprisingly, Amazon didn't have the Kindle version of the book in Japanese, so I had to buy a version where there is an English translation on the side. With that, I bought "Neko-wo-suteru" (abandoning a cat) and few other collections of the short stories, and headed to a graveyard to read them.
For a long time, I was against the spoilers. Probably because I was never a novel person (never a noble person either). Only genre that I was reading was a mystery, and for those, spoilers were worse than getting my parents killed. That changed, when my uncle told me that the plots in a novel is only half, the most important thing is how the messages are expressed in a written form. I still overreact on spoilers as a joke, so yeah, don't take me seriously if I ever done that.
With that said, I'm going to spoil what the story is about, but my version is not as half as good as the novel itself, so I strongly recommend reading it (or I can lend it to you!).
Okay, of course there is a website with full translation! What happened to the copyright laws nowadays...
Anyway, here is my version of the synposis.
The story begins with a guy named Katagiri finding a big frog (Kaeru-kun) in his flat. According to the frog, there will be an Earth quake in Tokyo in three days and it needs Katagiri's help on stopping it.
According to the frog, there is a worm in the underground of Tokyo. The worm is sleeping most of the time, but accumulating the anger over years and years. The Earthquake that happened in January 1995 woke him up from the comfortable sleep, and he is apparently snapped. When the worm gets furious, it causes an Earthquake that destroys Tokyo.
Katagiri is a guy who works in a bank as debt collector. He doesn't have friends, lover, or wife and that's part of the reason he is doing that job. His parents were dead for a long time. He funded his younger siblings through the university, and they (he is the oldest) got married long time ago, and he has never seen them since then. With his never ending loneliness and self-esteem that is literally non-existent, he had no emotion to feel, he was fearless as he has nothing to lose. Even the Yakuzas were scared of him.
Maybe that's why the frog asked him for the help. The frog told him, that Katagiri that he is the one with a sense of justice and kindness; and he should be more appreciated. But on the day before they fight the worm, he got shot by a man during his work - or at least, he thought he got shot.
He woke up in a hospital, and realized that it was past the day frog said there is an earthquake. He asked the nurse if there was an earth quake, she said no, "what about the man who shot me", she said "you weren't got shot, you suddenly fell in the middle of a street". According to the nurse, he was kept saying "frog" when he was asleep.
As the nurse left the room, the frog comes in; and tells him what happened. The frog fought alone, but with Katagiri's cheering from his honest heart, the frog was able to fight off the worm, the frog couldn't win, they drawn, but still enough to stop the Earthquake. After the frog told him the story, the frog inflated and popped; from the inside, worms came out and disappeared in the walls of the room.
The nurse comes back with more medicine. Katagiri murmured "frog", the nurse asked if the frog was important for him. Katagiri answered "more than anyone".
Okay, I have a lot of things to talk about this, but I'm too tired for today. I think the next post will be tomorrow or day after. Fingers crossed.
Part 2 ↓
Buckwheat tea! NOT Buckfast wine!
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. -Abraham Lincoln
I got few letters, so I wanted to write something how important it is to have something physical on your hands in the era of transition from the mass production to virtual reality oriented world. I realized that I haven't done much research on it, and I don't have much time till the end of next week, so you guys have to wait for that... On the other hand, I didn't want to lose the habit of writing random stuff, so today I will talk about the buckwheat tea; as a part of an answer to the request by teaperson from the previous post.
Buckwheat, is a strange plant. I read it somewhere that they decided to mimic the cereal plants so that birds and human can spread the seeds for them; although they are not related to cereals at all. I think the author of that article (or book) commented how pathetic they are just like some people (I think that's why I remember this, but I forgot where I read this :P).
Frankly, I didn't know that it is eaten outside the eastern Eurasian countries until I wen to France. My friend told me that a type of crape called garette is made of sarasin, which is a french word for buckwheat (if she's correct though, probably she is). In Japan, it's eaten in forms of a noodle and it's called Soba. To be honest, I don't like it so much, I prefer Udon (wheat based noodle) than Soba but in a form of tea, god oh god, it's delicious.
It is different from Soba-Yu, which is water that's left after making Soba noodle. It's like the pasta water; it might sound disgusting, but it's pretty good, a lot of neutrients in there too and gluten free (they are not wheat remember!). Anyway, buckwheat tea (Soba-tea) tastes like chesnut; it has it's mildness and has a bit of Shibu-mi which is like the taste hidden in the bitterness of cacao which enriches the flavour. Because of that, it is great with a chocolate. It enriches the bitterness of the cacao and sweetness of the sugar and milk in your mouth. Seriously with a pot of buckwheat tea, I can finish a box of chocolate, if I'm not afraid of getting diabetes.
The good thing about it is that it has no caffeine. So you can drink them at night, perhaps after a dinner with a nice chocolates while writing some stupid nonsense on the internet.
You can buy Soba-tea, in a big Asian supermarket. In Glasgow, that's Seewoo supermarket; I bought few packs and that lasts months and months. It seems that buckwheat tea is getting popular in Japan and China, and many Asian supermarket started to selling them outside the Asia. It's great! Although Seewoo only sells one kind of the tea from Ito-en, I have few different kinds shipped from Japan; when it's over come to Glasgow and try some!
While you are in Glasgow, there is also a very exotic delicious wine called buckfast tonic wine, but that's another story for another day.
