(Oh philosophy seminar how much time you give me to waste on other things ♥)

I have not read books for several years. Not because they do not interest me, but because I have been so terribly afraid of losing myself somewhere between the pages. I used to read a lot when I was younger, several books a week, plowed through both classical literature and quirky newcomers. I discovered Jon Fosse when I was 14, read through classical Greek plays, I loved it all, it moved something inside of me. I felt a lot, but – feeling – it is such a two-edged sword. Being able to experience so much emotion jumping off the paper, but not knowing what to do with it all once it hit me. So, I started avoiding books. Just like I still avoid movies, for the most part. It is too much. It is not enough.

For my Japanese course this fall, I had to read four novels by Japanese authors, and I chose Banana Yoshimoto’s N.P. and Kitchen, and I choose Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the shore and Norwegian wood. I have spent the last weeks evenings curled up in bed, gulping down the words on the pages, rediscovering reading. This is what it feels like to read fiction. I had forgotten. Upon rediscovering books, I realized that there was something about them which I missed immensely. I am not sure if it is the literary drought inside of me, the fact that I have not read books in such a long time, that made all of these four books so stunningly amazing to me, or if I just hit the jackpot and managed to pick out four amazing books to read in a row, but needless to say, I loved them all. Yoshimoto writes in such a clear and crisp way, so tangible and concrete about difficult subjects like death and complicated love (spiced up with incest and transexualism), and maybe just by pure chance, Murakami covers the same topic in Kafka on the shore, but writes about it so differently it is hard to think they cover any of the same topics at all. When Murakami makes everything surreal and floaty and you are not sure what is reality and what is a dream, Yoshimoto drags you down to earth and explain things in laymen’s terms. The combination of these books made my October evenings spectacular.

First Sunday in a long time, just hanging out with nice people, and even making time to read a book alone at Blom. Bliss!

Random mobile / web pictures from the latest weeks! Speaking of – Any ideas how I am going to cut my hair? I have no idea what to do with it now. It is too long or too short…  Can’t quite figure it out. Growing it out is not really an option, because I am going back to Japan next month, and my hair turns flat and awful if I try to grow it long. Thinking about just cutting it back in the shape of a perfect a-line bob again, but haven’t quite decided. I am pretty skeptical towards hairdressers in this city, so part of me just want to wait it out and cut it once I am back in Japan. Oh first-world-problems, what to do, what to do…

No time, so tossing stuff together in Polyvore makes me a happy camper and creates the illusion that one is being creative. I should get an award for worst blogger of the year these days. I have no excuse, except that there is too much schoolwork to get done, and too little time to waste on the internet. I am not complaining though, I love when I get into a wonderful workflow and time seems to fly by. Hope you all have a wonderful November so far!

Went through the endless archives, and found more pictures from 2008. This garden is actually not in Japan, but in Norway, and you can visit it straight outside of Bergen. They have cute little Japanese statues and buildings, and it is quite funny to see it all with the Norwegian nature as a back-drop.

Ze Frank has a lot of little interactive toys you can play with, one of them is to make your own flowers, like the ones above. Try it!

I have no idea why, but October looked a lot more colorful three years ago. If I recall correctly, there were several days involving both sun and a camera. Sigh.

Just had to show of these pretty Japanese ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). These gorgeous prints (and many more) are available to download and distribute in big sizes from this nice webpage.

I had my final exam in philosophy history and I got 100%, which means that I had to celebrate by buying the biggest sushi-tray I could find. (I am not really celebrating the 100%, I am celebrating never having to touch philosophy history again in my life.) I haven’t been eating much sushi after I came here, because I figured I can eat it a lot more once I am back in Japan, but today I caved, and I just had to have some. It was really delicious and we have a great evening with bad crime shows and good sushi. Ready to get on with my week now 🙂 (Oh, the sushi is from ichiban.)