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Birthday Girl (short Story)
is a short story written by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and first published in 2002. After reading "Timothy's Birthday" by William Trevor and "The Moor" by Russell Banks, Murakami felt haunted and decided to collect more birthday-themed stories for an anthology. Murakami was putting together '' Birthday Stories'' (2002 in Japanese, 2004 in English), his anthology of short stories on the theme of birthdays, and wrote "Birthday Girl" especially for it. Plot summary In a frame story, a married woman with children recounts to her friend what happened on her twentieth birthday (the age of majority in Japan). The woman begins by saying she spent that day working overtime as a waitress at an Italian restaurant in Roppongi is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike. It is ... because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Rubin
Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American academic and translator. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, ''Making Sense of Japanese'' (originally titled ''Gone Fishin'''), and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami. Rubin was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. Rubin has a PhD in Japanese literature from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years, and then moved on to Harvard University, which he left in 2008. In his early research career he focused on the Meiji state censorship system. More recently Rubin has concentrated his efforts on Murakami, and Noh drama. His most recent publications are ''Modern Japanese Writers'' (Scribners, 2001), and ''Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words'' (Harvill, 2002; Vintage, 2005). His translation of 18 stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa appeared as a Penguin Classics in 2006. His debut novel, ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birthday Stories
is a 2002 short story anthology edited by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Despite the theme's happy connotations most of the short stories have a dark, melancholic atmosphere. Editions Murakami selected and translated the texts, adding an original short story of his (later collected into his own ''Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman'', 2006). For the English edition at Harvill Press (using the original English-language versions of the stories), he added an introduction and selected one more story. For the Japanese reprint, he added two stories. The main editions are thus: * 2002: Japanese-language, 11 stories. * 2004: English-language, 12 stories plus introduction. * 2006: Japanese-language, 13 stories. Contents The 2004 English edition of the anthology starts with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, where he speaks about his birthday and of birthdays in general (for example he mentions his visit Jack London's farm, which he did because he liked London's writings and because they sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo In Fiction
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastated b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories By Haruki Murakami
Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as the Short Arts, entertainment, and media * Short film, a cinema format (also called film short or short subject) * Short story, prose generally readable in one sitting * ''The Short-Timers'', a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by Gustav Hasford, about military short-timers in Vietnam Brands and enterprises * Short Brothers, a British aerospace company * Short Brothers of Sunderland, former English shipbuilder Computing and technology * Short circuit, an accidental connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit * Short integer, a computer datatype Finance * Short (finance), stock-trading position * Short snorter, a banknote signed by fellow travelers, common during World War II Foodstuffs * Short pastry, one which is rich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roppongi
is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike. It is in the central part of Tokyo, south of Akasaka and north of Azabu. History The name ''Roppongi'', which appears to have been coined around 1660, literally means "six trees". Six very old and large zelkova trees used to mark the area; the first three were cleared, and the last were destroyed during World War II. Another legend has it that the name comes from the fact that six ''daimyōs'' lived nearby during the Edo period, each with the kanji character for "tree" or a kind of tree in their names. Roppongi was not extensively populated until after the Meiji Restoration, although the area was trafficked for centuries and served as the site of the cremation of Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada's wife in 1626.Gary CooperGood ol' six trees—the way ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Age Of Majority
The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over them. Most countries set the age of majority at 18, but some jurisdictions have a higher age and others lower. The word ''majority'' here refers to having greater years and being of full age as opposed to ''minority'', the state of being a minor. The law in a given jurisdiction may not actually use the term "age of majority". The term typically refers to a collection of laws bestowing the status of adulthood. Those under the age of majority are referred to as minors and may be legally denied certain privileges or rights (e.g. the right to vote, buy alcohol, marry, sign a binding contract). Age of majority should not be confused with the age of maturity, age of sexual consent, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frame Story
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (construction), a building term known as light frame construction *Framer, a carpenter who assembles major structural elements in constructing a building *A-frame, a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner **A-frame house, a house following the same principle *Door frame or window frame, fixed structures to which the hinges of doors or windows are attached *Frame and panel, a method of woodworking *Space frame, a method of construction using lightweight or light materials *Timber framing, a method of building for creating framed structures of heavy timber or willow wood In vehicles *Frame (aircraft), structural rings in an aircraft fuselage *Frame (nautical), the skeleton of a boat *Bicycle frame, the main c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Banks
Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usually revolve around his own childhood experiences, and often reflect "moral themes and personal relationships". Banks is a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Life and career Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on March 28, 1940, and grew up "in relative poverty." He is the son of Florence (née Taylor), a homemaker, and Earl Banks, a plumber, and was raised in Barnstead, New Hampshire. His father deserted the family when Banks was aged 12. While he was awarded a scholarship to attend Colgate University, he dropped out six weeks into university and travelled south instead, with the "intention of joining Fidel Castro's insurgent army in Cuba, but wound up worki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzou Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize. Growing up in Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel ''Hear the Wind Sing'' (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels '' Norwegian Wood'' (1987), ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' (1994–95), ''Kafka on the Shore'' (2002), and '' 1Q84'' (2009–10), with ''1Q84'' ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Trevor
William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language. Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize, the last for his novel ''Love and Summer'' (2009), which was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His name was also mentioned in relation to the Nobel Prize in Literature. He won the 2008 International Nonino Prize in Italy. In 2014, Trevor was bestowed Saoi by the Aosdána. Trevor resided in England from 1954 until his death at the age of 88. Biography Trevor was born as William Trevor Cox in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, to a middle-class, Anglo-Irish Protestant (Church of Ireland) family. He moved several times to other provincial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
