RKS Japanese Literature: The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (Haruki Murakami)

Tall and tan and lovely

The girl from Ipanema goes walking

When she walks, it’s like a samba

That swings so cool and sways so gently,

How can I tell her I love her?

Yes, I would give my heart gladly.

But each day when she walks to the sea,

Shed looks straight ahead, not at me

This was how the girl from Ipanema looked at the sea back then in 1963. And that’s how she keeps looking at the sea, in 1982. She hasn’t aged. Sealed in her image, she drifts through the ocean in time. If she had continued to age, she’d probably be close to forty by now. Or maybe not. But at least she wouldn’t have her slim figure anymore, and she wouldn’t be so tan. She might retain some of her old loveliness, but she’d have three children, and too much sun would damage her skin.

RKS Japanese Literature: The Monk with a Lute (Doppo Kunikida )

“But I watched the monk and listened to his playing. The narrow yet busy street with its ramshackle dwellings had little in common with the monk and the lute, but somewhere, I felt there was a deep understanding between them. The lute’s sobbing tones drifted between the rows of houses on either side, mingling with the bold cries of peddlers and the ringing of an anvil nearby. When I heard the music, flowing like a current of springwater through a murky pond, I felt as though the heartstrings of all these, happy, excited people on the street  were playing a tune of nature. The monk, then, is one of my ‘unforgettable people’.”

Doppo Kunikida, “Unforgettable People”

RKS Literature: The Russian Duke Military Scam (George Orwell)

“In general, the Russian refugees in Paris are hard working people, and have put up with their bad luck far better than one can imagine Englishmen of the same class doing. There are exceptions of course. Boris told me of an exiled Russian duke whom he had once met, who frequented expensive restaurants. The duke would find if there was a Russian officer among the waiters, and, after he dined, call him in a friendly way to the table.

‘Ah’ the duke would say, ‘so you are an old soldier like myself? These are bad days eh? Well, well the Russian soldier fears nothing. And what was your regiment?’

‘The so-and-so sir.’ The waiter would answer.

‘A very gallant regiment. I inspected them in 1912. By the way, I have unfortunately left my notecase at home. A Russian officer will, I know oblige me with 300 francs’.

If the waiter had three hundred francs he would hand it over and, of course, never see it again. The duke made quite a lot in this way. Probably the waiters did not mind being swindled. A duke is a duke, even in exile.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Japanese Literature: Unforgettable People (Kunikida Doppo)

“We can’t simply call parents and children or friends or teachers and others to whom we are obligated “unforgettable people”. These are people whom we dare not forget. But there are others-complete strangers-to whom we are bound by neither love nor duty. Forgetting them would imply neither neglect of duty nor want of compassion. Yet these are the very ones we cannot forget. I would not say that for everyone there are such unforgettable people, but for me there certainly are.”

Kunikida Doppo, “Unforgettable People”

RKS Japanese Literature: All Men Long to be Pimps (Minako Ohba)

“Strangely enough, the man tended to feel pleasure in his exclusive possession of a woman who was constantly being pursued by other men. Far from merely tolerating her pretended flirtations with other men, he tended to encourage them. Deep down, it seems, all men long to join the species we call ‘pimps’.

Minako Ohba, “The Smile of a Mountain Witch”

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: HONG KONGER’S ARE EVIL?

THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: HONG KONGER’S ARE EVIL?

 Airplane trip on Cathay Pacific from EWR to Hong Kong and no Betsy lager beer or fancy ice cream for me. I end up queasy with a full bladder in some huge area with suitcases and crates. I pee all over myself and vomit in my crate. No food. No water. And some nasty man kicking my crate and cursing at me saying I am headed to China to be a Hot Dog Hot Pot served over rice and gravy to “some stupid tourists”!

“You idiot spoiled white dog” and he kicks the crate and urinates all over me! What a bastard as according to Cathay Pacific “pet transit policies all pets in cargo are treated according to Hong Kong compassion and kindness and are watered and fed prior to connecting flights.”

Is this Hong Kong or hell?

Unbeknownst to me there is a saviour in Hong Kong which will be revealed to me later as so many facts are in police reports.

I am loaded on another Cathay Pacific flight to Singapore.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: FROM NORTH BERGEN WALMART SUPERCENTRE TO EWR

THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: FROM NORTH BERGEN WALMART SUPERCENTRE TO EWR

After a very long drive to North Bergen, New Jersey we arrived. Me and some twenty dogs. We had a pee break in Aurora, New York and our drivers gave all of us some kibble while they had a few $10 martinis and a burger at some pub in this quiet town.

At the North Bergen Walmart Super Centre I had an opportunity to communicate with my fellow canine “hostages”. We were not on some group tour to the beauties of New Jersey. WE WERE KIDNAPPED!

Muttnapped for what purpose? Rumour had it we had “buyers” awaiting us. These buyers were paying big money a beautiful Irish Red Setter said. Who would take me to a buyer? My home is with Bob and Fay in Toronto! There were no Top Dog shows in the Walmart’s of New Jersey. A ruse. A trick. A sham. This is not going terribly well.

Our group was split up.

And wouldn’t you know it was Madame Fong from the Family Noodle Restaurant on Spadina Avenue in Toronto that picked me up in a Carmel Car Service limousine that had a bad kimchee smell to it. We were off to EWR Fong said. What is EWR?

Fong slipped me a tasty piece of beef bulgogi, and I remember nothing after that sodium and Xanax laced treat except being loaded in a dog crate on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. Will I be sniffing for landmines in Cambodia?

RKS Literature: Worsening Hunger (George Orwell)

“On the second day I thought of pawning my overcoat, but it seemed too far to walk to the pawnshop, and I spent the day in bed, reading the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. It was all that I felt equal to, without food. Hunger reduces one to an utterly spineless, brainless condition, more like the after effects of influenza than anything else. It is as though one had been turned into a jellyfish, or as though all one’s blood had been pumped out and lukewarm water substituted. Complete inertia is my chief memory of hunger; that, and being obliged to spit very frequently, and the spittle being curiously white and flocculent, like cuckoo-spit. I do not know the reason for this, but everyone who has gone hungry several days has noticed it.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Japanese Literature: The Last Stages of Ritual Suicide (seppuku) of Lieutenant Takeyama Shinji (Yukio Mishima)

“Was this seppuku? He was thinking. It was a sensation of utter chaos, as if the sky had fallen on his head and the world was reeling drunkenly. His will power and courage, which had seemed so robust before he made the incision, had now dwindled to something like a singe hair-like thread of steel and he was assailed by the uneasy feeling that he must advance along this thread, clinging to it with desperation. His clenched fist had gone moist. Looking down, he saw that both his hand and cloth about the blade were drenched in blood. His loincloth, too, was dyed a deep red. It struck him as incredible that, amid this terrible agony, things which could still be seen and things that existed still existed.”

Yukio Mishima, “Patriotism”.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: WITH TOP DOGS TO NUDE JERSEY WALMART PARKING LOTS

THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: WITH TOP DOGS TO NUDE JERSEY WALMART PARKING LOTS

The Singapore Times Exclusive: In a Toronto Opium Den on my Way to North Bergen, Nude Jersey

Madame Fong was a 335-pound trans he him her or they..not sure. From the back door it was down to a basement opium den. Rock n roll stars, winery owners, real estate magnates, a few Catholic priests, some folks with checkered scarves perhaps Palestinian CISIS plants from the University of Toronto and hockey players prostate with pipes up their snouts lamenting a failure to make the NHL playoffs. I was tied up next to a famous Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player who I had seen advertising milk on the telly and a soccer player who had hawked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I do love peanut butter but it sticks to my mouth. Bob had said if only milk wouldn’t give you worms it would go down well with peanut butter.

I had to pee real bad and almost being potty trained to the max I gave a heads up gotta pee bark but unlike Bob and Fay no one picked up on the hint so I peed on the floor.

Speaking of Bob and Fay…isn’t time they picked me up, poor puppy that I am? And take me home?  

Later on a bowl of rice and chopped chicken with a bowl of jasmine tea was placed before me which I lustily consumed and immediately feel asleep. Bastards had drugged me.

I woke up to a voice questioning a nearby person why the truck was headed to the United States. “We are The Top Dogs Touring Company” the voice said, “We are heading to the North Bergen, New Jersey Walmart Supercentre for our first show on our Top Dogs New Jersey Tour. We have 12 shows in New Jersey and one in French River Delaware.”

What is going on here? Where in the hell is North Bergen and what is Nude Jersey?