Past Issue
SEPT Issue : Book: Murakami'sMonkey And aTaleOfTeachingEnglishInBangkok
articles author art journal museum gallery exhibit  Book Murakami  south east Asia  Bangkok crafts ceramics clothing designer film review movie director actress actor Europe France French Paris street-life fashion photographer show mode models graffiti  Haight Japan local magazine manufacture icon literature Group music  news performance San Francisco Reading  writing style short story-ies seventies small business micro travel Thailand underground voyage video 


Teaching English with "A Shinagawa Monkey" : in search of Haruki Murakami

"I do steal people's names...In doing so I'm able to remove some of the negative elements that stick to those names.  I don't mean to boast but if I'd been able to to steal Yuko Matsunaka's name back then, she may very well not have taken her life...I might have taken away some of the darkness that was hidden inside her," the monkey said.  "Take her darkness, along with her name, back to the world underground."

"When you steal names you take on both the good and the bad?" 

"Yes, that's right,"  the monkey said.  "I have no choice.  If there are evil things included in them, we monkeys have to accept those, too...I beg you, don't kill me.  I'm a monkey with an awful habit, I know that, but I may be performing a useful service."
     -excerpts from A Shinagawa Monkey, a short story by Haruki Murakami




A monkey (who can talk) lives in the Tokyo sewers and re-surfaces to steal name tags...

Murakami'sMonkey And aTaleOfTeachingEnglishInBangkok




articles author art journal museum gallery exhibit  Book Murakami  south east Asia  Bangkok crafts ceramics clothing designer film review movie director actress actor Europe France French Paris street-life fashion photographer show mode models graffiti  Haight Japan local magazine manufacture icon literature Group music  news performance San Francisco Reading  writing style short story-ies seventies small business micro travel Thailand underground voyage video