Seeking places in Haruki Murakami novels.

March 11, 2008 5:20 PM

Seeking places in Haruki Murakami novels.

A friends sister is coming to Japan and she is a big fan of Haruki Murakami but has no idea about places here. My friend has asked for my help in working out a tour they can do by train and foot around to some of the places that appear in his novels.

The issue is - I don't have time to flick through his books and locate all of the places before she gets here. Help!

posted by gomichild to society & culture (10 comments total)

I'm almost blanking on specific places, but large parts of Norwegian Wood deal with student life and student protests, and are set at Tokyo University.
posted by Jeanne at 8:00 PM on March 11, 2008

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, grew up in Kobe, and currently resides in Tokyo. It's my impression that these places are either primary settings, or at least get a mention, in a lot of his novels. If your (sister's) friend has never been to Japan before, these would all be great places to visit.

For the life of me I can't remember which wards of Tokyo have been settings in Murakami novels... hopefully somebody else can come up with a list. If your friend was short on time and wanted to do a really in depth tour, it is possible she could stay in Tokyo the whole time and be kept busy.

Also, part of Kafka on the Shore takes place in Takamatsu, Shikoku. Depending on where you are based this could be possible by foot or train. :)
posted by liverbisque at 1:55 AM on March 12, 2008

i've read a dozen murakami novels (probably every one thats been translated to english) but i'm totally drawing a blank about where they take place as well - seems like usually it's either some bland suberb of tokyo, or a slightly bent dream world only distinguishable from the bland suberbs because the corredors form an impenitrable maze populated only by a single waiter carrying a bottle of cutty sark or something. which of course would be hard to take your sister to.

however, japanese suberbs aside and the bottom of a dry well aside, 2 locations that would probably be worth checking out do spring to mind now that i think about it - the mountain location in hokkaidō in the last third of wild sheep chase, and the deep dark forest mountain retreat in shikoku that the main character meditates in at the end of kafka on the shore. i'm sorry i don't have a copy of either of these books handy or i'd flick through them for you (really!) but since i dont i'll just have to advise you that there are some cool locations in the final thirds of both those books, and it might be worth taking a look in just those two if they're handy. sorry i can't be more helpful, but at least i've narrowed your search down a bit!

btw, if you read japanese, you could try to track down the magazine article that lists all the songs mentioned in murakamis books - you could make a mixape to listen to on your drive through the mountains of shikoku or whatever...
posted by messiahwannabe at 4:12 AM on March 12, 2008

here's links for the music to 2 of his novels...

http://ribaldschmaltz.blogspot.com/2005/07/novel-soundtracks-kafka-on-shore.html
http://www.amazon.com/Haruki-Murakami-Music/lm/R37R6SJMI5VR9S
posted by messiahwannabe at 4:39 AM on March 12, 2008

One thought that occurred to me -- Murakami ran a jazz bar, Peter Cat, for a few years in his twenties. It no longer exists, but the site is marked (1) on the map on this page: (It's in Setagaya, Tokyo).
posted by Jeanne at 5:17 AM on March 12, 2008

I'm mostly blanking on specific locations, too. But a couple thoughts:

- Your friend's sister might do this anyway in the course of things, but if she wouldn't ordinarily rise early enough, what about riding the Tokyo subway during morning rush hour?

- Jingu Stadium (in Shinjuku, Tokyo) could be a location of interest -- perhaps see if the Yakult Swallows will be playing the Hiroshima Carp?

> large parts of Norwegian Wood deal with student life and student protests, and are set at Tokyo University.

Not Tokyo University, I'm pretty sure -- remember, that's where Nagasawa goes, and Toru mentions at one point that he could never have gotten in there. I don't know that the name of Toru's school is ever mentioned, but it's probably Waseda University (also in Tokyo), where Murakami himself studied drama in the late '60s, was skeptical about the student protesters, etc.
posted by Cucurbit at 8:21 AM on March 12, 2008

Actually, Norwegian Wood is largely set at an anonymous student dormitory and at a mountain retreat. There are only a couple of scenes at the actual university of the narrator.
posted by Magnakai at 10:07 AM on March 12, 2008

Denny's
posted by Julnyes at 11:18 AM on March 12, 2008

I can't remember which novel it is in, but there is a scene where the protagonist goes to the Ginza district in Tokyo to count bald heads.

Most of the novel does not take place in Ginza. I was sightseeing there, and took a short break to rest my feet and get something to drink. I pulled the book out to read a little as I rested. In the passage that I read, the characters traveled to Ginza, and took a break in the same place I was taking a break. Freaked me the hell out. Murakami novels are weird enough on their own.

Okay, in the book it was a Burger King, and I was in a McDonald's. But the description of the department store next door and the view of the subway entrance was exactly the same
posted by Quonab at 3:22 PM on March 12, 2008

Thanks for the answers - I don't think they are going to be able to travel to Hokkaido or Shikoku in the time they are here - but was mainly thinking about specific places in Tokyo.
posted by gomichild at 3:45 PM on March 12, 2008