Reading Haruki Murakami in English. Lost in Translation or What?

I am reading a book, "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami. He is a Japanese writer. So probably it is easy for me to read in Japanese but I had a chance to borrow the book in English from a friend of mine, who taught me joy of reading. I like his book, especially this one. This one is easier to read than "After the Quake", his short stories.
I read a few paragraph of "A Wild Sheep Chase" in Japanese online today. It was translated well, I think but now the book was totally different to me. It was strange. When I read it in Japanese, the story takes place in Japan in my brain and in my imagination as I read. But when I read it in English, the story takes place in somewhere else that is not Japan, that doesn't have Japanese culture, even though I see real names of cities or places and Japanese names in the story. I was reading it as if this story happened in America.
We can translate stories from one language to another but translation of languages doesn't bring culture or things about the country the story is taking place into books. As I read the book in English, which was originally write in Japanese, I thought something was missing.
Maybe I feel so because I am not a good reader. Maybe I feel so because I grew up in Japan, where the author is from. I am not saying that the book was terrible or the translation was bad but learned that there are something we can't capture, or something we can't get unless we experienced certain things, in this case culture. I am sure living there and read this book changes how we read this book.
But we can interprete the story as we want. So maybe in the end, it is not that important to feel what I feel when I read this book, especially something from my country. So long as the things the author wanted to tell was there, the culture isn't so important.
People laugh for different things. The other day, the Japanese movie was showned to Americans in N.Y.C. I learned from news that American people laughed at one scene of the movie so hard while Japanese usually cry for the same scene. I was wondering how other people who are not Japanese think about this book written by Haruki Murakami. Do they laugh when I don't laugh? I read Blindness by a Portuguese writer Saramago the other day. I am wondering if I missed something from the book? I read a book and this one was about Mexico and written by Mexican author. I am sure if I know more about the country or lived there, my perspect of the book would have been different.
I am not sure what I want to say now. Oh, well, this is something I was thinking today.

I have been lazy...

I haven't posted anything for a while. I feel I have been lazy ever since I finished summer school. Also it is easy to post pictures and write comments below pictures on Flickr. I am not an artist type either. So my blog is boring compare to most people. ...

Ana's Albondigas アナのメキシカンミートボールスープ

Ana came here today to show me how to make Albondigas. Since I was craving soup with veggies, I was happy that she made it for me. She used Turkey instead of beef because she doesn't eat beef. The veggies she used was different from the ones I use for Mexican meat ball soup. It was good. She used corn, chayotes, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. (Of course, I didn't eat potato though.) It was my first time for me to have Chayotes. I heard about it quite often and saw it at markets but never tried and ate it. Choyotes was very similar to Winter melon, veggie that Asian use often. I liked it a lot. I think I am going to use it more often for soup. I am wondering if Choyote is used only for Mexican/South American dishes. I wish people in Japan can try it. In Mexico, people eat this soup with red rice. So she made red rice. As I think about it, when we were invited by Luis to dinner, his mother-in-law also made chicken soup and they added red rice. So I guess it is common to add rice to the soup in Mexico.

今日うちにアナが遊びに来て、メキシカンミートボールスープ、アルボンディガスを作ってくれたよ。昔私が作ったアルボンディガスはポークのひき肉に お米、玉ねぎ、トマトソース、スパイスなどを加えて作ったミートボールに、ズッキーニ、玉ねぎなどを入れて作りました。冷房の中にいることが多く、最近スープがすごく食べたくなっていたので、ちょうどいいタイミングでアナがこのスープを作ってくれました。当初の予定は、私がリクエストしたビーフシチューだったんだけど、もっと典型的ということで、アルボンディガスになりました。アナのアルボンディガスは私のアルボンディガスと違って、ミートボールもターキー、野菜も全く違いました。彼女のは、チャヨテ、コーン（コーン丸ごとを４つに切ってそれをそのままスープに入れる）、４つ切りにしたキャベツ、ポテト、人参でした。彼女がターキーを使ったのは、健康面を考えてと、彼女はビーフをあまり食べないからです。彼女が使ったチャヨテという野菜、昔からスーパーでよく見たり、レシピの材料に載っていたりでよく見ていたのですが、これまで使ったこともなければ食べたこともなかったので、今回が初めて。ずっと使ってみたい材料だったので、アナがチャヨテをスーパーの袋から出したとき、嬉しかった。ラッキー。この野菜、なんとなく冬瓜のような感じです。結構日本人の人には人気かも。私はおいしくて気に入ってしまいました。今度スープに入れてみようと思います。Wikipediaによると、アステカ、マヤの人が食べていたらしい。日本でも、食べられるようになるといいね。ところで、このスープ、メキシコでは、トマトで味付けしたご飯を入れて食べるらしい。ということで、アナはこのご飯も作ってくれました。
さ、明日はベトナム人のお友達とお昼です。韓国料理のトーフスープです。今から楽しみ。やばい、また食べ過ぎるかな～。

Finally it is OVER.... I am FREE!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished my summer school. I am FREE FROM SCHOOL, yeah!!. Oh, I am not totally free from school since I still have 4 more quarters to go but I am done for summer classes. Oh, that was tough. I had two classes, One Chem lab and one lecture for 5 weeks. The lab wasn't bad but I realized how clumsy I am. I can't believe that I am more clumsy than bio-major people. It is sort of embarrasing. Believe or not, there are tons of premed or bio major in my classes, especially O-chem and O-chem lab. I think most of the people in my section were bio-major. I didn't count but when I asked them, they said bio-major. I usually don't prefer bio-major people but I met this sweet girl in my lab class. She was doing the work next to me. She was so nice and seriously sh eis the only girl that are nice among bio-major I have met so far. She is pre-med.
It took me about 5 hours to prepare for a lab, 3 hours everyday from Monday to Thurs, and one or two hours to finish up the lab report. It really takes a lot of time but the subject wasn't so hard, though the final was hard. There was nothing we could have done or studied in order to get an A in the class since the questions he asked us wasn't from the lab classes but more from all the chemistry classes, sort of. I hope I can get at least B... I will see.
The lecture I was taking was hard. The subject isn't hard but because this was 5 weeks course which we usually spend 10 weeks during the normal quarter, I had to memorize a lot of stuff. He taught us new material till the last day, which was yesterday and that new thing was on the final today. It was so hectic but hey, it is over. Yeah. No more O-chem... :-) I realized that how much I miss P-Chem. I like P-Chem more than O-Chem. P-Chem is much more harder and difficult than O-Chem but I loved what we were learning. Even though I am done with O-chem, I have three more synthesis classes which are taught by three O-chem professors. Sucks. I can't get away from it. I want to change my major to Chemical Physics/P-Chem but it is too late. It takes another year if I change my major now. I have bio-chem next quarter, which I heard worse than O-chem. I don't like biology. I have to find a way to study these annoying classes. I really can't stand when I have to memorize things without clue. ... Oh, well, just finish school. That is my plan for now. :-)

I had final on wed for the lab and on Friday for lecture. I slept only 2 hours or so for last a few days. But what I like to do after school is cleaning. So now I am cleaning. :-)

I am so happy that I can have some free time to do what I like. :-)