ton Marat;Patriots Dayquot; (a ts.) I joined t year as on Maraty Maratest pleasures in my life in t cen broadcast on tV in Japan, too. Similar to ty Maraton Marat ;go and returnquot; course urning point, but it a quot;one ; course from one place to anotarting point is a small toon, on, and ter of Boston. ter about a 30- kilometer run, you o tackle ; Break ; in Boston exaggerated, but youll notice oug is after actually running it yourself. Running up t so after reacop, itll get arduous itself. You climb up to yourself t teep er t noime to endure. After a s break o top and you t is t course leading to toon, tigue to you as if it ing for you to come.
tigue resembles tant you reac after clearing ties in t never understand is actually experiencing it tle slopes in to; Break ; in steepness and lengtart torturing you. I felt so t year. Especially temperature exed me. My record of tes, of last year. But tarting point is so croo treet, and it takes us over 5 minutes actually to start running after t;Goquot; signal. taking all to account, I guess my record t so bad.
Anyon to tarting toered for us runners, and noon. ttle, suburban toed by some 2,500 people, comes to be overfloic runnersquot; reace number of 8,000, erally it is a big festival oypical residential suburb t one can find anyanding from a strangers vie: one cation, and one s main street. After passing along treet ation, a pub, a real estate agency and a florist , youll find not an endless series of cozy yards. Every tended and tly trimmed, but ts noto stimulate your imagination. Neitraordinary gorgeous mansion nor extremely stracts your attention. to insist t t valuable virtue in life is not to attract peoples attention. ty o be carting point simply because it is located exactly 26 miles or 42 kilometers from Boston, ot rangers care, o er all.
But participating in ton Marat tarting too observe town carefully.
America of ton Marat year. Everyar-Spangled Banner, and patriotic slogans. It exceptional on, he church, I found an
old jalopy, a Ced on t to t until you feel satisfied. One ed money, I o raise ters in town.
I dont kno it coer anotook t. I doubted acle for tarting toon Marat it able, I t, judging from t t try war.
ted on, t t be suc to my surprise, a similar car ing it e similar to t of t year. Probably it different one fetc erribly last year could not serve as target again. Anyed on t to it and a signboard saying quot;One Pounding, One Dollarquot; only reminded me of last year. It also told, just as I guessed, t ted money o be used for tanding aside quot;Is tomobile?quot; Mumbling for an instant, t quot;Um...I dont t; As far as I noticed, no one omobile let for stress and it needs no specific reason, but no ical motivation for er all.
If t;Japanese Carquot; ten on t not say anyte about it, for it is only tter based on an assumption. But anying for someone to batter it, inged mospmosp be transmitted by is ;No...Um..quot; after a s interval to tion given by a passing-by runner, instead of giving back a definite, quick reply t quot;No, t a Japanese automobile.quot; Be interval, I guess, t quot;It is no ; ;um...quot; must be t expressed.
Generally speaking, Americans sense of antipated from Saddam o ting is very obvious in any field of tters from readers and torials denouncing Japan and t average Americans, except for tomobile yet pound on a Japanese car listening carefully for told ing tten messages.
Nevert one time I actually experienced somety because quot;I am Japanese.quot; It o sced at an Avis in s brake malfunction. A clerk said to me, quot; face, coming into our country?quot; But tion betion of t t Im Japanese, and t left me at a loss. Since t, Ive been avoiding Avis as muc it is a story t e odays rising antipat Japan.
My Princeton is a calm residential tos center and ined by elligent, or bot ility to trenton, a little omobile-o a large scale operational reduction. A quot;Buy Americanquot; rally of a toyota dealer on Route One. tually developing in some area of try, but it doesnt spread as far as t, snobbisoon. You can see a lot of Mercedes, Porsco to t;Buy Americanquot; movement.
ti-Japan message I o;Japan-bas; sticker s on ting for traffic signal to turn green at an intersection near first sig figure out er red circle oo small. So it looked more similar to a Japanese box luncer of rice tional flag. It must be like t is properly dra gives us t;Stop Japan.quot; Figure A s quot;no bringing in a Japanese lunc; I doubt if ticker knoional flag correctly, and t too easily, quot;dra; t ticker looked more o me t eit is not very agreeable
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toting a little better in t one or ten asked by Japanese, quot;Isnt it tougo live in America?quot; ly I alking to a Japanese female student studying at a university in Pennsylvania, so me quot;In my c a feates and after going back to Japan, I ill in favor of try, but time coming back er living for a I love Japan after all. you, Mr. Murakami?quot;
Asked by e puzzled o ans is because I t basic difference in our daily lives, es. Of course, it migatus of tion. If one lives in a foreign country in tage of life, be more likely to be influenced by ternal conditions and disturbed emotionally. It is quite natural. t is t as for me, ttitude of everyday life. meet unpleasant scumbags language, irritatingly enoug lead you to be misunderstood by someone else. You miger someone arrogant or someone too stubborn to y. Someone mig ions frustrate you to some extent. But you o remember to you in Japan nearly as often as ates. No several occasions in Japan ingly, I couldnt even make myself understood in Japanese. You e a feoo, as you kno tage t ty, arrogant, speaking-ill-of-otive tries, if examined carefully. t is also tage of teresting people.
If asked es as a Japanese, I t it is true. But I suffered various sorts of discrimination even rying to find an apartment, tate agents often rejected me by saying t quot;Oment to rent for t kind.quot; Even after becoming a novelist, I came across tions ;e only rent for to ted in tokyo Stock Market..quot; Compared ory of racism against foreigners or non-Japanese in Japan, tion t I experienced mig be even elling, but it is not discrimination after all. You figure out ion is until you stand on ted.
Undergoing ternative t;I prefer to live in Japanquot; or quot;I prefer to live in tates.quot; If I ive preferences. But as a matter of fact, Im not so young anymore and Ive been trained to tical and skeptical manner. My only possible reply to tion t quot;Isnt it tougo live in tates?quot; is quot;It ougo live in tokyo.quot; I knoe nobody expects suchough.