Nekomura-san : Japanese manga feat. cat housekeeper

We know that Japanese Manga is popular world-wide, but have you ever heard about a Japanese cartoon “Kyo no Nekomura-san (Today’s Mrs. Nekomura)”?

It is an outrageous setting that a cat is dispatched as a housekeeper. But she does the housework very well, sometimes kindly gives a good massage to her colleague or even amends a delinquent daughter of the house’s owner she works for. She has so much more common-sense than human do, and that makes her character so funny and popular.

The delinquent daughter : Get out of here !
Mrs. Nekomura (Housekeeper cat) : Don’t say that! If you won’t have the tonihgt dinner, I can’t leave hrer.

The cute drawing is of course a key reason of its popularity, but the story seems to reflect the modern Japanese society, which has been said deteriorated.

Kyo no Nekomura-san (Today’s Mrs. Nekomura) (in Japanese)

Haruki Murakami is a running novelist

The new book by Haruki Murakami has been published in 2007. It is an essay about his “running”.

It seems that for Murakami, “running” is closely tied with his novels within him. I think that he is a novelist who is very conscious about the relationship between “being physical” and “expressing with words”.

He has tried many marathons such as the Boston Marathon or Lake Saroma Ultra Marathon, which course goes on for 100km.

He is also a triathlon athlete. He says that he jogs daily and trains himself quite seriously and he listens to his favoarites music of Beach Boys’s, Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s or Beck’s while he runs.

Sounds like his never-falling-off novels are partly supported by his run.

But he does not run for writing. That, I think, makes him a true runner.

kirigami : cutting paper art

At the moment, I have been really into “KIRIGAMI”!
It is a paper motif made up by folding, cutting and then reopening a piece of paper.

Kanako Yaguchi has published several “KIRIGAMI” books, and among them, I love the “OTONA NO KIRIGAMI NO HON”(ISBN 4569692354) most.
The other day, I was making “KIRIGAMIs” with the book like mad , and have ended up loads of them…

There is a website that lets you make a “KIRIGAMI” online, too.

This is for the Japanese style.
“MON” is Japanese traditional patterns often used for “FUROSHIKI” or “wagashi”, and these “MONs” can also be made by “KIRIGAMI”.
How about putting the “MON” you made on a card or a coaster?
Or using a fabric “KIRIGAMI” for an appliqu?, which would be cute, too!

MON