Yesterday by Haruki Murakami
Story Analysis
In the short story Yesterday Haruki Murakami writes about the protagonist, Tanimura, who looks back at his youth from middle age. Tanimura remembers an old friend named Kitaru, who was always an erratic guy. He remembers Kitaru's love of the Kansai dialect (a different accent and vocabulary usage from a different part of japan) despite the fact that he was born and raised in Tokyo. Tanimara recollects his vast and rather mundane pile memories of sitting behind a cracked sliding door of the bathroom to keep Kitaru company while he hums the song "Yesterday" by The Beatles (which Tanimura consistently is baffled by because Kitaru never seemed to sing the actual song lyrics but, instead, threw in his own dose of random rambling) and drones on and on about his hate for studying for an exam for a college he's convinced he'll never pass.
Kitaru then introduced Tanimura to an idea that would astound him even further: the idea of Tanimura going out with Kitaru's childhood friend and current girlfriend, Erika, in order to spice up Kitaru's and Erika's comfortable relationship. Kitaru feels that the relationship is too relaxed, or in other words, boring. Tanimura reluctantly agrees to meet up with Erika to help Kitaru get over his strange request.
During Tanimura's date with Erika, Tanimura realized two things: one, that both Erika and Kitaru were getting worn of the relationship, but yet have this deep love for each other, and two, that even Erika is sometimes weirded out by Kitaru's unnatural Kansai accent. Kitaru once told Tanimura that the reason why he decided to study the Kansai dialect was because of when he went to a Hanshin Tigers game in Tokyo and spoke in his natural Tokyo accent he felt offbeat, and then told Tanimura, "nobody wanted to have anything to do with me." And so Kitaru began to feel that if he spoke in his innate Tokyo Dialect, then he could not become a part of the community.
The way we can look at these different dialects of the japanese language is seeing how comparable it is to our northerners accents and our southerners accents in the US. The words "ain't", "y'all" and "howdy" are great examples of how our verbiage may differ from the people up north, whereas if someone were to say "howdy" to strangers walking by, they would receive strange looks and blank stares. The Kansai and Tokyo dialects have unique traits to them that are just as distinct as our different dialects in America.
Reading this short story by the brilliant author, Haruki Murakami, has built a better foundation of my perception of the Japanese culture. Perhaps their food, art, and media are not the same as ours, but the system of the people in their culture live in similar differences as our own country. We are not divided physically, but sometimes we feel divided by our accents and our vocabulary. Haruki Murakami widens the horizons of many in his fun short story about
In the short story Yesterday Haruki Murakami writes about the protagonist, Tanimura, who looks back at his youth from middle age. Tanimura remembers an old friend named Kitaru, who was always an erratic guy. He remembers Kitaru's love of the Kansai dialect (a different accent and vocabulary usage from a different part of japan) despite the fact that he was born and raised in Tokyo. Tanimara recollects his vast and rather mundane pile memories of sitting behind a cracked sliding door of the bathroom to keep Kitaru company while he hums the song "Yesterday" by The Beatles (which Tanimura consistently is baffled by because Kitaru never seemed to sing the actual song lyrics but, instead, threw in his own dose of random rambling) and drones on and on about his hate for studying for an exam for a college he's convinced he'll never pass.
Kitaru then introduced Tanimura to an idea that would astound him even further: the idea of Tanimura going out with Kitaru's childhood friend and current girlfriend, Erika, in order to spice up Kitaru's and Erika's comfortable relationship. Kitaru feels that the relationship is too relaxed, or in other words, boring. Tanimura reluctantly agrees to meet up with Erika to help Kitaru get over his strange request.
During Tanimura's date with Erika, Tanimura realized two things: one, that both Erika and Kitaru were getting worn of the relationship, but yet have this deep love for each other, and two, that even Erika is sometimes weirded out by Kitaru's unnatural Kansai accent. Kitaru once told Tanimura that the reason why he decided to study the Kansai dialect was because of when he went to a Hanshin Tigers game in Tokyo and spoke in his natural Tokyo accent he felt offbeat, and then told Tanimura, "nobody wanted to have anything to do with me." And so Kitaru began to feel that if he spoke in his innate Tokyo Dialect, then he could not become a part of the community.
The way we can look at these different dialects of the japanese language is seeing how comparable it is to our northerners accents and our southerners accents in the US. The words "ain't", "y'all" and "howdy" are great examples of how our verbiage may differ from the people up north, whereas if someone were to say "howdy" to strangers walking by, they would receive strange looks and blank stares. The Kansai and Tokyo dialects have unique traits to them that are just as distinct as our different dialects in America.
Reading this short story by the brilliant author, Haruki Murakami, has built a better foundation of my perception of the Japanese culture. Perhaps their food, art, and media are not the same as ours, but the system of the people in their culture live in similar differences as our own country. We are not divided physically, but sometimes we feel divided by our accents and our vocabulary. Haruki Murakami widens the horizons of many in his fun short story about
Biography of Haruki Murakami
Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan on January 12, 1949. He graduated from Waseda University, 1973, and opened a jazz bar with his wife for seven years. Murakami wrote many outstanding fictions, novels, and non-fictions. Haruki Murakami wrote his first book, Hear the Wing Sing in 1979. This story was a huge success and won the Gunzou Literature Prize for budding writers. He then followed with two more successful sequels, Pinball, 1973 and A Wild Sheep Chase. All three books resulted in “The Trilogy of the Rat”
Murakami has written many outstanding books, such as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; Norwegian Wood; South of the Border; West of the Sun; Sputnik Sweetheart; Kafka on shore; After Dark; 1Q84; The Wind-up Bird Chronicle; and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Murakami has written many outstanding books, such as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; Norwegian Wood; South of the Border; West of the Sun; Sputnik Sweetheart; Kafka on shore; After Dark; 1Q84; The Wind-up Bird Chronicle; and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.