Foxes on a moonlit night -Murakami radio-

          Well, this summer (note, I mean 2010) was really hot ......, I guess I should say, but I wasn't hot at all. I was in Scandinavia for a month and a half from the middle of July. It was sometimes quite hot during the day, but after dark it became so cool that I had to sleep with a duvet over my head. It was a comfortable summer. I don't have to apologize for anything but I'm sorry. Don't hate me.
I was in Oslo for five weeks, then moved to Denmark and stayed on the island of Mun (Mon). It is a beautiful island in the Baltic Sea, about an hour and a half drive from Copenhagen, and a very quiet (or rather, remote) place. The population is 46,000 and the main industry is herring fishing. The reason why I went to such a place is because a literature festival is held on this island every summer. It is not an exaggerated literary festival, but a handmade event organized by a local woman called Marianne, who runs it alone. Only one writer is invited. I've been invited to come every year, so I decided to go since I'd made the trip to Oslo.

On the island, I stayed in Marianne's summer house away from home for five days. Then, for two days in a row, I gave a talk and read in the auditorium of the high school. I wasn't sure if people would come to such a place, but a lot of people came from all over Denmark and the media covered it, so it was a great success. We did something similar in Oslo, but the location was more remote and the content was more intimate and exciting on the island of Mun. The first thing that struck me as strange when I arrived on the island of Mun was how many cats were running around in the fields. I've been to many places in the world, but I've never seen so many cats active in the middle of fields. I asked Marianne, "Why?" She told me that all cats go out in the fields to catch field mice during this season. Indeed, Marianne's black cat sisters also go out at night and return early in the morning soaked with dew. 'They're half wild,' she said.

On the island of Mün, cats have a proper job to do. On the night of the full moon, when I was driving back from dinner, I also saw a young fox in the middle of a field. The fox was bouncing around there like it was dancing. He didn't even run away when I pulled over to watch him. It was truly a beautiful sight. The foxes danced gracefully under the bright moonlight and I watched them as if mesmerized. Traveling is a lot of hassle and exhausting, but it's worth the effort. Every morning when I go jogging, I always see the same deer, always in the same place. When I get close to it, it runs away as if it were flying away. I ran comfortably for an hour and during that time I only passed one Volkswagen and a man on a bicycle. I thought it might be nice to live in a place like this. I seem to think that every time I go on a trip, here and there.

Murakami this week.

In Norway, I saw bare-bottomed mannequins in many windows. Why is that?