Avocados are difficult　-Murakami radio-

　　There are many difficult things in the world. For example, one of the most difficult problems is how to get from Gakugei Daigaku to Shinkiba in the fastest possible time by underground. But I personally think that the most difficult thing in the world is to tell when an avocado is ripe. There should even be a 'think tank for avocado ripeness detection' that gathers together the best academics from all over the world. Could someone set up such a think tank? I don't think they will. The problem with avocados, at any rate, is that you can't tell from the outside or by touch whether they are ready to eat or not. You might cut it open and think it's ready to eat, but it's still firm, or you might leave it alone and think it's not ready yet, but it's still soggy. I have wasted so many avocados so far. But there are people in the world with all kinds of special talents. I once lived on the North Shore of Kauai, Hawaii, where I was writing a long novel, and there was a town called Kilauea nearby. It is a small town that you can drive through in a minute. In Kilauea, just off to the right on the main road to the lighthouse, there was a small fruit stand where a fat lady selling all sorts of fruit could tell you almost perfectly how ripe avocado was. Every time I buy an avocado, he tells me "Three more days for this one" or "Eat this one tomorrow", and this is impressively spot on. It's almost like psychic power. I was so impressed by his pinpoint accuracy that I usually bought my avocados here. The other stands were generally wrong about the 'best time to eat'. Avocados are most commonly used in California rolls, but they are also delicious in salads. A simple salad of cucumber, onion and avocado mixed with ginger dressing has become a staple in our house. At one time, we ate it every day. I concentrated on writing novels during the day, and after dark, I would sometimes go to the small cinema here in the town of Kilauea to watch a film. Unfortunately, this cinema closed after about two years.

I saw Clint Eastwood's Mystic River here. It was a very interesting film, but near the end, the film suddenly burst into flames and cut out. I was disappointed, "We're almost there, but not quite ...... at this crucial moment," when someone stood up, put his hands in the air and shouted, "Hey, who's done it?" and everyone - twenty people at the most - burst into laughter. I thought nostalgically of the intimate atmosphere that existed in Japanese cinemas in the 1960s. But it's still hard not knowing the ending of a mystery film. Even if they refunded the admission fee. That's why when I see Avocado, I end up remembering Mystic River, whose ending I didn't know.

This Week in Murakami.

I'd like to try something like avocado tendon, is there anywhere?