Haruki Murakami - Dance Dance Dance

This is the third work of fiction that I have read from Murakami. I liked his short story collection and then with this other book...I can't even remember what is was about (obviously must have been either mentally on vacation or the book just didn't grab me!) I just can't remember if I liked it or not! I have also read his book about running. So with this new book I really didn't know what to expect. It is definitely a curious meandering of a story. Kind of reminded me of Japanese version of Twin Peaks. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I liked how the writer in the book paid homage to himself. You know it is funny since the book is written by a Japanese author and takes place in Japan; when I form my visual image of the characters I think of them as Caucasian...is that weird? Would love to have met Mei but again I visualized her as totally like Swedish or something. Is something lost in translation (?) also I hated the references to Dunkin Donuts...I don't think they exist in Japan (?). Again not to repeat myself on this one but I would seriously like to be able to read Japanese and be able to read it in its native language.

One interesting thing is to go to the Japan wikipedia and do a translation from Japanese to English and you get this tidbit about the translated English version,

"English translation of this work, underage drinking and smoking scenes, the English-speaking people in the cultural areas difficult to understand, and describe various of Boy George has been cut from various reasons. "

And finally the book in Japanese characters...kind of beautiful
ダンス・ダンス・ダンス