Forgive me for being a lazy blogger. I did have a lot of fun in my life during my hiatus time, but my sluggish trait just hold my thoughts from being spilled here for much a longer time.
One of the big and major news clouding over Tokyo is the past few weeks include the spreading case of swine influenza in Kantou area (Kantou covers the Tokyo and its suburbs area), starting with Hachioji and Kawasaki. Both areas are located near Yokohama and Kanagawa Prefecture, which is pretty far from my location in Chiba and Kashiwa. But the fast H1N1 virus spreaded fast to Saitama Prefecture in just mere days, and since Saitama is even closer to Chiba, supposedly I think, the time has come to get freaky.
But apparently it was not. The number of people wearing mask in the train or in the busy street of Shibuya is just normal, and it is perhaps due to the slowing outbreak (I think there is no more new cases reported around Kantou, and the government starts to announce that things are getting better). Nevertheless, the virus is still around, so it is better to stay safe and alert.
I am currently on a marathon run of reading all Murakami Haruki's psychotic fiction but since my life is more preoccupied of academic thesis, IPCC reports and IEA journals, the fiction reading activity has been slowing down a bit. Murakami's new anticipated novel, 1Q84 (which can be pronounced as 1984 in Japanese) is a hit before it even reaches the bookstore's shelf. The publisher got 480,000 orders for first run copy and that is really quite a number. Too bad I still haven't attempted to read any Japanese fictions yet, so I can only let my finger crossed on 1Q84 to be translated to English as soon as possible.
On a more personal note, the entrance exam is getting near. I really need get my hands done on every essential mathematics before the burden comes.
Wish me luck and have a nice day.
ps. picture of 1Q84 in bookstores, courtesy of Japan Times/AP
