Japan, The Great Gatsby and The Cuckoo's Calling

The one downside of travelling to and from Europe is the painful contortion of time required when catapulting yourself from one hemisphere to another at sub-sonic speed. Not to mention the painful contortions of body, trying to get comfortable in the horrible seats in an A380. On the journey from Frankfurt to Japan, I started watching The Great Gatsby until I determined it was all style over substance, which is entirely apt as the novel was also SOS. All the characters are shallow and ghastly, which is the whole point I suppose. I couldn't help seeing the film as a long ad for Moet and Tiffany & Co.

I started reading The Cuckoos Calling and marvelled once again at JK Rowling's (writing as Robert Galbraith) amazing story-telling ability. I haven't finished it yet, I am saving the rest of it for the flight tonight from Tokyo to Sydney. The main characters are an Afghanistan war veteran, Cormoran Strike (typically perfect name, Rowling is second only to Dickens with names**) now a private investigator, whose life is a shambles and a new to London, newly engaged temp. Strike is hired to investigate the death of a model after a fall from a balcony in Mayfair.

Rowling has emulated some traits of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin* and Patricia Cornwall's novels, such as describing the music Strike listens to in order to humanise him (Tom Waits, so far). Strike is likeable, he has a sense of humour and both main characters have enough believably dysfunctional relationships for a long series of novels. It's all very exciting.

Anyway, I was so tired by the time we arrived in Narita, I was barely able to muster a grin at the musical toilets and quirky mistranslations that make normally would make me snort with laughter ("Drinks Rist", "Aroma oil massage: Refreshing your internal organs and mental!"). We spent yesterday afternoon wandering up and down the streets of Narita and inspecting the Naritasan Buddhist Temple Complex. 

The gardens around the temple complex contain sculpted azaleas and trees trimmed to look like clouds.

It is raining today, so I will write libellous reviews on Trip Advisor under a pseudonym until it is time to leave for the airport for the journey home.

*You can listen to the Rebus playlist here and here is a Bosch playlist.

**Actually, I am debating with myself about that. "Severus Snape" and "Draco Malfoy" are so brilliantly evocative, arguably better than anything Dickens came up with. Incidentally, some helpful soul has complied an alphabetical list of Dickens characters on Wikipedia.