New Haruki Murakami Story in Harper's

There's an interesting new Haruki Murakami short story in the latest Harper's Magazine called "Chance Traveler" (translated by Philip Gabriel). What I found interesting was the unexpected introductory essay at the beginning of the story, which starts out as follows:

"The "I" here, you should know, means me, Haruki Murakami, the author of the story. Mostly this is a third person narrative, but here at the beginning the narrator does make an appearance... "

He goes on to tell what I assume are two true stories (or anecdotes) about odd coincidences that happened to him while hearing a live jazz musician performing at a club in the U.S. and when buying an old record of a jazz recording here in the U.S.. I won't tell you his stories because you should read them for yourself, but I have my own related tale that I wanted to write down real quick.

Here it is. I was in Tokyo several years ago, and at some point I read this article in The New Yorker, I think it was, about Miles Davis and a version of the tune "On Green Dolphin Street" he did with John Coltrane on an album titled "On Green Dolphin Street." I had never heard it before and became obsessed with hearing it, so I coerced my future wife Rie into taking me to Shinjuku to a Virgin megastore where they had an amazing jazz CD selection. I knew that the Japanese love jazz and that if anybody would have it anywhere, they would have it there in Tokyo, and I wasn't disappointed.

After my frantic search ended in success, I purchased the CD and we headed outside onto the bustling sidewalk filled with literally thousands of people going about their business in hundreds of different directions. But here's the strange part--a group of scattered Japanese kids, roughly college-age, were holding up these little handmade signs with single words in English written on them. At least two (out of only five or six) were holding up signs that said "DOLPHIN" on them. I have a photo somewhere to prove it. I was just rather amazed that of all the words they could have chosen, they chose dolphin, in English, right after I had been so obsessed with finding that album, "On Green Dolphin Street." Then to read Murakami's little similar stories of jazz-related coincidences seemed further related somehow, so I thought I should tell you about it.

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