Favourite foreign onomatopoeia - 13

chin chin - (Italian/French/Spanish) the sound of glasses clinking together, i.e. 'cheers!'

(Amusingly, though, 'chin chin' means something rather different in Japan.)

Books I've actually finished lately: 30

[Untitled]*

I think I am going to have to buy this book.

--
* 'Anticipation is everything!'
- Abraham Lincoln

Roan words: part 2

1) Murakami's Dance Dance Dance was, in the original, dansu dansu dansu. Do the Japanese have no native word for 'dance'? Or is this a particular (non-native) type of dancing?

2) But Norwegian Wood was Norowei no mori. Even though it's not about some wood from Norway, or a wood in Norway - but, tangentially at least, about 'Norwegian Wood', the song by the Beatles.

Roan words

You know that scene in Crocodile Dundee where Mick knocks out some muggers, stands on them in victorious pose, and has his picture taken by shutter-happy Japanese tourists, one of whom says: 'Iss, ah, Krrrint Eastwood'?

Well, er, it's true. I am indebted to Jay Rubin, oftentimes translator of Haruki Murakami, for the information that the original Japanese title of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is, no kidding, Sekai no owari to hadoboirudo wandarando.

Though why the title is backwards, I can't tell you.

Norwegian Wood

I have just bought a copy of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. The cover spiel tells me that

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko...

but does he - and already this is the only question on my mind - does he, when thinking about her, get Norwegian wood? And would that pun work in Japan (where the novel's title must have been the same?) - or is it not close enough to the bone?

I shall read, and find out.