Umibe no Kafka.

A rare quiet weekend, so I treated myself to Murakami Haruki's After Dark and Kafka on the Shore. Now, I still feel like I have one foot still in that surreal world where strangers have conversations, the supernatural is never far away, and reality is seen through a director's camera lens. Now, I'm listening to the Archduke Trio and feeling hungry for eel (readers of Kafka on the Shore will understand).

No big adventures this weekend, but I can say I've cheered on Hoshino as he fought the battle of his life, and if I ever get to cross the long bridge to Shishoku, it will have a special significance to me.

Do I look buff to you?

The wordwit in Saturday's Spectrum had the first half of sixteen battles, with the warning that "Only buffs will score more than half".

I got one wrong (the last one).

( Clues behind cut... )