So we learn more about ジャコビニ流星雨 in this chapter. I’d done some googling after it came up last chapter, but definitely went down a rabbit hole this chapter.
This is a real picture of a guy called Chiaki Tanaka out in the evening of the 8th October 1972, hoping to see the ジャコビニ流星雨.
He writes about it here (in Japanese, but relatively readable)
(There is probably a spoiler in his description of the evening - so if you’d prefer not to find out about what the girls are able to see on their meteor watching expedition, you may want to wait until next week)
The meteor shower is now known as the Draconids (Tanaka san explains the reason in his blog linked above). The contemporary name alludes to the りゅう座 constellation - from which the shooting stars typically arise (りゅう - get it?)
It is said to be particularly good every 13 years. (Interestingly, I gather that the comet was at its perihelion this last March, so it is possible that the coming October 8th will be a good night for it. I’ve marked it in my diary. (This year is 14 years since the last ‘show’)
Here is another Japanese blog about the Giacobini comet and the 1972 evening ジャコビニ流星群
さすが, the funniest bit of this chapter is the discovery (and debate) about Pochiko joining the star watching expedition. (Not to mention the reaction of the guy in the toll booth.)
Incidentally, here is the toll booth in contemporary times…
And for those looking up places in the novel, here is the tollbooth and the reservoir
What do you think - is Tomoko’s secret wish that they don’t run into Wednesday-boy going to be fulfilled?
my guess (not really a spoiler since I am just guessing) is that they will, together with his girlfriend, but Mina won’t care because she isn’t interested in 水曜日の青年
Some of the articles I had read about the Draconids meteor shower had suggested it, so I wasn’t surprised that the 1972 eagerly awaited event turned out to be a bit of a fizzle [forgive the pun].
But I was wrong in my guess about the Wednesday boy. No sign of him in the darkness (just in Tomoko’s imaginings).
Some lovely description of the girls sitting enveloped in darkness and night noises (including of course hippo noises…). True to form, Mina was able to remain focused on the heavens, while Tomoko is distracted by her worries that 水曜日の青年 will turn up with his girlfriend.
I couldn’t quite follow just why Tomoko felt responsible for the sudden disappearance of Wednesday boy. Surely, if it was due to her wishing on a falling star, there would actually have to have been a shooting star for this to have any causal impact? But then magical thinking and guilt (in both children and sometimes adults) doesn’t need to be logical.
(A more prosaic causal explanation would be that the Wednesday boy has been put off his Ashiya visits and asked for a change of route because he felt harassed by the repeated sudden appearance of Tomoko at the gate? Speaking of which, I was unsure why she continues to hide in the cobwebby old ticket booth. She makes a sudden ‘surprise’ appearance again as the new delivery guy [complete with 太鼓腹 - what a great word!] is about to depart. Surely the smart Mina has twigged to Tomoko’s hiding place and spying???)
We had another location this week (and I think it is coming back in the next chapter.)
Here is the Amagosaki railway station
It looks to be about 30 mins by train from Ashiya.
Interesting (not surprising) that she turns to Turtleneck guy for help with how to get there. And his response seems utterly non-creepy (@Magyarapointe looks like you are right). (That is unless there is a sleazy double meaning to 「君なら大丈夫。どこへでも、行きたい場所へ行ける」… mmm, probably not…)
PS I wasn’t really expecting it, but I can find no corroboration for the accidental death of a guy in Niigata on the night of the meteor shower in 1972. Looks like that one is pure fiction…
I also had an AI assisted search and didn’t find any mention of a particular spike in suicides after Kawabata’s suicide. Looks like that might have been Mina’s morbid interest making connections, or may be Ogawa made it up, or maybe it hasn’t survived to be visible on the internet…
Hello all,
sorry for the long radio silence! I wanted to tend to another book club for a while (that I was very very behind on) and I managed to catch up in time and finish it! Which means that I will catch up on this book from now
Haha when I read the description of the very white dress and the girl‘s interest in Pochiko, I had some expectations And Ogawa sensei did deliver
I also got confused by the „jaguar“ but I first thought of the animal then I quickly realized it’s about a car. This family and their friends are pretty special, feels like old nobility or 19th century industrialist or the like.
I can totally relate to Mina wanting to spend more time with her brother, and I can totally relate to him wanting to spend time with his friends.
Seems that Mina‘s charm works better on her father than on Ryuuichi. Which reminds me that we haven’t yet heard anything regarding the circumstances of her father‘s sudden homecoming…
There isn’t a lot that happens in this chapter (though it is leading us to what I suspect will be a key point in the novel)
I did find the description of the soft drink factory interesting.
It reminded me a lot of the very detailed description in Ogawa’s short story 夕暮れの給食室と雨のプール.
Ogawa has obviously been very struck by the mysterious and semi-magical mechanisation of food production.
Below is a link to a post on that story. (The atmosphere in that story was much stranger, but some of Ogawa’s writing here has definite parallels - for example in her describing of the 秘密の王国)
I confess, I was a bit worried about Tomoko leaving the official tour and wandering the factory to find Wednesday boy. It doesn’t feel like this will end well, and the end of this chapter definitely leaves us hanging…
Chapter 38
This was a funny encounter. I was sure at the start that Tomoko was going to end up dragged to security (was she going to end up in her uncle’s office having to explain herself?).
But for reasons that remain unclear to me (maybe it will become clear when I re-read this chapter), the bat-like old man seems to suddenly pivot from being suspicious about Tomoko to answering her questions, providing confidential employee information and even giving her a matchbox. Tomoko seems to think that maybe in his wisdom and experience he has somehow guessed the truth??? But…?
(My only other hypothesis is that maybe the old guy was inclined to feel grandfatherly towards Tomoko and decided after his initial grouchiness to be kind to her)
PS the description of the 課長 is almost comically grotesque, with his breath whistling between his teeth and the sprinkling of dandruff and saliva as he speaks. It reminds me a little of the extraordinary caretaker in ドーミトリー
There are two discoveries in this chapter. The news of Wednesday boy’s sudden engagement, and then the 江坂ロイヤルマンション
(Incidentally, there is an apartment building called the ロイヤル in 江坂 but I’m guessing it isn’t the same…https://www.cjs.ne.jp/chintai/detail_b/T0000007766.html)
I’m not sure that any of us (even Tomoko) are in much doubt about what we are going to discover there, but perhaps Ogawa will surprise us yet
Ah, I had forgotten about that part, though not about the story !``
I think it’s a mix of things : He must be happy to have someone to brag about, and must be flattered that Tomoko asks him to display his knowledge. He might also not think too much of it : the boy is gone, he didn’t seem to like him that much, and since he’s the oldest employee here and “king” of the parking lot, he must feel there’s no way he’ll get into trouble by spilling confidential information. Though I think the matchbox thing is because he has figured out who Tomoko is. After all, how many private houses get delivery direct from the factory in Ashiya on wednesdays ? Or even at all. Which is probably part of the reason why he doesn’t report her to security.
How I wish she would ! Of course, the way this should turn out seems obvious, and Tomoko has to grow up one day, but I wish she would stay innocent just a little longer !
So one question for those of us reading with the group. What other explanation could there be for お父さん’s behaviour? What could Tomoko find in 江坂ロイアルマンション？
Here are some theories
(Concealed so that no one has to read any of these wild speculations, but they don’t count as spoilers unless I happen to have hit on something by accident)
パラレルキャリア. 叔父さん is actually a television/gadget repairman in his spare time, and this is his workshop. Don’t know why this is theory 1, seems pretty unlikely.
趣味. There is a giant train set in the apartment. Perhaps in the shape of the old train track in the フレッシュ動物園. He spends all his spare time building and playing with it. Maybe there is even a tiny monkey (or a real one - see theory 3). This would link to the 乗り物 theme
動物. He has a miniature zoo inside the old apartment block. Not sure why.
マッチ箱. The apartment is fashioned like a giant matchbox. Maybe the invisible elephant is there (though not sure how you would know). But…
研究. 叔父さん is working furiously to find a cure for Mina’s asthma. He dedicates every hour that he is not at work in the hope of saving her, though tragically in the process is wasting precious time. (Most tragic theory, but I haven’t had any hint of desperation in his behaviour)
A giant beehive… (if you know, you know)
Which is your favourite theory? Feel free to suggest more
叔父さん is actually ヤクザ. (We are close to Osaka after all). The apartment is where he runs his main business. The soft drink factory is for money laundering.
Did you really think all the money for that fancy house and the art works (and the Mercedes) came from selling soft drink??
He will drop his fancy accent and start speaking in thick 関西弁 ヤクザ slang when Tomoko finds out…
I loved this chapter - so much happening emotionally, so little actually happening.
So much delicate poetic description, so much unsaid, and some very funny bits that are said.
First, of course, we have the 江坂ロイヤルマンション. After all our theorising last week, Tomoko doesn’t even go inside. But of course it does seem like my ヤクザ theory is probably out the window.
I liked the way that her seeing the Mercedes brings back all her fond memories of 叔父さん - memories that are now tainted by her discovery - they appear and then disappear in the car windows. (We have よみがえる within よみがえる, because of course the whole story is the adult Tomoko being taken back to the 芦屋 of her childhood).
There is something lovely and subtle in the fact that Tomoko doesn’t even remember the name of the woman in the apartment. This person (it seems) is always going to be unnamed, just as her existence is delicately but decisively unspoken in the 芦屋 household.
Meanwhile, the whole visit to this apartment block has the feeling of a dream to Tomoko - she stands there alone staring at the mailboxes. She might even later have wondered if she had imagined the whole episode - except for the leaflet under the windscreen wipers…
Next, there is the lovely scene of Tomoko returning to find the whole family waiting for her on the doorstep. (I was terrified when I first read it that something had happened to Mina while Tomoko was out - but thankfully not).
It was fascinating that the family didn’t ask her where she had actually been - she didn’t get to trot out her made up story. Tomoko herself considers various possible reasons for this, including the obvious one that everyone knows where she has actually been, and that is the one thing that no-one will talk about.
I loved the awkwardness of 叔父さん being there - having raced back in his Mercedes and beaten her back. It is so exquisitely awkward and painful that Tomoko doesn’t know how to relate to him any more.
The meeting in his study later takes this wonderful tension up another level. I thought that Tomoko was going to walk away without saying anything, but her parting words…
And then we have the final session in the light therapy room - with Tomoko’s made up story about the Wednesday boy sending Mina the matchbox as a parting gift, and then the plunge into darkness with just the rustling of angel wings…
This feels like an emotional climax. Not many chapters to go.
I agree. Of course, there was only one way this could realistically go, but the way 小川先生 wrote it is masterful.
So was I !
Quite so. But what I found even more striking is いくらでも僕は君のために時間を費やす用意があるんだよ、という瞳でこちらを見つめていた. This is the turning point for 朋子 regarding 伯父さん, I think. Earlier in the chapter, she reminisces about their first encounters and adventures, when he was more or less this magical figure who could do no wrong. After she finds out about his second family, he becomes まるで懐かしい家族の中かに、一人だけ初対面の人. And then she finds out that having a second family doesn’t mean he doesn’t love the first one (though probably things are more complicated regarding 伯母さん. He’s just human after all.
Very beautiful, as always, and very interesting. After all, we never know Mina’s real feelings toward the young man. Yet Tomoko feels like she has to give her closure somehow. And her story is on par with Mina’s. It might be the birth of a storytelling vocation ?
Mmm, the way I read it was that this was the feeling that he was trying to convey
But I didn’t read it that Tomoko was convinced by this or able to reconcile a more complex picture of 叔父さん. Rather it felt to me as though he was trying to turn on the charm, but she wasn’t buying it. I wonder if she will end up more on 龍一’s side than ミーナ’s.
But it is possible that I missed some subtlety here.
To elaborate, but this is only a personal opinion :
The book is told from Tomoko’s viewpoint, so she definitely noticed the « vibes » coming from 伯父さん. Of course, her parting words are an indictment of what he did, yet she gives him a chance to fix it; she actually tells him to. I don’t think she would do that if she still only considered him a stranger. So I read that as her recognizing his real affection for at least part of his family, and giving him a way out, while warning him that he should definitely take it.
And Ogawa sensei did deliver 
then I quickly realized it’s about a car. This family and their friends are pretty special, feels like old nobility or 19th century industrialist or the like.
