In June, we posted a link to an article on Japanliteratur.net comparing Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki to South of the Border, West of the Sun. But when rereading A Wild Sheep Chase recently, I noticed a passage where Boku talks about having received a letter from the Rat. He checks the stamp to see where it had been sent from:
"The Rat's words had reached me from a small town on the northern tip of Honshu, smack in the
middle of Aomori Prefecture. According to my book of train schedules, about an hour from the
city of Aomori. Five trains stopped every day, two in the morning, one at noon, two in the
evening." (A Wild Sheep Chase, tr. by Alfred Birnbaum, Vintage International, 1989, p. 91)
The book came out in Japan in 1982. I wonder if most 30-year-old Japanese guys had "a book of train schedules" for all of Japan at home. If not, perhaps this Boku from 31 years ago has something in common with the train-station-and-time-table loving Tsukuru Tazaki?
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