Was talking to a friend who came back from a vacation in Japan (I never went myself) and he said that there 39 millions of people living in Tokyo! No wonder they all have a long commute. I was used to that when I lived in Paris, and that’s only 10 millions.
Was really surprised how light his symptoms were compared to how close he was to the sarin, and also considering his age. Lucky!
Interesting theory, that he thinks it’s because he was sitting almost above the sarin, and not in the direction in which the air blows when the train is moving.
Did you write down any thoughts for week 6 @NicoleIsEnough ?
I’ve caught up during week 6 and I kept reading, I found that one interview a day is a really nice pace for me. So I’m currently in week 8.
Haha I guess you overtook me by now Still chewing on that lawyer interview, paired with basically no time to read
If you’d like, I could post the threads for the remaining weeks already, so we can comment whenever we see fit. It seems that the others who are reading are not commenting here anyway…
Oh, seems like I forgot to post my notes Here they are:
稲川宗一
He was really lucky, it seems! When I read his age, I was sure that he’d be among those who suffered the most, but luckily this was not the case. I wonder whether his warm eyepatch helped with the recovery? It should increase the blood flow and thus should help with absorbing and destroying the poison, I wonder.
西村住夫
Another employee who worked at the station at the time of the assault. He removed the two plastic bags from the train, but he was very lucky as he did not have severe symptoms nor lasting after-effects (as long as we can tell). Compared to the previous station employee who actually died after cleaning the train, this is a stark difference.
As cholinesterase had been mentioned a couple of times, I took a short detour and dived into it. It is a substance that the body needs to break down neurotransmitters (specifically acetylcholin) and thus prevents the body from overreacting. Basically, acetylcholin triggers a muscle contraction, and its breakdown (via cholinesterase) allows the muscle to relax again. When this substance is missing, especially overreactions of inner organs and muscle spasms will occur, and eventually the patient will die due to suffocation because the lung is paralyzed. Cholinesterase - Wikipedia
There are a few illnesses that can cause cholinesterase to decrease (mainly due to deterioration of the liver which produces this enzyme), but in our case the cause is that sarin is a cholinesterase inhibitor which prevents it from interacting with acetylcholin by blocking the spot on the acetylcholin surface where cholinesterase is supposed to connect to it. Well-known substances of this type are certain pesticides (e.g. Dichlorvos or Parathion), as well as the nerve gases sarin, VX and Novichok.
Interesting that he was so fixated on buying his milk! Made him really sympathetic
Other than that, nothing new, except maybe for the reduced memory? I do remember that others already mentioned lasting reduced eyesight, but I don’t remember reduced memory. Really dangerous stuff, this…
Seems like I’m the only one sticking to the reading schedule. Even though the weekly character count is manageable, this book is mentally draining. I’m committed to finishing it, but I don’t want to rush through it.
While I agree the book is mentally draining, I’m mostly fascinated (in a horrified way) at the general helplessness and cluelessness of everyone involved. While it stands to reason that you can’t immediately realize this is a case of Sarin poisoning, and, of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty, trains keep running, people with clothing contaminated with “something” keep them on, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of coordination even when several similar incidents happen at the same time. People get sick, sometimes severely, and they keep just going to work… I guess what I find mostly shocking is that, when it comes to natural disasters, Japan is a high-awareness and high-preparedness country, but in this case, it feels like no one has even an inkling of what to do…
I plan on reading the rest of the book once the official bookclub part is done, and also read the companion book, 約束された場所で, in which Murakami interviewed former Aum Shinrikyo adepts… though I don’t know yet if I’ll read the books back to back (probably not).
Interesting! I want to finish this book too, and I know of the second book but I don’t feel tempted to read even more about Aum. Though when I see the impact it has on me when reading it 30 years after the incident, I can only imagine how much impact it had in Japan. In fact several movies I’ve seen mention the incident, and interestingly they usually talk about people from Aum and not the victims (which is exactly what Murasaki describes in the beginning as one of the reasons he had for writing the book). But will be curious to read your thoughts about the second book whenever you finish it!
This Danish - Japanese documentary about faith, made a parallel between Danish teenagers preparing for their confirmation and Aum members looking for their faith Filmstriben - Tro
I feel like there was another movie I saw mentioning it but can’t remember it now
Still chewing on that lawyer interview, paired with basically no time to read 
Here they are:
Even though the weekly character count is manageable, this book is mentally draining. I’m committed to finishing it, but I don’t want to rush through it.