It has some very quirky but very typical Ogawa elements. We have the mysterious old man who other people (students) don’t seem to notice or remember. (This links to the strange woman in the reception desk in the previous story. The old man’s tears also seem to connect to the various crying figures in that tale. One thing I wondered was whether the stories on consecutive nights have resonance points or links. Does one person’s story make the next person remember or think about something from their own life? If so, this collection has a common structure with Ogawa’s short story collection 寡黙な死骸みだらな弔い).
One typical Ogawa-ism is the collection of unusual items. Here we have the very odd collection of stuffed animals. If we thought the animals were odd on the narrator’s first encounter, they become even stranger on second visit (including a mangey raccoon, and a cama [I had to look it up. this is the official term for a cross between a camel and a llama].
I confess, I misunderstood the race on first reading and thought that the old man was carrying the boy. (It all made a lot more sense when I re-read and got that straight). That did mean at first I was very worried the old man was going to keel over. Obviously , that was not a real danger.
We had the lovely comical discovery by the narrator that he had left his exercise weights on…
I had predicted that the narrator’s weird presentiments of the future would return. There is mention of them, but only in a negative way. Am I right that he felt his experience with the old man was his first true understanding of the world - he reinterprets (or comes to believe) that his earlier premonitions were just coincidences??
Interesting story. I was wrong, and he actually became an eye doctor. But I’m not even mad about it. He found his own reason for becoming one, which I quite liked.
I have to say the stories are pretty bizarre overall. I, for one, didn’t expect them being roped into participating in a festival activity out of nowhere, and bonding over that. On top of that carrying the old man on his back… I did have the 冬眠中ヤマネ pictured a bit bigger than it turned out to be. Since he was able to carry it in his pocket and put it on his keyholder it has to be pretty small.
Here is one I found online! Not sure if it was inspired by Ogawa’s story (I suspect not, since it looks like the creator has many other similar felted creatures).
It strikes me that the old guy’s version would be not as neat and cute as this…
You know it might be a bit rude, but I decided I can’t let this comment just sit there. Thank you for looking up the picture, but that wasn’t actually my problem with it.
The thing is, sizes of stuffed animals dont have to respect the real animals sizes. And he clearly was talking about hugging some of the animals including the やまね. And he was saying how well it fits when he hugs it.
Now he is a high schooler who might not yet be fully grown, but he was apparently big enough to carry the old guy on his back.
If I put these two things together I REALLY don’t imagine a stuffed animal in a size you can put on your keyholder. How strange must it look to try to hug something that isn’t even the size of your palm.
That’s why I wrote in my comment about the size…
Late to the party, as usual. I finished my move (sort of, still so much to do!) so trying to catch up to the club again.
This story was cute but a bit unsatisfying for me. It felt oddly incomplete compared to the others. Thankfully the writing style is nice enough, so even when I don’t necessarily love one of the stories it’s not hard to get through.
Also, when the man approached the boy for the race I initially thought he was going to harm/attempt to harm him in some way, resulting in the old man needing to step in. I was not expecting ‘forced festival activity’ in the slightest
