AFTERWORD

We don’t know in advance what we’re going to do in the future, but the truth is we often don’t even know what we were thinking in the past.

Saying “I don’t remember what I was thinking then” might be more accurate than “I don’t know,” which is why we supposedly make notes—to avoid forgetting. But then there are times when we forget what the note was even talking about. For example—

… So that’s how I was going to start this afterword. But when I pulled out an old notebook to prove it, the contents were so incomprehensible that it wasn’t a question of having forgotten what I meant—it was more like my past self had been receiving mysterious signals and gone into an automatic writing trance. Looking at titles like “The Million Strands of Ginger” or “Pavlov’s Tadpole,” I found myself totally bewildered; I couldn’t even begin to interpret them.

At the time I was no doubt brimming with confidence in the power of my memory, thinking that if I just wrote down those few words, I’d be able to read them later and remember all the related details. Looking back at them now, not only do I not remember what I was thinking about, I don’t even care. I’m sure they were stupid ideas, and if by some miracle they were good ones, I’d just be annoyed at having been bested by my past self. So I’d rather not know.

In any case, nowadays when I make notes, I’ve learned to write down as many details as I can. Of course, it’s all well and good to write something down, but it often happens that I forget the plain fact that I ever wrote anything at all. I suppose that’s a different problem…

Incidentally, this volume wound up being the longest in the series.

The long winter that began in The Disappearance finally ends, and from here on out we’ll be getting into spring. I should say that my very favorite time of year is early summer, when you can hear frogs’ tranquil voices along with cicadas’ busy cries. Just knowing that it won’t be cold again for a good long while is enough to make me happy. Plus it’s a lot easier to walk over to the corner store in the middle of the night.

All that aside, it’s thanks to the support of many people that I’ve managed to get this far. When I look back, it truly seems like the blink of an eye since the very first volume, which fills me with a combination of surprise and frustration—has the trip been a good one?

Even as I thank you again for your support, I hope that you will enjoy the next volume.

Until we meet again.