Chapter 322 – Manchuria Once Again

(Come to think of it, that blue locomotive still is not running yet?)

In mid June, after arriving in Dairen from Yokohama aboard our own high speed ship, we boarded a South Manchuria Railway express and headed straight north.

The nickname of the express we were riding was “Hato.” It looked larger and more powerful than the locomotives of the Japanese National Railways, though apparently it was just slightly slower than Japan’s “Tsubame” express.

As the train swayed along, we headed toward Harbin, where many Russians lived. From there we would continue on to Qiqihar, though our actual destination lay almost exactly halfway between the two cities.

By now, the people from Ootori Oil, including Idemitsu-san and the others, had already begun exploratory drilling at the oil field there.

For this trip, my female companions were only Mai-san, Shizu, and Liz. We