“Had Otoko not wanted to create a pure, lovely image of herself? Apparently, the girl of sixteen who loved Oki would always exist within her, never to grow up. Yet she had been unaware of it”
The narrator questions Otoko's motives in starting a relationship with the younger Keiko. He suggests that Otoko has entered a relationship with a young, beautiful woman to recreate something of their past relationship. Oki believes that through Keiko, Otoko is trying to create an image of her younger self, when she was happier and “pure.”
“Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person. Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way.”
Here, the narrator suggests that time passes in a different way for everyone. This novel is all about time, age and relationships. The protagonist Oki is traveling to Kyoto to reconnect with his past love, Otoko. He thinks deeply about his age, and what he would have done differently in his past.
“I wonder what the retirement age is in the novel business. The day you die.”
The protagonist Oki is a successful author, made famous by a book he wrote about his affair with Otoko. He is inspired by his personal life in writing his books, and he does not believe it is a passion he will ever lose. As such, he will only retire when he is dead, and can no longer write.
