ABSTRACT
After making the rounds of Oe, Takahama, and Shimoda, reflecting with each step upon the thoughts and emotions that welled up within me, I was ready for two or three days of seclusion at Osaki’s place. Although it had been a journey of only three days, after visiting so many unfamiliar people and places, even Osaki’s house, little more than an abandoned hut, had the intimate familiarity of my own home. I had had enough, I resolved within my heart. I would not pay any more visits.
