No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

174
first beginning to rampage in the open, that friends
took me to the bar. I drank highballs there two or
three times. I was never able therefore to have the
pleasure of meeting the man who wrote the notebooks.
However, this February I visited a friend who
was evacuated during the war to Funahashi in Chiba
Prefecture. He is an acquaintance from university
days, and now teaches at a woman's college. My purpose
in visiting him was to ask his help in arranging
the marriage of one of my relatives, but I thought
while I was at it, I might buy some fresh 6ea food to
take home to the family. I set off for Funahashi with
a rucksack on my back.
Funahashi is a fairly large town facing a muddy
bay. My friend had not lived there long, and even
though I asked for his house by the street and number,
nobody seemed able to tell me the way. It was cold,
and the rucksack hurt my shoulders. Attracted by
the sound of a record of violin music being played
inside a coffee shop, I pushed open the door.
I vaguely remembered having seen the madam.
I asked her about herself, and discovered she was in
fact the madam of the bar in Kyobashi I had visited
ten years before. When this was established, she professed
to remember me also. We expressed exaggerated
surprise and laughed a great deal. There were many
things to discuss even without resorting, as people