title: Goodnight Tokyo by: Atsuhiro Yoshida published: 2024-07-18 read: 2024-09-05 preview

Atsuhiro gives me an easy job: he writes his own synopsis, at the end of the book. I am copying it here:

There’s a certain style of writing known as the serial short story—a collection of short stories that at first glance appear to be separate tales, but which are actually connected to one another, and which can in fact be read as a full-length novel. Goodnight Tokyo is one such collection of serial short stories—but my intention could perhaps be better described as a collection of intersecting short stories. Intersections are of particular importance in this work. To begin with, we have a prominent crossroads, where we find a diner run by four women. We might as well name their narrative arc after the establishment that serves as its backdrop, so Yotsukado it is. Then we have a man named Matsui, a taxi driver who, like the diner, operates only at night. He has dreamed of becoming a cab driver ever since reading a children’s story by Kimiko Aman when he was a kid, The Car Is the Color of the Sky. Come to think of it, The Car Is the Color of the Sky is another collection of serial short stories, and the main character has the exact same name as our own Matsui. But since our Matsui only works at night, we should perhaps call his arc The Car Is the Color of the Night Sky. One of this night taxi’s regular customers is a woman named Mitsuki, whose job entails finding props for the film company where she works. We might title the next arc Mitsuki the Procurer, in which, while attempting to source loquats in the middle of the night, she meets a certain woman. This woman, in turn, works at the Tokyo No. 3 Consultation Room, a jack-of-all-trades telephone consultation service—and to her arc we might give the title Voices in the Night. Then comes The Veranda Bat, following another woman, Moriizumi, who goes about collecting unused telephones—leading to an encounter with our call center operator. On top of this, we have Detective Shuro and the Twenty Keys, which describes the adventures of a strange private detective who hops into Matsui’s cab one fateful night. Until We Become Mary follows the struggles of eleven young actresses set to appear in an upcoming movie, The Last Piece of the Jigsaw features a man in the sunset years of youth, working to rebuild a crumbling movie theater, and we also have Tokyo Whiskey and Coke, about the recollections of a late-middle-aged man opening a small bar in a Ginza back alley. Oh, and there’s one more—Ibaragi and the Two Moons, following the humorous daily life of a secondhand shop owner in Shimokitazawa. That’s ten books. No, excuse me. Those ten books exist only in my mind, at least for the time being. But the novel Goodnight Tokyo is the result of the intersection of these ten fantastic tales. It is, I hope, a collection of serial short stories that can be enjoyed as ten books in one. August 2018

And thus the book ends. But it begins like this in its first chapter,

THE LOQUAT THIEF _
_The clock struck 1:00 A.M. _
_It must have been wound a little faster than the others, as the timepiece that Mitsuki was carrying sounded ahead of the countless others kept in the warehouse.

and continues thus in the next eleven:

LOST AT 4:00 A.M. _
_The clock showed exactly 1:00 A.M. _
_From this point on, it was rush hour at the Tokyo No. 3 Consultation Room.

EIGHTEEN KEYS _
_Matsui glanced at the clock. It was 1:00 A.M. _
_A young man, alone, was standing on the dark sidewalk on a backstreet near Izumo Bridge, bashfully raising a hand into the air.

HAM AND EGGS _
_The clock hands pointed to 1:00 A.M. _
_Six and a half hours to go.

PEANUTS AND CHAMELEONS _
_1:00 A.M. rolled around once more. _
_In the prop warehouse at the film studio, Mitsuki bowed her head to Maeda, the warehouse manager.

VERANDA BAT _
_The hands on Moriizumi’s watch pointed to 1:00 A.M. _
_If she didn’t wind it, it would soon start lagging by five minutes or more.

A RAIN OF FEATHERS _
_The hour hand reached 1:00 A.M. _
_“Oh, Eiko?” called a figure in front of the bathroom.

_TWO MOONS _
_It was precisely 1:00 A.M. _
_A full day had passed since the earthquake. _

A STARLESS NIGHT _
_The hour was rapidly approaching 1:00 A.M. _
_Shuro had been so caught up in the conversation that he had let time slip away from him.

BLUE STAIRCASES
It was already 1:00 A.M. _
_What time did she go to bed and what time did she wake up?

WATCHING THE STARS _
_The old clock pointed to 1:00 A.M. _
_Ayano shook her head.

THE FINAL PIECE
It was 1:00 A.M. in Tokyo. _
_That time came around every day.

So, twelve interconnected short stories, which together weave a web of peaceful Tokyo nightlife. A book with peace, love, solitude as I expect it, and connection as it can happen. And so one quietly moves from chapter to chapter, without much happening, but all lives coming together in many ways.

A tranquil book. Apparently, the first time a book by Atsuhiro Yoshida is available in English. It is prominent in book stores, so likely not the last. Having said that, I am not anxiously awaiting the next one. I wouldn’t mind it, but, it’s not a need-be for me.

Upbeat, let me end with a memorable quote: “For every elevator girl, there comes a time when you need to call it quits.”