Tokyo
Page 19
“You ever read any haiku?”
“Some Basho.”
He goes back to his books, but he can’t find the title he’s looking for. Then he realises he doesn’t need it.
“When the temple bell stops ringing.”
“The sound keeps coming out of the flowers.”
He smiles. He takes off his baseball cap, ruffles his silver hair, and then pulls it back on. He has errands, he says, in San Diego. I dry my hands on a tea towel, and together we walk to the door where he pats my back. Like an uncle, a father.
“We’ll have the break cleared by the weekend.” He studies the cirrus, high above the barn. “Beautiful weather, isn’t it?”
I look at the reefs of cloud. I listen to his amplified steps on the gravel drive. Wind in the sage. He gets into his station wagon, the dents and scratches, and I watch his car navigate the switchbacks down to the highway. I pick up a stone, still warm from the afternoon sun. I feel the dirt on my skin, the dust in my pores. My glorious, pounding heart, thundering in my chest.
Then Lydia’s car swings through the steep turns up to the barn. Mother and daughter. The sweep of headlights across each corner, flaring on the scree. They’re late, but we still have time to climb the hill and see the last glow of dusk, and I lace up my boots and step off the porch.
There are mountain lions in the rocky outcrops, muscular hunting cats with the glint of moon on their sleek pelts. As long as we hike together, the three of us will be safe.
夕焼小焼け
Yuyake, Koyake - The Going Home Song
Sunset is the end of the day,
the bell from the mountain temple rings.
Hand by hand, let’s go back home with the crows.
After the children are back home,
and a full moon shines,
the birds dream, and the brightness from the stars fills the sky.
Acknowledgements
This book would not exist without the support of the following people.
First and foremost, Gill Tasker at Cargo Publishing, for taking on the manuscript and turning it from pixel to printed page. Ed Wilson, my agent at Johnson & Alcock, who had the verve and vision to forge a roughly hewn draft into a novel-shaped text. Help with my pidgin Japanese was provided by supreme linguist Jonathan Gibbard, with a more esoteric cultural education – including a research trip to Nikko – gifted by Maho Takahashi. Daniel Warriner, raconteur guide and protector in the warrens of Roppongi, must be nodded to as a muse, along with Richard Beard, who invited me into the esteemed halls of Tokyo University, and photographer Lee Chapman, whose pictures continue to inspire. David Cook, your tatami mat floor was more comfortable than I imagined. For the sight of an ocean ‘like a great blue blanket pocked with feathers’ I must bow to Kay Sexton. My forays into social psychology and memory were kindly analysed by Professor John Sutton of Macquarie University, and partly detailed by Salvador Murguia’s study of the Pana-Wave Laboratory. Vital editing and encouragement too from Francesca Brill, Tony McGowan, and Agustina Savini, whose exemplary knowledge of the English language must exceed most native speakers.
Finally, an arigato gozaimasu to the good drivers of Japan who pulled over and picked up that straggly gaijin on a darkened highway. Especially the elf-like woodcutter in the wilds of Shikoku, the ancient man who mischievously dropped me at the entrance to a closed road tunnel, the path that led to Tokyo.
About the Author
Nicholas Hogg was born in Leicester. After graduating from university with a psychology degree he travelled widely, living in the USA, New Zealand, and Japan. When he first moved to Tokyo he worked as an English teacher and an actor, appearing in television shows, adverts, and in a hit computer game as a zombie. He then became press officer for a Japanese NGO ship and sailed around the world three times, reporting on global development issues. His debut novel, Show Me the Sky, was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and his acclaimed short stories have won numerous prizes and been broadcast by the BBC. Tokyo is his third novel.
www.nicholashogg.com
@nicholas_hogg
Tokyo
Nicholas Hogg
First Published in 2015
Published by Cargo Publishing
Copyright © Nicholas Hogg 2015
SC376700
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form or binding other than that in which it is published.The moral right of Nicholas Hogg to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful to be notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints of this book.
Extract from ‘Straw Dogs’ by John Gray reprinted by permission of Granta Books
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-908885-73-9
Cover design by Jill Menzies
Cover image by Frank Morssinkhof
www.cargopublishing.com