What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

“Well, the motive doesn’t matter so much as wanting to learn something new. That’s a good attitude to have.”

You can decide things, but there’s no guarantee everything will go as planned. It’s just that—” Kiriyama’s voice breaks off and he pauses. “In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.”

think that I might be just entering the forest. I still don’t know what I want to do, or what I can do. What I do know is that there’s no need to panic, or do more than I can cope with right now. For the time being, I plan to simply get my life in order and learn some new skills, choosing from what’s available. I’ll prepare myself, like Guri and Gura gathering chestnuts in the forest. Because I never know when I might find my own giant egg.

“Only ever a dream...” She tilts her head to one side inquiringly. “Is that what you think? That it will only ever be a dream? As long as you continue to say the words ‘one day,’ the dream is not over. Maybe it will simply remain a beautiful dream. It may never come true. But that is one way to live, in my opinion. The days go by more happily when you have something to dream about. It’s not always a bad thing to have a dream, with no plan for ever carrying it out.”

most of the time we humans only look at the flowers or fruit of a plant, because we live aboveground. We switch our attention to belowground only when the roots have a particular interest for us, as in the case of sweet potatoes or carrots. Yet from a plant’s perspective, aboveground and belowground are both equally important and in perfect balance. Humans only see what suits them most, and make that their main focus, but for plants... Both are main.

“I believe that a job secures you a place in society. So if you have a parallel career, you can have two places. With neither a side business.”

“Everybody is connected. And any one of their connections could be the start of a network that branches in many directions. If you wait for the right time to make connections, it might never happen, but if you show your face around, talk to people and see enough to give you the confidence that things could work out, then ‘one day’ might turn into ‘tomorrow.’”

“Timing is all-important. Don’t let the right moment slip by.”

“If money is your only object, then crowdfunding can be a lot of trouble for nothing, because you don’t know if you’ll raise enough to start a business. But it’s a brilliant method of PR. That’s what makes it really worth doing. It’s a way for you to show people your passion, and earn their trust. If anything, it’s the people who have no business experience but are totally sincere who get the best response. And once you open a shop, everybody who’s been supporting you online is happy to come and see it. That’s the great thing.”

Trust makes the world go round.

There are so many things to do, but I won’t make the excuse that I have no time anymore. Instead, I will think about what I can do with the time I have. One day is going to become tomorrow.

We all come to understand at some point in our lives that there is no Santa Claus. But the reason Santa Claus remains an integral part of Christmas celebrations is not for the sake of small children. It is because grown-ups who were once children themselves continue to hold the truth of Santa Claus in their hearts even after they become adults, and they live in that belief.

“But this is how I see it. While I do believe that it was hard work for my mother to give birth to me, it also took me every ounce of my own strength to endure the extremely difficult process of being born. After all that time inside my mother’s belly growing into a human being with nobody to guide me, all of a sudden I was thrust into an entirely new and strange environment. Imagine what an awful shock it must have been to come in contact with air for the first time, not knowing where I was. Of course I’ve forgotten what that felt like now. But it’s why, whenever I feel happy or glad about something, I count my blessings and think to myself, ‘Now, wasn’t that worth all the effort of being born?’”

“You were the same. Being born is probably the most difficult thing we ever have to do. I am convinced that everything else that comes afterward is nowhere near as hard. If you can survive the ordeal of being born, you can get through anything.”

“It’s a very common condition,” she said with apparent relish. “Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round. But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”

“Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”

The heart has two eyes to perceive that which is not visible to the eye. One is the “Sun Eye,” which sheds a bright light on our understanding of things from a rational and logical perspective. The other is the “Moon Eye,” which perceives things through instinct or emotion, in our imagination or dreams, such as seeing ghosts in the dark or entertaining a secret love. Both eyes exist in our hearts.

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.”

“Things change, even if you want them to stay the same. At the same time, you can try to change, but you will still remain the same.”

“There is no ‘why.’ It’s just the way things turned out. Isn’t it a good thing to want more great books in the world? I want to read them too.”

probably less than one person in a hundred can turn the thing they like doing into paid work.” Ms Komachi rolls her head again and lifts an index finger. “I’m going to give you a math lesson.” “What?” “In the case of one hundred people, one person out of a hundred is one per cent, correct?” “Yeah.” “But in the case of one person doing the thing they want to do, there is only yourself, which means one person out of one, which is one hundred percent.” “Huh?” “So there’s a hundred percent chance.” “Uh...” This does not sound right. Is it some kind of trick? But Ms. Komachi’s expression does not change. She still looks dead serious and scary. She is not joking.

“A public employee like you, or a big corporation?” “Nothing is,” he replies, gently shaking his head. “Not one single job I could name is absolutely secure. Everybody just does their best to hang in there, trying to balance it all.”

“There’s no guarantee of certainty in anything. But the flip side to there being no guarantee of security, is that there’s also no certainty that something is a dud.”

“Seitaro, don’t you worry sometimes you might get old without ever getting your novels published?” His eyeballs roll to the corners, like he’s digging through the files in his brain. Then he speaks. “It’s not like I’m not worried, but Haruki Murakami debuted at thirty. Knowing that kept me going all through my twenties.” “Uh-huh.” “But when it started looking like I couldn’t count on that, I panicked and looked around for another role model. Jiro Asada made his debut at forty.” “Great. So you got a ten-year reprieve.” Seitaro laughs. “If I miss that deadline there are probably others. There’s no age limit on a writing debut. I figure everybody has their own personal timing that works best for them.”

“A lot of people don’t like it, do they? They can’t stand pineapple in sweet-and-sour pork. But it never disappears, does it? Why is that?” “Er, I don’t know—why doesn’t it?” “Because the people who like pineapple in sweet-and-sour pork may be in a minority, but they don’t just like it, they’re crazy about it. It’s a question of passion. The majority may not accept something, but as long as there are some who do, the existence of that thing—whatever it may be—is protected. I like it,” she adds, “pineapple in sweet-and-sour pork, that is. And the picture you drew.”

“When you’re close to fifty, one hundred years doesn’t seem like an awfully long time.

I look at the plane first. People aren’t astonished by airplanes anymore. They’re an everyday sight. A convenience of civilization that everybody knows and accepts. But only one hundred and sixty years ago, people in Europe were in no doubt that it was God who had made all creatures on earth, in exactly the form they were then. They had never looked any different and never would. People really did believe that salamanders were created from flames, and the bird of paradise was a messenger from paradise. That’s why Darwin was reluctant to publish his theory. He was afraid of being shot down, for having an idea that didn’t fit with the times and environment he lived in. Now evolutionary theory is taken for granted. Something that used to be thought impossible is now common belief. Because Darwin, Wallace and other researchers who all believed in themselves kept on studying and publishing. Eventually they managed to make changes to their environment.

There’s still something I can do that’s far more important than being remembered by history. And that is to draw. If I can draw just one picture that leaves a mark in somebody’s life and is remembered, then I can find a place for me.

When you are in contact with the poet’s soul and their attitude to life, your response to their poetry becomes even more powerful. You can, in a sense, even enter into life of that poet and feel moved in the same way.

It’s my temperament. Once I start thinking about something I want to do, I’m not satisfied until I try it.”

“Belonging is an ambiguous state, you know. Take this place, for example. We can both be in the same place, but having that sheet of glass between us makes us feel as if what is happening on the other side is irrelevant, doesn’t it. Remove the partition, however, and instantly you become part of the same world. Even though it is all one to begin with.”

I believe that every kind of contact between people makes them part of society. And that goes beyond the present moment. Things happen as a result of our points of connection, in the past and in the future.”

“When I buy a book, I also become part of the process as a reader. People working in the book industry are not the only ones who make the publishing world go round; most of all it depends on the readers. Books belong to everybody: the creators, the sellers and the readers. That’s what society is all about I believe.”

“The last two in the box are no different from the first Honeydome cookie one eats. Every Honeydome is as good as all the others.” I know that now. Just as every day is equal in value and no less important than all the others. The day I was born, today as I stand here now and the many tomorrows to come.

Readers make their own personal connections to words, irrespective of the writer’s intentions, and each reader gains something unique.”

“I remember sitting in the passenger seat, looking at you and feeling devastated because I’d been fired, when in fact I hadn’t lost anything. I myself was no different than before. I’d simply left the company I worked for. That’s all. I still had the option to derive joy from my work and happiness from spending time with my loved ones. It all just depended on me, and what I did from then on. That’s when I realized that I wanted to work freelance in future.”