Tokyo Ueno Station

“Life is nothing like a story in a book. There may be words, and the pages may be numbered, but there is no plot. There may be an ending, but there is no end.”

The allusion to plot in this context suggests order and sense-making. That life has no plot indicates that it is disorienting and challenges a person’s ability to make sense of it. This comment comes from Kazu’s realization that there is no “end” to life; this is presented as something neither good nor bad, it simply is.

“I did not live with intent, I only lived. But that’s all over now.”

This is the first indication that Kazu is telling the story from beyond the end of his life. This comment is also the first hint of poverty, as it suggests a way of life that was limited to the bare essentials; plans for the future, goals, and ambition are all things that eluded Kazu while he was alive.

“Fifty years had passed; parents and siblings had died, and the family homes we should have returned to had disappeared for those of us who passed our days in this park.”

The five-decade span of time Kazu mentions here alludes to the period after World War II, when many people moved to the cities—particularly Tokyo—to find work. Like Kazu, these folks left their rural homes out of necessity. However, this meant that resources were diverted away from rural communities and into urban centers, making it difficult for the people in those communities to survive. Once the immediate postwar jobs dried up, the workers in Tokyo had nowhere to go.