Summary

Yoshiya wakes up in his bed extremely hungover and struggles to bring himself to his feet. His initial instinct is to call for his mother, but he remembers that she has left with her congregation on a religious mission in Kobe. Eventually, Yoshiya manages to get out of bed and realizes it is almost noon and that he will likely be reprimanded at his publishing job. He takes the subway into work and, on the way home, encounters a man with a missing earlobe in the terminal and decides to follow him.

For his entire life, Yoshiya has lived with his mother; he is now twenty-five. His mother is on the younger side and had Yoshiya when she was eighteen. As a result, she does not have many “maternal instincts” (49) and spent most of Yoshiya’s childhood walking around the...