Chapter 9 Summary

Morio invites H to go with him to deliver a suit to a customer in Sannomiya. Morio tells H that he will take him to see the Ikuta River while they are there. H is happy about the idea of seeing the river once again and that his dad is keeping a promise he made to him two years earlier when a flood descended on Kobe.

The flood causes people to be stranded everywhere. During the flood, a bus is stalled in front of H's home. Shortly afterwards, a woman and her child leave the bus and ask H's parents if she and the child can use her bathroom. Toshiko agrees, and before long many other bus passengers are asking to do the same thing. Toshiko prepares coffee for the passengers and lets them stay in her home until a new bus comes...