What does it say about my personality or qualities?
-- Narrator: Tomoka (chapter 1)

Importance: At the start of Tomoka's storyline, when her friend Saya describes her new boyfriend strictly by his vocation, Tomoka starts to wonder what her job implies about her character and her life. This question acts as the central conflict in Tomoka's account. Indeed, ever since finishing college and starting at Eden, Tomoka has felt discouraged and immobilized. These feelings originate from her fraught relationship with her work. The author is therefore introducing one of her overarching considerations throughout the novel: the ways in which the individual's relationship with her job might influence her sense of self.

It's as if she sees me, just as I am.
-- Narrator: Tomoka (chapter 1)

Importance: Although Tomoka has successfully moved to Tokyo like she has always dreamed of doing, in the narrative present, she feels isolated, lonely, and discouraged. She not only has no real friends, no boyfriend, and lives...