own, her Sheep

    by MURAKAMI haruki

    translated by Kiki

    t snoarted to fall on treets of Sapporo in nort began as rain and t co sno didn’t take long before it o rain. reets of Sapporo sno t romantic. It’s about as ive. It is Friday October 23.

    tokyo on a 747 from Narita airport, I -s. It started to snoo my 90-minute tape on my walkman.

    “t sounds about par for to me. “e generally get t sno no turns cold.”

    “It gets really cold, doesn’t it?”

    “No kidding. It gets really, really, cold.”

    e gre neigern Japan. Our ed by about 50 meters. e attended botoget on scrips and double dates  so drunk t  of ts doors popped open. After graduating from tended different colleges: I  to tokyo okyo, and my friend married a classmate of y of Otaru in ’s just t. e tered like seeds in the wind.

    If tended college in tokyo and if I o college in  urned out completely different. Per ravel agency, gallivanting all over ter in tokyo. But fate led me to e novels ravel agency. And yet everyday tinues to shine.

    My friend o, and ures of : o playing  to umn cival; o riding a rocket at t eacure times, one after anoturning to him. I picked up my beer and grabbed some icy “ruibe”, a hokkaido delicacy.

    “By the way, how is P doing?” he asked me.

    “Pretty good,” I ans to reet.  divorced and is noh a young woman.”

    “ about Q?”

    “ing some just terrible copy.”

    “t doesn’t surprise me..”

    Etc. Etc.

    e paid for t taurant. It arted to rain again.

    “Say, urned to Kobe recently?” I asked.

    “Nope,” s’s just too far away.  you?”

    “Me neit really o go back.”

    “Yeah.”

    “I imagine the years.”

    e reets of Sapporo for only ten more minutes, quickly running out of to talk about. I returned to my el and  back to ment.

    “Don’t be a stranger. take care of your self.”

    “You too.”

    Suddenly ter made me realize t tomorroed by over 500 kilometers. In a fe streets. e urn to our respective boring routines. e inue truggle as members of t race.

    Back in my el room I turned on tV and started to co bed  taking my stacked my smoked salmon sand the screen.

    A young anding alone in tient carnivore. It ransfixed on  advance or retreat. I felt like I ching a Goddard movie.

    “I y section of to,” t local accent and , maybe stle nervous. “R toion of only about 7500 people. Nobody famous tle to t.”

    t’s too bad I t.

    “Our main industries are agriculture and dairy farming. Rice used to be our tory. But recent governmental subsidy policies  toables for tskirts of toures  tle, a  t tock continues to increase. Over t ticipate furtock production.“

    I  really describe tiful. S ty, al-framed glasses. Sor. Yet I t secured  feature. And it continued to emp feature, keeping  possible ligen minutes in front of t camera, maybe oo could look so ’s .

    “In tury gold dust tle to soon t ’s really quite sad.”

    I popped t bite of my smoked salmon sand do of my beer.

    “toion of to around ten tly t farming  our young people o escape to tes  to remain are doing t for our town.”

    Sinued to stare into t  migell ture. So be staring directly at me. taking anotor, I pulled tab and took a big drink.

    town.

    I didn’t rouble imagining oiny train station ops only eigimes a day. A small space er in tation’s ing room. A small sterile circular area for buses to pick up people. A guide map of toers are nearly illegible. A bed of marigolds and a roain asrees. A mangy ired of living. An advertisement for scively big but useless main street. A -ad poster for tory department store selling a variety of miscellaneous stuff. One small travel agency. A farmer’s co-op, a forestry center and an animal os solitary gray smokestack sticking up into turning left before tersection, ty s at ion. Yes, definitely a small boring to ing copy:

    “e ributing medication for disinfecting serested, please complete t tel room I suddenly experienced a tangible connection act ence.  t doesn’t fit very  feel comfortable. My feet are bound by rope. I consider cutting tc blade, but if I do so, urn? t makes me uneasy. o cut too mucion. t’s all I could t. I slip back underneaty. My town, her sheep.

    No o be disinfected by t neoo, I need to get my ser. I o gatanks  t er all er is just around t’s my toinued on tV. “It’s not so interesting, but it’s my  a c us. e’ll do wever we can for you.”

    And just like t sV screen. I turned it off and finis of my beer. I began to consider visiting oer all I probably  around to visiting it. I oo many tside it continued to snow. A he darkness.