Rainy season with little rain Reading group for books related to "water"
~Monosus' "Reading Club" #14~

Since the theme is water, I brought along a photo book called "Underground" by Naoya Hatakeyama. Did you know that there is a river flowing through Shibuya? If you walk from the station towards Daikanyama, it used to flow along the Toyoko Line, but now it is underground, and there is a river called Shibuya River flowing underground along the Toyoko Line. This is a work of photographs taken in that underground river.

Along the way, there were underground drains, so dirty they could be called sewers, and there was no light, so we were just shooting in the darkness. The only light in the dark world was a single strobe on a tripod that this person had brought with him. It was really pitch black.

I photographed the shapes that appear when they shine for a moment in the dark, and the creatures that live there, and I thought, "There's a world in this darkness, too." It was a bit like a limestone cave, and I was surprised to see such a world just 5 meters underground in Shibuya. There are also some photos that look a bit like outer space. There's artificial oil flowing through it, and it looks pretty beautiful.

I looked it up, and apparently the Shibuya River has a lot of iron, which is why it has a unique reddish-brown color, which is why Shibuya got its name. There was also a photo of mold, which is apparently mold that grows on rat droppings, and apparently there is a similar type of mold in a limestone cave called Akiyoshido in Yamaguchi Prefecture. I thought that story was interesting too.

Hatakeyama Naoya photographs the moment a quarry explodes, factories, and the forms of cities, and I always look at his photographs and think to myself that I could never take such photos. He has a great perspective and a great way of presenting things.

Shibuya is currently being redeveloped, and commercial facilities will be built next year, and the river will be cleaned up accordingly. This work was created around 2000. It may become a piece of history.

Is this photo developed normally? Has it been edited or anything? I wonder how they take it.

There is no processing. I think it is film. The moment the shutter is released, the flash opens, so I think the photo is taken with just a moment of light.

There are photos in various colors, but I imagine that if you actually saw it with your own eyes, it would be incredibly dirty.

I agree, the smell is incredible. There seem to be bats, and other creatures there, like fish, are also in the picture. It's an incredible world.

I brought a manga called "Vacation at 25th Hour," a collection of short stories by Haruko Ichikawa, who is famous for her work "Land of the Lustrous." In addition to the story "Vacation at 25th Hour," there are two other stories included.

The cover has a picture of the ocean, and the person wearing the swimsuit is the main character, "Otome-chan." She is a researcher of deep-sea creatures. One day, Otome-chan eats a shellfish that she was researching at the deep-sea creature research lab. The shellfish then takes up residence in her body and becomes a part of her.

She asked her photographer brother to come to the beach at 25:00 and take pictures of her, hence the title. The shells coexist on her body and talk to each other, which is very cute.

In the scene where the younger brother and the shellfish meet for the first time, the shellfish jump out of the maiden's body, screaming "Kyaaa!" and saying something like "That's a bit sudden, princess," in surprise. Then, they explain to the younger brother why his sister has become like this.

He explains to his brother that he was hungry because he was working the night shift and had nothing to eat, so he made it into sashimi and ate it, to his dismay, but even there the shellfish inside his body are soothing him by telling him to "calm down" (laughs). However, at the end of the film, we find out his true purpose in eating the shellfish and putting them inside himself.

There are some lines I like here and there. In one scene, they return the shells to the sea, and Otome-chan apologizes, saying, "I'm sorry I scattered them all back and made you feel lonely," to which Kai responds, "It's not a bad thing to feel lonely. You can be grateful for other beings." There are lines like this that really make you stop and think.

Is she from Land of the Lustrous? I've only read part of Land of the Lustrous, but it's interesting. I wonder why this story is about shells.

Haruko Ichikawa is really interesting. She's my favorite at the moment. Ichikawa's manga, like "Land of the Lustrous," often feature unusual creatures and natural things, like stones and shells.

Can shellfish come out of the body and move around?

Yes. She goes inside her brother's hood. That part is just fantasy. The virgin's body is like a shell. She pops out of her body and says "Shall I put some cream on it?" and pours milk into the coffee.

Is that voice inaudible to normal people?

They can hear us. Even the people at work know about it. The shellfish are talking here and there, and when they're told to be quiet, they say "yes." Or they say "don't mind." The shellfish are so cute when they're chattering away (laughs).

I brought a novel called "Akame 48 Waterfalls Suicide Attempt."
I was wondering what to choose since it's about water and rain, but I decided on this book because it has a waterfall in the title.

The author is Nagayoshi Kurumatani. He won the Naoki Prize for this work and passed away two years ago at the age of 69. He is currently my favorite author, and I learned about him through this novel. I have read almost all of his previous works, and he writes about his own life and way of living as autobiographical novels.

"Akame Yojuhachitaki Shinju Misui" is a work of fiction, but the male protagonist is based on me. He started out working at an advertising agency, then quit and went to work in Tokyo, where he ended up penniless and returned to his hometown. He got a chef's license, worked as a chef, and moved from place to place.

For example, he worked all day long in a dirty apartment in a town full of yakuza-like people, skewering yakitori and tripe, and raw meat was brought to him and he had to skewer it. The book describes his interactions with the people around him at that time and his exchanges with the auntie who arranged the job for him. And the story is about an attempted double suicide with a woman he met in that town.

In fact, Kurumatani also wanted to be a novelist, but he couldn't write, so he moved around to Osaka, Kyoto, Amagasaki, etc. But a publisher told him, "Don't give up on writing." So he went back to Tokyo again when he was in his early 40s and somehow managed to write "Akame Yojuhachitaki Shinju Misui."

This work finally won the Naoki Prize. The suffering in his life, the path he had taken, and his thoughts at the time are all expressed in his writing, and it is a rather unique style. I rarely read novels multiple times, but I have read this one multiple times. The writing style is like a writhing soul, and I was really drawn to it. I really liked this author, so I was shocked when I heard he had passed away.

It looks very dense.

Yes, but this is still quite easy to read. In fact, Akame Shijuhachitaki is a waterfall in Mie Prefecture, and the story is about how they decide to run away to that waterfall, but the double suicide scene is irrelevant, and the way this person lived his life up until that point is amazing. It's a story that draws you in and makes you want to read it.
I have the impression that he is someone who would rather write what he thinks than write what will be popular.

It's amazing that you're thinking about starting to write again at nearly 40.

It was Jules Verne's "Two Years' Vacation." I think I first learned about Jules Verne through the anime "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water." That work was based on his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and that's how I got to know this author.

I hadn't read "Two Years' Vacation" yet, so I took this opportunity to buy it at Book Off (laughs). I've only read the first part so far. In a book called "Reading Ability" by Saito Takashi, which I recommended at a reading club before, there were about 100 recommended books listed, and this was on it. That's why I bought it.

The story begins with 15 children, between the ages of 10 and 15, setting sail from New Zealand on a yacht across the Pacific Ocean and washing up on a deserted island.

Even though they were children, when you have 15 people from different backgrounds and circumstances, they form factions or groups. There are a few French people, most of them are British, and there is one black apprentice sailor. There are groups led by French kids, groups led by British kids, and a kid who acts as a mediator between them. Roles are clearly divided.

These children are cast away on a deserted island and try to survive. They don't have enough knowledge about ships or the skills to survive, but they show the strength, courage, and determination to face problems in a situation where no one can help them. I felt that this was a story that reminded me of feelings that I had forgotten as I grew up.

It's a story that tickles the male heart. But with 15 characters, it seems like it would be hard to remember their names.

Yes, it was difficult (laughs). The names of the French leader and the British leader are subtly similar. The French leader is Briand, and the British leader is Doniphan. When I was reading, I would sometimes wonder which one it was. Or maybe it was this one from the context. I just can't remember them all.

What challenges will the children overcome?

At first, the yacht is tossed about in a storm, and it almost falls into the sea and the mast is blown off. Even when land is in sight, it's hard to land. It's an amazing journey to clear each one, and each one adds to the excitement of the story, so you can enjoy every scene.

I would like to introduce a book called " Glacier Diary: Glacier Bay " by Gentaro Ishizuka. Gentaro Ishizuka is a photographer who went to take pictures of glaciers in Alaska by kayak, and the diary and photos he took at that time were compiled into a book.

I go to photograph glaciers in a kayak, but going to a place like this is difficult in the first place. First, I have to make sure it's safe to go there. I go to a town close to the glacier, then get on a Cessna and spend days just checking if I can photograph the glacier. But when the weather is good and the Cessna can fly, I'm overcome with fear. The book frankly describes the conflict and fear of crossing the ocean alone for days.

On the glacier, you paddle alone in a single-seater kayak, loaded with food for about a week or 10 days. There are some memorable stories. In one, we pitch a tent on a rainy day and spend the night, and in the pitch black tent, we hear the sound of whales from afar. Maybe because it's raining, it's a very tasteful depiction. When we come across a wild bear, we try to scream a little and act bossy. In the end, we're safe. It's scary, but I thought it was interesting.

It seems that the glaciers have retreated by tens of kilometers over the past few decades due to the effects of global warming. The blue parts that appear when a glacier collapses are deeper and more beautiful the longer it took for the glacier to form.

You can't really get a sense of the scale of it unless you go there, but the book also photographs glacier blocks that are about 700 meters wide. The author steps into these glaciers and goes deep into them to take photos. It's a wonderful book that makes you feel like you've been there and that there is a world like this.

There seems to be some greenery where we set up our tents, but it's not all ice.

Yes. I visited Alaska in the summer, and the glacier was only a part of it. The inlet was complicated, and I think they pitched tents on islands and capes before they got there.

It's going to change your outlook on life. Meeting a bear is amazing.

It would be scary if it happened to me. But I take Japanese food with me and eat things like curry udon on cliffs or in caves. There are days when I really appreciate the quality of Japanese food (laughs).

What would you do if you were alone in a kayak and it flipped over?

It's scary, isn't it? Death is always close at hand. But while he writes about those fears, he also writes about the joy he felt when he was able to photograph the glacier, so it's easy to understand why he was able to overcome his fears.