Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly. Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!" "I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again.
Banana YoshimotoHere in this ocean, in the midst of all this water, with the red flags on those distant buoys flapping in the sea breeze, I find myself unable to treat our house in Tokyo as anything but a dream.
Banana YoshimotoThis world of ours is piled high with farewells and goodbyes of so many different kinds, like the evening sky renewing itself again and again from one instant to the next-and I didnโt want to forget a single one.
Banana YoshimotoOn nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldnโt. Without even noticing what youโre doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to youโyou talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead.
Banana YoshimotoTruly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends.
Banana YoshimotoThe way we think may be completely different, but you and I are an ancient, archetypal couple, the original man and woman. We are the model for Adam and Eve. For all couples in love, there comes a moment when a man gazes at a woman with the very same kind of realization. It is an infinite helix, the dance of two souls resonating, like the twist of DNA, like the vast universe.
Banana YoshimotoTime expands and contracts. When it expands, itโs like pitch: it folds people in its arms and holds them forever in its embrace. It doesnโt let us go so easily. Sometimes you go back again to the place youโve just come from, stop and close your eyes, and realize that not a second has passed, and time just leaves you there, stranded, in the darkness
Banana Yoshimoto