Chapter 112
Saturday, October 26, 1991.
On this day, Ryosaku turned 21 years old.
Ten years had passed since he first met Mieko.
And two full years had passed since they last saw each other.
Ryosaku had ordered a residential map of K City as well as a general city map of Saitama Prefecture from the bookstore.
After planning his route in detail on the map, he decided that his first destination would be K City Hall.
In August 1989, just before he was reunited with Mieko, Ryosaku actually went to his hometown city hall in Y city and asked about Mieko at the counter.
No matter how hard he tried to find out where Mieko was, he was grasping at straws in drowning water and went to the city hall for help.
After receiving a photo of Mieko from Setsuko Yamada, he went to visit her for the second time, but was warned not to come back and was no longer given any information on how to meet Mieko. This was Ryosaku's "last struggle" at the time, as it were, as his "Setsu-san route" was cut off.
However, personal information - that is, information such as "current address", "phone number", "current age", "married/unmarried status", "divorce/remarriage information", and "death/alive information" - were not disclosed to Ryosaku, who was generally considered a stranger to Mieko.
Therefore, before Isao's notes were available, tracing Mieko's "traces" had become an extremely difficult and challenging task.
When Ryosaku had previously received a photograph from Mieko's grandmother, Setsu Yamada, he had obtained Isao's name and the information that he was an employee of "Hokkaido Beer" in K City.
However, there was no guarantee that Isao's family was living in "company housing", and they could have been living in a "regular house" that would be very difficult to track down.
He could have also searched the K City telephone directory thoroughly for the name "Isao Minegishi" like a private detective, but at the time he did not have the "tenacity" to visit the homes of so many people with the same name.
In addition, Ryosaku did not actually know what kanji...in other words, what "Chinese characters" the name "Isao" was written in, as he had only heard it verbally from Setsu.
Furthermore, the note Ryosaku received from Isao did not contain Isao's name or phone number, only his address.
As a result, Ryosaku believed Isao's words, "I'll contact you once things have settled," and did not send a letter to the address. Instead, he simply waited for a phone call or letter from Isao.
In addition, before he visited the town hall, when Ryosaku received the photograph and information, he was still in his third year of junior high school and did not have enough money for train fare or taxi fare on his own pocket money. On top of that, even though he had a car that could go directly to the faraway K City, he did not have a driver's license.
In 1985, he did not have the courage to tell his parents everything that had happened between him and Mieko, and to ask them to accompany him all the way to K City.
Having broken up with his two lovers, Lisa and Rika, and then finally losing his beloved angel, Mieko, the only light he had left was that precious note.
Thus, even though Ryosaku knew it was useless, he decided to go to the city hall of K City, Saitama Prefecture, to see, hear and see for himself whether Mieko was alive or dead, and to fully accept the situation.
