THE FOLLOWING YEAR they went to Japan.

In the night they landed at Kansai Airport, then took a train to Shin-Osaka. In the morning, after an early breakfast, they took the fast train to Okayama and then changed for an omnibus to Matsuyama. In Matsuyama, in front of the station, they took a taxi to the hotel where they had booked a western-style room. They thought of walking, but it was raining lightly and he felt that it was not worth their while hauling their big suitcase in the rain, even though the hotel didn’t seem far on the map. The hotel was not far from the station but further than they expected, and the cab fare came to almost a thousand yen. During the ride he looked at the map of the city and recognised which avenue they were turning into and the park where the Ehime Museum of Art was hidden. He pointed out to his wife the upper roof of the castle, Matsuyama-Jo, barely visible in the trees and mist on top of the hill, behind the park. They turned off into another avenue –where the hotel was, he told his wife – and left the park and castle behind them.