I think one of the things about the book is that it s an educative novel, it s like a Wilhelm Meister in that it talks about the education of the hero. Little by little, this person who is telling the story does get educated, he s learning that finally, he doesn t have to see things in terms of polarity. He can embrace the two extremes of them and us and bring it all together into the human race. This is what at the end of the book he manages to do. Which is very difficult to do.
Japan is a very strange country in many ways.
All countries are strange countries. But in Japan one of the things is that you are made to feel that it s strange, because the Japanese regard you like a strange person very often, so therefore you start feeling them to be strange in return. To be an expatriate is always a very interesting and very adventuresome and often fascinating way to spend your life. To do so in Japan is particularly so because of the various differences which either truly exist or have been invented for one reason or another. The book is in a way about the author finding his own inland sea, getting to know himself, which he makes certain you understand because he returns to his subject again and again.