![]() ![]() ![]() Our district was so small he could have covered every street in less than half an hour, but the old man stopped to rest at each park or local shrine he passed, and sat in his car for close to an hour near the main shopping area, so that by the time he had completed his route, the day was already over.Īlthough the old man was presumably alone all that time, strangely the rice balls, boiled eggs and mandarin oranges had somehow disappeared when he’d finished his round. The first afternoon was spent driving all around the neighbourhood. The old man would set off around noon, a satchel full of food on the seat beside him. ![]() Then he would fill a big Thermos with tea, and pack six boiled eggs and six mandarin oranges. He would wake up the morning of his departure and prepare a dozen rice balls. That was in mid-January, the period that used to be called the second New Year. Once a year, the old man would leave his house for three days straight. He’d leave around noon and be back by evening. ![]() In fact, he took his taxi out just two days a week. The tenement consisted of a terrace of four houses: the taxi driver lived in the one on the far left, while his taxi occupied the one on the far right, which had been stripped of its floor and walls. It was a total wreck, and he was the only person living there. The building looked ancient – the old man liked to boast it had been built before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The tenement was home to an old taxi driver. ![]()
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