A Tale For The Time Being

At first, Nao is not sure whether she should tell Jiko about seeing Haruki’s ghost. The next morning, Nao sneaks out and calls to her uncle’s ghost. Instead of Haruki, she sees what she thinks is a large monster. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it is “just a long line of very old people” (237) from the surrounding area coming to attend the ceremony. After the ceremonies, Nao sneaks back into Jiko’s study. Suddenly, she hears a voice behind her say: “The first thing they taught us was how to kill ourselves” (239). She realizes that Haruki’s ghost has returned. He tells Nao about how the military officers showed soldiers how to shoot themselves with their guns and tells her to look in the box on the altar near the photographs of Jiko’s children. Nao has been told that the box contains Haruki’s remains, but since Haruki died crashing his plane into his battleship, she can’t imagine that any part of him could have been salvaged. The ghost once again disappears.

After the four days of Obon, it is almost the end of Nao’s vacation. Jiko and Muji have a party for Nao where they sing karaoke and eat pizza.