Norwegian Wood

The next day, Watanabe runs into Midori. She asks why he hasn’t been answering her calls and invites him for drinks after his two o’clock class. Watanabe thinks it is early for drinking but agrees. They go to an underground bar, where Midori goes “when the world gets hard to live in” (168). As they work their way through five rounds of vodka tonics, Midori keeps up a constant stream of chatter. She tells Watanabe she wants to drop everything and move to Uruguay with him and reveals detailed sexual fantasies. Watanabe is surprised and embarrassed by her frankness. However, he agrees to meet her again on Sunday and tells her their time together has made him feel “more adapted to the world” (172). On the train back, she details another fantasy, one in which they are held captive by “perverted pirates.”

On Sunday, Midori comes to Watanabe’s dorm in an impossibly short skirt. He scolds her for wearing such revealing clothing to a men’s dorm, but Midori responds that it’s fine because she is wearing “really cute panties.” She asks if all the men in the dorms masturbate, telling Watanabe that she is curious but can’t ask her boyfriend questions like that.