The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Three days later, Toru receives a call from Mamiya. Mamiya asks Toru for a suitable time to meet, and Toru invites Mamiya to come over later the same day. As Kumiko gets ready for work, Toru notices that she is wearing a new perfume. Toru asks about the perfume, but Kumiko brushes him off and says she has to leave, or she will be late for work.

After Kumiko leaves, Toru snoops around and finds a Christian Dior box, which he assumes is the box for the perfume. When he looks in the bathroom, he finds a new Christian Dior perfume bottle and wonders where it could have come from. Toru worries that Kumiko might be cheating on him and that the bottle is a gift from a sexual partner. He is annoyed and suspicious that Kumiko claimed to be late for work when he questioned her, yet she had enough time to open and apply the new perfume.

Before Toru’s mind can wander too far down the rabbit hole, his phone rings. He picks it up and on the other end is the mysterious woman, who tried to have phone sex with him. Toru tells the woman that he has no interest in her, but the woman ignores him. Then, she says that she knows it has been a long time since Toru has had sex with his wife. She promises to give Toru what he needs if he opens his eyes to what is going on around him.

The doorbell interrupts Toru’s phone conversation and he hangs up on the mysterious woman. At the door, he finds Mamiya and invites him inside. Mamiya compliments Toru’s home, which Toru admits he would never be able to afford if not for his uncle’s generosity. Toru asks Mamiya about Mr. Honda’s life, and Mamiya tells him part of what he knows. Apparently, Mr. Honda had two children—a daughter and a son—although he died alone and unmarried. Mr. Honda’s former wife died by suicide many years ago in the early 1950s.

Mamiya was surprised to hear from Mr. Honda because the two of them had not spoken since the war. A day before Mr. Honda died, Mamiya received a letter from him, asking that he distribute his belongings to important people in his life. Not wanting to let his old friend down, Mamiya did as Mr. Honda asked. In fact, Toru is his final stop.

Toru asks Mamiya about his time in the war with Mr. Honda. Mamiya explains that he met Mr. Honda before the Battle of Nomonhan and implies that the two of them went through a great deal of hardship together. Additionally, Mamiya says that he went to jail during the war and remained there for over a decade following its conclusion. Toru finds Mamiya and Mr. Honda’s history fascinating, and he asks Mamiya if he will stay longer and tell him more. Mamiya says that he and Mr. Honda swore to keep certain experiences between the two of them. However, now that Mr. Honda is dead, he says he sees no harm in sharing them.