There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job

My 10 highlights

• ‘I don’t see what the problem is,’ Mrs Togawa said. ‘It’s just a phone call. And to think I brought her up so well.’ With this, she broke down into sobs. ‘So cold of her,’ said Ms Kohashi, in a tone that suggested that she had no thoughts or feelings on the matter whatsoever. I nodded, making appropriate noises, feeling that my brain was slowly festering.

• ‘What kinds of places are there?’ I asked, and Mr Monaga replied that there was a restaurant close by called Hulala that served nyūmen – sōmen noodles in hot soup – and a place called Sampo-ya, specialising in curry bread. ‘Right,’ I said, thinking internally that both places were oddly specific in what they offered, and that I’d probably leave it for today.

• I’d found my previous job worthwhile, but had felt chronically betrayed in regards to both the nature and the quantity of the work involved, and it got to a point where I simply couldn’t stand it any more.

• Anime Guy was plump, wore glasses and looked to be about five years younger than me. I asked him which anime DVDs he’d asked the woman in the shop to order in. ‘Dark Crystal,’ he replied, ‘and another one which you won’t have heard of.’ I hadn’t even heard of the first one, so I figured there was no point pressing him for the name of the second.

• I wanted a job that was practically without substance, a job that sat on the borderline between being a job and not.

• The man took a step closer and handed me a flyer. His face wore the kind of expression that only celebrities could be forgiven for making, where his face was smiling but his eyes were not.

• Despite the fact that I’d practically fled, the company and I were unified in our desire not to acknowledge any rift between us, and so on the surface we interacted with each other with perfect equanimity.

• I had no reason to say no, so I said yes.

• I realised very clearly that I was currently looking at two people who unquestioningly swallowed the idea that talking to someone face to face automatically entailed a lack of psychological distance between you. The very notion made me tremble in agitation. What on earth was that about? Did everyone from this generation feel like that? Surely that couldn’t be?

• Feeling something in my chest that closely resembled heart palpitations, I pulled from my bag the clipboard that I wore around my neck on my neighbourhood outings and flipped through it aimlessly.