On the Trail of Trouble

気づけば懐かしい川原に来てみたり

「忘れ咲き」（Garnet Crow）

 

By the time I noticed it, I found myself again at that nostalgic riverside

"Wasurezaki" (Garnet Crow)

I still remember the first time I went to Nakasu... which in hindsight was weird. I had just arrived in Fukuoka, and a classmate I had only met one time before invited me that evening to go out for some noodles with some Japanese man he had met somewhere, so he drove us to Nakasu. Now I think about it, and realize I never was told how that classmate got to know random Japanese man and why we ever stepped in his car. 

Chaya Jirou is a well-known travel writer with several succesful books on his resume, but he also has a reputation as an amateur detective who tends to stick his nose into cases at his travel destinations. Sometimes however, cases find him. One morning, one of his assistants arrives late at the office, bringing with her the young woman Fukami, who is dealing with a rather odd problem at the moment. The woman in her mid-twenties tells Chaya how about one year ago, she started a relation with an elderly man. Itoshima Suehiko had moved to Tokyo from the west, but never talked much about his past to Fukami, but he was always incredibly kind and thoughtful. Two weeks ago however, he had to go to the hospital due to a stroke. She had been caring for him these last few days, keeping an eye on his apartment and bringing fresh clothes to the hospital, but five days ago, he disappeared from the hospital. It doesn't appear like Itoshima just disappeared because he couldn't pay the bill, so what had prompted him to disappear, or was there some third party responsible for his disappearance? Chaya suspects that it's something from Itoshima's past that caused his disappearance, be it voluntary or forced upon him, and he learns that Itoshima moved several times over the course of just a few years, starting in Fukuoka and slowly moving towards Tokyo. It appears Itoshima originally lived in Fukuoka, so Chaya decides to travel there, which is convenient as he also needs to write a new column on famous rivers, and the Naka River and the Nakasu entertainment district on the bank between Naka and Hakata River are perfect material for his series. When he arrives in Fukuoka, Chaya discovers that Itoshima used to be a police officer and it just so happens a police officer was killed in Nakasu... Can Chaya find Itoshima and learn what caused his disappearance in Azusa Rintarou's Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken ("The Hakata - Naka River Murder Case" 2019)?

I always try to read at least one mystery book set in the city of Fukuoka (Hakata) every year, but this year, I even managed to do two! A few months ago, I reviewed Yoshino Izumi's Tenohira Astral, but I also happened to stumble upon Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken around the same time. I had never read anything by Azusa before, and never even heard of the Chaya Jirou series, though it's fairly lengthy and even had a television drama adaptation. The character himself sounds familiar though, as he follows the pattern we know from Uchida Yasuo's Asami Mitsuhiko series: both series about travel writers who solve crimes at various tourist destinations as amateur detectives. In fact, I already read an Asami Mitsuhiko novel once set in Fukuoka. I'll be honest and admit my expectations were not very high when I first started this novel: I occasionally read these type of travel mysteries by other prolific travel mystery writers like Nishimura Kyoutarou, Uchida Yasuo and Yamamura Misa, and they are often more about enjoying the trip and seeing all kinds of tourist destinations, and the core mystery plots often tend to be rather simple, and seldom manage to really make a lasting impression. Great if you just want to read about murders set all kinds of famous places, but after a while the plots kinda tend to blend in your mind.

Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken at least didn't betray my expectations. It's basically exactly what I thought it would be. Once Chaya makes his way to Fukuoka, he starts asking questions about Itoshima's past life in Fukuoka. Some people clam up, some people tell him what they know and point to other people who might know more, Chaya digs even deeper in Itoshima's life, etc. The plot is completely focused on the investigation of Chaya, which is occasionally hindered by the local police who don't want a Tokyo writer poking around in the running investigation of the murdered police officer and in the past of former police officer Itoshima. There's no real puzzle element, you're honestly just in for the journey, which barely has any surprising twists waiting. You can practially guess for each story element what its significance is the moment it is mentioned.

And the plot relies on coincidence too. Most of Chaya's investigation is focused on past events (the past of Itoshima and why he moved out to Tokyo), which can be okay segments if you like to see how points and lines slowly come together, but the real-time occurences (like the murder on the police officer in Fukuoka) do need a bit of help of Lady Luck: some events only happen to be occuring almost simultaneously because of coincidence, not because there's an actual cause-and-effect relation, and Chaya never would even have arrived at the trail of most of the plot if coincidence hadn't caused these events to occur so close to each other. I mean, just a difference of a week or two would have made Chaya's investigation less focused already, so it does make the whole novel feel rather contrived.

But then again, I only read the book because I wanted to read a mystery novel set in Fukuoka, and in that regard, it didn't disappoint. The story is mostly set around Nakasu, the iconic entertainment district of Fukuoka, but Chaya's investigation also brings him closer to the residential areas near Hakata Station. There's of course some discourse on Fukuoka and Nakasu too like you usually see in travel mysteries, so this book does what you'd expect it to do. Nakasu is also a major setting in Nishimura Ken's Hakata Detective File series by the way, and while it's not solely focused on puzzle plot stories, I'd say that series is definitely more rewarding if you're looking for Nakasu-based mystery stories.

So yeah, not a very enthusiastic review about Hakata Nakagawa Satsujin Jiken, but I don't feel too disappointed because the book basically met my expectations: it's a slow detective story that focuses on the investigation of Chaya in a person's past and on the setting of Fukuoka, but as a mystery story it doesn't do one thing that will make it stand out in a crowd. And the crowd is really, really large. So only recommended if you, like me, want to read mystery stories set in Fukuoka.The book's merits are definitely just that it does exactly what you may expect from a travel mystery novel, never going below the line of expectations, but never rising above it either.

Original Japanese title(s): 梓林太郎『博多 那珂川殺人事件』

Strange Memories

 「春はあけぼの」

『枕草子』

 

"In summers, nights are best.

"The Pillow Book"

I always try to read at least one mystery book set in the city of Fukuoka (Hakata) every year. Last year's attempt wasn't quite what I had expected from it, but this year's entry is very, very recognizable as being set in Fukuoka.

Almost five years ago, I reviewed the short story collection Houkago Spring Train ("After-School Spring Train"), the debut work of Yoshino Izumi. The book caught my attention because it was set in the city of Fukuoka, and almost miraculously, it was set exactly in the area where I lived and studied while I was living there, making it a must-read as I try to read at least one mystery novel set in Fukuoka every year. Yoshino did not publish any more books after this debut work, so imagine my surprise when I noticed a new book by Yoshino in the fall of 2020 on the release lists, and it was a sequel to her first book too. Tenohira Astral (2020) once again focuses on the minor mysteries which puzzle the high school student Izumi, as she struggles with the problems every teenager faces. As she's in her second year in high school, it's about time to think about what she'll do after she's graduated. Many of her friends will go to college and her bestie Asana seems to have made up her mind she wants to become a teacher, like her older boyfriend Uehara, but Izumi still doesn't know what major she wants to do, and even if she really wants to go to college. It's during these busy days that she stumbles upon little mysteries of everyday life, like a classmate who for some reason is carrying the student ID of someone in the third year or a trail of blood leading out of a classroom, but no student in the class admits to having injured themselves. While insignificant problems, they do bug Izumi, but luckily Uehara's friend Tobiki, a student of Q University, seems to have an answer for everything.

Coming up with mysteries that seem mundane enough that anyone could encounter them in normal, everyday life, but yet interesting enough to actually drive a tale of fiction is quite difficult and often, such mysteries feel a bit underwhelming because the problem is just too mundane, or the solution is just not convincing enough. Tenohira Astral is a short story collection that does not really manage to avoid these familiar traps, and perhaps it's not really trying to anyway, because perhaps more than the first book, Tenohira Astral is perhaps best read as a YA novel, with a mystery plot running beneath the surface. Because the focus lies far more on the development of Izumi as a character now and about what she wants to do after high school. Each story is more about her encounters with her friends and how they talk about what they really want to do, and each mystery she encounters ultimately also ties in to her struggle about her post-school life, showing her that everyone makes their own choice.

The first story, Kanojotachi no Yukue ("The Way They Go") is perhaps the best story in the volume. Izumi picks up a student ID her classmate Yune drops, but notices it belongs to a male student in the year above them. Later that Izumi and Asana spot Yune seemingly all dressed up for a date in the city and they decide to tail her. They make sure Yune doesn't notice them in the subway, and eventually see her arriving in the city, but when Yune's boyfriend arrives, they're surprised to see it's not the person on the student ID Izumi picked up. They realize that if Yune was dating the boy from the ID, they'd leave their school together, but why was Yune carrying the ID of someone else? The answer to that question is very simple, but oh-so-real and convincing, and it works in the context of a naturalistic mystery of everyday life. It also ties up great to the overall theme of Izumi wondering about her future life.

Kanitsukai no Revenge Match ("Revenge Match of the Crab Master") on the other hand focus too much on this overall theme, and barely manages to present a mystery plot. The story has Izumi and some classmates visiting the open campus of Q University and her classmate Sudou is even competing in the robot competition on the campus, hoping to do better than his efforts last year. Tobiki also swings by, but he leaves an enigmatic message when he spots Sudou's robot crab and goes back to his work. The story revolves more around a really bad word pun than a real mystery, and it's barely better than the third story, Natsuyasumi Akemae ("Before the End of The Summer Holday"), where Izumi swings by school during the holiday but notices a classmate doing a test, even though it's long after the examination period. Izumi wonders about what exam it could be, but here the answer is too straighforward and not remotely attractive as a puzzle to the reader. It's strongly connected with the overall theme of Izumi deciding on what to do after school, but unlike the first story in the book, it's just not interesting at all as a mystery.

Tenohira Astral starts off with an interesting premise: Izumi and the other students who are on afterschool cleaning duty this week notice a trail of blood in the corridor. They follow it, but strangely enough it doesn't go the school nurse, but just the bathroom. They trace it back, but none of the students in the nearby classrooms seems to admit to having bled, though Izumi notices multiple people in her class with bandaids. Ultimately, the story is more about guessing the reason why someone would get hurt, and while it's kinda okay in the YA-context of this book, it's not really a satisfying mystery that manages to make best of the premise. 

The final story is a bit more interesting. Kiiroi Eki he ("To the Yellow Station") starts off on the Kaizuka Line. Before she gets on the train, she sees a mother talking with her young son who's about to take the train all by himself. The mother reminds her son to get off at "the yellow station" because his grandparents will be there waiting for him. The boy is probably too young to remember the station name, which is why his mother said it's the yellow station, but Izumi does wonder what the yellow station means, because the stations on the Kaizuka line don't have assigned colors and it's not like any of the stations on the line is particularly yellow in design. The boy however drifts off in the train, and when they arrive at the terminal Kaizuka, the boy realizes he's at the wrong station. Izumi wants to bring him to the stationmaster, but the boy refuses as he's a big boy and this is his first time taking the train alone. Based on the price of the ticket of the boy, Izumi deduces that "the yellow station" is one of three stations, but which of them is the yellow one? An interesting attempt is made to tie this mystery to a larger storyline developing throughout the five stories in the book, though it's hard to really call this a fair mystery. It's dependent on whether the reader is aware, or at least capable of thinking of a certain fact: if you happen to know about it, this mystery is a lot easier to solve, but the set-up to the reveal in this book itself is probably not strong enough even if it does tie to the overall storyline. It's easily the best mystery story after the opening story, but that's not saying much.

Overall, I think it's fairly clear I didn't like Tenohira Astral that much as a mystery novel on its own, though I do think it's entertaining enough as a YA-novel, especially as I absolutely love the familar setting of Fukuoka in this book: personally any book that's set between Kashiihama and Hakozaki, Fukuoka will win bonus with me. The way in which the mysteries tie to Izumi's coming-of-age story isn't always perfect, but when it does work, it's surprisingly convincing and satisfying, giving a lot of synergy to the themes. And like the first novel, the chatter between the high school girls is fun to follow. I'd describe this as 65% YA novel, 35% mystery, and personally, I'd have preferred the reverse, but I really don't mind reading these kind of books once in a while.

Original Japanese title(s): 吉野泉『手のひらアストラル』:「彼女たちの行方」/「蟹使いのリベンジマッチ」/「夏休み明け前」/「手のひらアストラル」/「黄色い駅へ」

A Fine and Private Place

There are probably few readers aware of this, but this blog was initially not a blog on mystery fiction. I originally opened the blog to write about my life studying in Japan, as I was going to first study for three months in Tokyo, and then for another year in Fukuoka. It was only after my return that I decided to write about (Japanese) mystery fiction here, and.... oh-my-god I hadn't even noticed I've working on this blog for eight years already.

Anyway, so much of the earlier days of this blog were about my life in the city of Fukuoka, a place that is still dear to me. And even after I left Fukuoka, even after I started to write about mystery fiction exclusively here, Fukuoka remained a presence on the blog. For the attentive reader will have noticed that I sometimes read books that are explicitly set in Fukuoka. It shouldn't surprise you when I say that many of the mystery stories I read are either set in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, or the Kansai district, which features famous cities like Osaka and Kyoto. These are of course the most densely populated areas in Japan, and serve as economical and socio-cultural centres of Japan. People know about these places, even if they have never been to them. Media has a tendency to focus on these centres of socio-cultural and economical influences, and for many (both authors and readers), the "default" setting will be Tokyo.

Both of the geographical areas mentioned above lie on the main island of Honshu, whereas Fukuoka lies on the southern island of Kyushu, which is quite far from Tokyo (to illustrate: new book releases are usually two, three days late in Fukuoka compared to Tokyo). Fukuoka is the largest metropolis on the island about the size of the Netherlands, but is not as popular as a fictional setting in mystery fiction in general, even though it is an interesting background setting, as the commercial and cultural capital of Kyushu and as a popular tourist destination both domestic and international. The current Fukuoka City (capital of Fukuoka Prefecture) came into existence after a merger between the towns of Hakata (a merchant town) and Fukuoka (a samurai town) in 1889. While Fukuoka City is the current name, the name Hakata is still alive and strongly associated with the area's culture. Fukuoka's main train station is called Hakata Station for example, and one usually refers to Hakata dialect rather than to Fukuoka dialect. The local variant of ramen noodles is also considered an imporant element of Hakata culture: the noodles of tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen (sometimes referred to as Hakata tonkotsu ramen) are distinctly thinner than the common Tokyo variant, and usually cooked al-dente, while served in a white broth (made of pork bones simmered for many, many, many hours).

So I thought it might be interesting to plot out the couple of Fukuoka-set mystery stories I've read on a map, to give the readers a glimpse in a Fukuoka that exists on the page! I decided to only pick out the stories set within Fukuoka City (not the prefecture) and to make it clear: I do not claim that this is a complete list. There are obviously many more mystery novels set in Fukuoka in existence, but I think this will serve as a nice introduction. The map below shows where each story/book is mainly set.

1) Kashii -  Ten to Sen ("Points and Lines", 1958).

Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen opens with an investigation into two dead bodies lying on the beach of Kashiihama. While at first it looks like double suicide, a stubborn old police detective suspects there might be much more behind this case, as statements made by witnesses who saw the couple walk from one of the two nearby Kashii Stations to the beach don't add up. There is a need to solve the case quickly though, as one of the victims was also a suspect, and key witness in a grand corruption case unfolding in Tokyo at the same time. The case soon grows into an investigation covering the whole country of Japan, from the southern city of Fukuoka all the way to the northern capital of Hokkaido.

Let's start with the place I know best! For I actually lived in Kashiihama during my year in Fukuoka, the actual beach being only a five minute walk away from my room. It's clear Matsumoto knew the suburbean areas of Kashiihama and Kashii quite well, because he makes brilliant use of the fact that there are two Kashii Stations (one operated by JR, one by Nishitetsu) in close vicinity (basically on the same street). The route from the stations to the beach is described as "a lonely one", which might've been true in 1958, but nowadays it'll bring you along a busy shopping arcade and an even busier automobile road that's lively from the earliest until the latest hour of the day.

2) Hakozaki - Houkago Spring Train ("After School Spring Train", 2016)

Yoshino Izumi's debut work introduces us to Izumi, your ordinary high school student living an ordinary life. Talking with friends about potential boyfriends, trying to win that one monthly contest at school for a free food coupon, and sometimes coming across strange happenings.  For example: why didn't that lady stand up even though she was sitting on Izumi's skirt in the train? And why would a kid lie about what kind of plant he was growing? These little mysteries are of course nothing but small nuisances at best, but these questions bug Izumi immensely, but her friend Tobiki, a student at Q University, luckily always has a an answer for her.

Another book set in a very familar place. Izumi's school is located in the above-mentioned Kashii, but she lives in the Hakozaki neigbourhood, near the Hakozaki Campus of Q University. Q University is of course based on Kyushu University, and it just happens that I was studying there, at the Hakozaki Campus in my year in Fukuoka, so I know the area well. The description of Hakozaki Campus in this book is hilarious, as it's described a town of ruins. Which it basically is! Hakozaki Campus used to be the main campus of the Kyushu Imperial University (it changed to Kyushu University after World War II), and many of the buildings are really old. But because the main campus of the university has now moved elsewhere in the city, many building are actually left unused and without any maintenance, as they are scheduled for demolition.

3) Maidashi - Dogura Magura (1935)

Yumeno Kyuusaku's infamous anti-mystery Dogura Magura starts in the psychological ward of Kyushu Imperial University, where a young man is being held captive. Why is he there? What did he do? Who is that professor who keeps visiting him, telling him to remember something, some deed he commited in the past? Questions is all our protagonists has, but answers are rarely given to them, and the answers he is given, are definitely not what he had expected. As the tale develops, both the protagonist and the reader start to suspect that absolutely nothing is what it seems in this world as they get entangled in a maze of deception, fantasy and madness.

The medical facilities of the Kyushu Imperial University and its associated hospital are situated in Maidashi, just next to the Hakozaki Campus. The medical faculty of Kyushu Imperial University became infamous itself when it was discovered that horrible vivisections had been conducted on prisoners-of-war during World War II. Yumeno Kyuusaku's Dogura Magura is set many years before the war, but he was way ahead of his time by portraying the medical faculty as a place where strange medical experiments are being held. There's not much to do in Maidashi itself nowadays though: it's still the home of many of Kyushu University's medical facilities, as well as other educational institutions.

4) Nakasu - Hakata Tantei Jiken File series ("Hakata Detective Case File series", 2009-2015)

Yuge Takumi is a private detective located in Nakasu, the entertainment district of Fukuoka, flanked by the Naka and Hakata Rivers. Yuge's cases brings him in contact with all sides of Fukuoka society, including the underworld, but he knows how to survive everywhere. His father used to be a ramen noodle stand owner, and it's Yuge's knowledge of ramen noodles and its culture that often enable him to solve the case, as for some reason his investigations often have parallels with ramen noodles. The theme of ramen noodles is also connected to his father, as Yuge's dad disappeared one day many years ago, and finding him is the reason why Yuge started his detective business in the first place.

Nakasu is without a doubt the nightlife entertainment district of Fukuoka, with all the clubs and the red light district located there. At night, the river banks are also crowded with yatai stands: mobile food carts that only come out at night. Yatai are an important element of Fukuoka food culture, and many tourist will have an evening meal (or snack) there near the river. Considering Yuge's connection to ramen, it's not strange his offices are located in Nakasu, as most of these food stands serve ramen noodles

5) Tenjin - Tekki & Kyuuta series (2001-2006)

Tekki and Kyuuta used to be a pair of troublemakers at school, but now that they're adults.... they're still the same. Tekki runs a ramen yatai stand in Nagahama nowadays, near the main shopping area Tenjin, while Kyuuta is making a living by working as an investigating operative for a dating agency, but even now, the two have a tendency to get in a lot of trouble together. Well, Kyuuta actually gets in a lot of trouble on his own, just like in the good old days. Tekki is still very good at thinking things through and solving the most baffling mysteries though, and it's their teamwork that makes them a feared duo in the streets of Fukuoka.

Most visitors to Fukuoka will know Tenjin the best, as it is the main shopping area, featuring all the big department stores, shopping malls and restaurants. It's not far away from Hakata Station (one could walk the distance), so I think that most (short-term) visitors will in fact only see the area near the station and Tenjin. Nagahama is to the north-west of the main Tenjin area, and is the home to Nagahama ramen, a variant of tonkotsu ramen (and yes, there are yatai stands there).

And that's it! Huh, I had never noticed that I hadn't read any books set west of Tenjin. To be honest, I'm not too familiar with that area myself, as my own space of activity spanned from Kashiihama (1 on the map above) where I lived, until Tenjin (5 on the map) where the main shopping area was, and it happens that this is the exact area covered by the books I read. Well, I know some of the short stories in the books I mentioned do also take place west of Tenjin, but none of them are focused or based there.

And thus concludes my introduction to Fukuoka City and its appearances in mystery fiction. And as for my tourist recommendations: go eat tonkotsu ramen noodles there. There's a reason why it was mentioned so often in this article. And don't go in the summer, because it gets crazy hot there.

Rhythm and Police

「レールの上を走れる電車は走らない電車よりもいい電車」

『クビキリサイクル』

"A train running on rails is better than a train not running at all"

"Kubikiri Cycle"

It's been like two or three months since I last wrote a review for the blog, but because of the posting schedule, you (dear reader) shouldn't have noticed that. Heck, it will take almost half a year before this post is actually published!

Ayukawa Tetsuya's Tsumiki no Tou ("A Tower of Blocks", 1966) starts with the death of a salesman in music records in a cafe. Given that a mysterious woman had lured the man to the cafe and had left him with a poisonous extra in his drink, it's not strange the police is very eager to hear what she has to say about the whole deal. The police initially have trouble locating the woman though, and when they do figure out who she is, they find out that this Tsuruko, who is a mistress of several men, has gone to Fukuoka for a few days of leisure. The police suspect Tsuruko might've run away, but then even more shocking news follows: her dead body was found next to the rails near Hiroshima, apparently thrown out of the train from her way back from Fukuoka to Shin-Osaka station (for a further connection back to Tokyo). Was she just robbed and murdered on the train? Or is her death somehow connected to the death of the salesman?

Ayukawa Tetsuya was a well-beloved mystery writer who specialized in 1) whodunnit stories and 2) alibi deconstructing stories. And like the other Ayukawa novels I've reviewed in the past, Tsumiki no Tou is an alibi deconstructing story starring Inspector Onitsura... set between Tokyo and Fukuoka. The latter is not a coincidence, nor representative of Ayukawa's work though, mind you. At least, I don't think so. Fukuoka (and the island of Kyuushuu) is often used as a setting in Ayukawa's work, probably because he spent some time there during World War II. But the more important reason is that I actually set out to find mystery novels set in Fukuoka, so my selection of Ayukawa stories is very skewed towards Fukuoka.

That said though, Tsumiki no Tou does resemble the other novels I reviewed a lot. They were all alibi deconstruction stories set between Tokyo and Fukuoka, and the tricks were all based on the actual time schedules for the trains at the time. The books all feature those time schedules, so readers could really figure out the alibi trick themselves, or even use them! Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen famously also featured a trick that could be done in real-life, though I think that was only possible for a short while (because of changing schedules). I think I already posed the question in a previous Ayukawa review, but I wonder how common it is to do alibi stories based on real time schedules?

Tsumiki no Tou is a pretty short novel, but the story has excellent pacing and the solution behind the main problem (how could the main suspect have commited the murder despite having a perfect alibi) is really neat. Ayukawa knew how to do the alibi deconstruction story, and Tsumiki no Tou is an excellent example. After presenting you with a seemingly good alibi, the story keeps feeding you possibilities that undermine that alibi, only to show that alibi is really rock solid. After a while you too start to think the deal is impossible, and it's then that Ayukawa shows the ingenious trick that lies behind the murder. It's this idea of offense and defence that marks a good alibi deconstruction story in my opinion, and Ayukawa obviously knows that. It also helps that the trick in Tsumiki no Tou is not overly complex, like in Kuroi Trunk. Tsumiki no Tou is definitely solvable, and quite satisfying.

I was less impressed by the way the story developed at times though. Too much of the development depended on coincidences of the witnesses. By which I mean, once every while the police would hit a stop, and then a witness would remember something crucial, or talk about something that would turn out to be important. This device can be used once or twice in a novel, but after four or five times, it feels rather forced. It's like a reverse Columbo-situation: just about the time the police is giving up, the witness stops them from leaving with a "One more thing...". It's even more jarring, because the detectives in Ayukawa's novels are actually all quite competent.

I was also charmed by the original motive. Obviously, I'm not going to write in detail about that here, but I don't think I've seen this kind of motive often, and it was also hinted at really well throughout the novel. Motive is not especially important in an alibi deconstruction story, but here it was a very nice bonus.

There's really nothing much I can say about Tsumiki no Tou. If you're looking for a good, solid alibi deconstruction story (that isn't too long), you have your winner here. I find it even more accessible than the previously reviewed Kuroi Trunk and Kuroi Hakuchou, so I'd even recommend this book over those if you haven't read any Ayukawa yet.

Original Japanese title(s): 鮎川哲也　『積木の塔』

Spring of Memories

「春はあけぼの」 

『枕草子』

"In spring, the dawn is best."

The Pillow Book

As someone who suffers from hay fever, and can't stand heat, I have to say I always hate the first half of the year...

Yoshino Izumi recently debuted as a writer with Houkago Spring Train ("After-School Spring Train"), released in February this year. Set in the city of Fukuoka, the short story collection is about the adventures (?) of the high school student Izumi. She is a typical student: loves sweets, is a member of the school waterpolo club and every time the school newspaper is published, she tries to win the student poll to get a coupon for a free Special Yakisoba-pan. Once in a while, she comes across strange happenings. Nothing of a criminal kind, mind you. Just little mysteries of everyday life, like that lady who sat upon part of Izumi's skirt in the train, but who refused to stand up despite Izumi staring her in the eyes. Innocent, but not less dumbfounding mysteries. One day, Izumi is introduced to her best friend Asana's boyfriend Uehara, who has recently graduated university and is now an elementary school teacher, and Uehara's friend, the university sudent Tobiki. Tobiki has a knack for solving Izumi's questions and as the year passes on, Izumi learns to trust Tobiki with her questions about all kinds of mysteries that happen in the city of Fukuoka.

Okay, I admit, I only bought this short story collection because it said it was set in Fukuoka. Well, that and it was published by Tokyo Sogensha, which is responsible for quite a lot of very good mystery novels. Still, the main reason was Fukuoka. Having lived there for a year, I sometimes get overwhelmed by nostalgic feelings, which I then ease with mystery novels set in the city. Because strangely enough, there are quite some good novels set there. Anyway, Houkago Spring Train is Yoshino Izumi's debut novel, so it was a bit of a gamble, so how did that work out?

Well, to be honest, as a everyday life mystery short story collection, it's still a bit rough. The everyday life mystery's biggest hurdle is of course that the mystery lacks impact from the start. It's no murder, not some criminal event. It's by definition a mystery you and I could come across in our normal lives. So for it to have impact, an everyday life mystery needs to be 1) alluring, by presenting a believable, but utterly baffling mystery that you imagine you yourself could come across and 2) by giving a satisfying solution to the problem, again one that seems fitting to everyday life. The problem with Houkago Spring Train is that the mysteries presented in the four short stories aren't just not consistently alluring.

The book for example starts with the title story Houkago Spring Train ("After-School Spring Train"), where Izumi and Asana almost miss their connection, when a lady sitting on Izumi's skirt in the train refuses to get up, despite Izumi's calling out to her and staring the woman in the face. The mystery deepends when, after the girls manage to get out, the lady comes after them to apologize for what happened. In the core, this is a good everyday life mystery: it's a situation that is imaginable and yet strange enough to nag at you. But the solution is not satisfying at all, because it comes out of nowhere. The detective doesn't reason his way to the truth: he pulls out a random piece of trivia out of nowhere and it is expected from the reader to just believe this. The lack of convincing power is what breaks up the story and the magic of the otherwise good setting of the puzzle.

Gakusai Broadway ("School Festival Broadway") is better, though it actually features something that could almost be considered a crime. Izumi's class is performing two plays in English  as part of the school festival. Having finished Team A's performance of Sleeping Beauty, Izumi and Asana wander to the make-shift Dressing/Prop Room, where they discover that Cinderella's dress for Team B's play is gone. More students arrive and they all look for the dress, but nobody is able to produce results. In the end, they gave Cinderella Sleeping Beauty's dress, but the question of where Cinderella's dress went still roams in Izumi and Asana's heads. This story is a lot better than the title story, with better (but still vague) hinting, and a much more interesting build-up of the story. It's a slow buid-up though, making it feel like the pages/plot ratio is not optimal.

The third story, Oru Kami Tsunoru Kami ("Folding Papers, Raising Papers") is a bit chaotic. At first, it looks like it'll be a story about whether the process of assigning every student new seats in the class was done fairly or not, as the lots were all in different colors (and seats in the back of the classroom are a luxury). But then it turns into the strangely compelling story of raising funds for a good cause. Izumi is 'lent out' to the school volunteer club by her own club in exchange for services rendered by the voluteer club: she, as well as other students from other classes, are to help with collecting money to help a girl get an operation abroad. The whole weekend, the students are split up in teams in the Tenjin (downtown) area and the Hakata Station area, trying to collect money. Izumi's on the Tenjin team, while the Volunteer Club president is on the Hakata Station team, but on the last day, Izumi discovers that the president wasn't at Hakata Station at all this weekend, and the members of the Hakata Station team actually thought the president was at Tenjin the last few days. The answer to why the president lied is actually quite good: it fits the school theme perfectly (like the previous story actually). It is however once again not really well hinted at. Overall though, I think this was the best story of the collection, as it has a mystery that is puzzling, but not really serious (where was the president during the weekend while everybody else was collecting money), while it also has a satisfying, and believable answer. The previous story is good too, but there the puzzle (the missing dress) seems a bit more 'serious' than the mystery here.

The final story, Cantaloupe, has Tobiki helping out his friend Uehara. One of the pupils at his elementary school is for some reason lying about the plant he was raising for a school project. Uehara made notes about which pupil planted what, but this boy keeps saying he had another plant, and that it died yesterday. Uehara doesn't mind giving the boy a new plant, but he does want to know why the boy is lying. The solution to the problem is really disappointing, as it comes out of nowhere and it is kinda hard to believe as a reason for what happened. The story luckily adds one last surprise that has been building over the course of the book, which was actually quite brilliant. The best part of the book perhaps. But strangely enough, it was just 'the extra', not a main puzzle. I actually think Yoshino should've written a story with this last part as the main gimmick, as that would've resulted in a very surprising, yet satisfying everyday life mystery. Now I think: "You should've given me that sooner!".

I did enjoy the writing of this novel a lot. Both the narration and the dialogues of Izumi, Asana and the other high school students are really fun to read, the characters do come alive on the pages. Wordplay, random chatter about familar school topics, as a youth novel, Houkago Spring Train is quite enjoyable. And for me, it gets a lot of bonus points for being set in Fukuoka. And not just Fukuoka: the whole book is mostly set around my activity zone when I lived there: Tobiki is a student of Q-University (= Kyushu University), working at Hakozaki Campus, which is where I was situated too. Izumi's lives just across the road of the campus, while her high school is located in the area where my room was. So it was nice to see all kinds of familiar places mentioned. Of course, most readers won't have this emotional bond, but as it was a reason for me to purchase the book in the first place, I was more than happy to see how 'my' Fukuoka was portrayed in the book.

With the knowledge that this book is Yoshino Izumi's debut novel, I'd say that Houkago Spring Train is still a bit rough around the edges, but definitely in possession of potential. The middle part of the book is fairly good, but the start and end are less entertaining. The writing is good though, and I'd to see more of the characters and the setting. Let's hope more will follow and Yoshino will be able to develop as a mystery writer too.

Original Japanese title(s): 吉野泉　『放課後スピリング・トレイン』: 「放課後スピリング・トレイン」 / 「学際ブロードウェー」 / 「折る紙募る紙」 / 「カンタロープ」

Two Stations in Kashii

「ずいぶん寂しい所ね」

『点と線』

"What a lonely place!"

"Points and Lines"

I'll just start this post with admitting right away that I am not a big fan of Matsumoto Seichou. And that's actually not completely his fault. It is more because of how (mostly English) reviewers and scholars can't seem to stop raving about the realism in his novels and how Matsumoto manages to capture the social problems of postwar Japanese society, like class-struggles and the unfair justice system, perfectly within his stories. English reviews of Matsumoto's Ten to Sen ("Points and Lines") and Suna no Utsuwa ("The Sand Vessel", published as Inspector Imanishi Investigates) therefore often have the tendency to turn out almost the same, even though technically the stories are quite different. Historicizing when discussing fiction is something I do too, even though at times it seems a bit as an excuse to 'justify' reviewing genre fiction, but I have the feeling the (English) Matsumoto Seichou reviewers have a tendency to exeggarate this.

Matsumoto has written some interesting stories though. While Matsumoto's more orthodox detective stories sometimes suffer from being rather bland, several of his short stories like Kimyou na Hikoku ("The Strange Defendant") and Hansha ("Reflection") are pretty fun to read. But the one novel by him I really, really like is Ten to Sen ("Points and Lines").

Matsumoto Seichou debuted in 1957 the short story Kao, but the Matsumoto-boom in Japan started one year later, with his first novel Points and Lines (also available in English). The discovery of the dead bodies of Otaki, a waitress and Sayama, a senior offical in a ministry, on the beach of Kashiihama, Fukuoka is what sets the story in motion. The case is initially handled as a love suicide, but one of the local detectives suspects that it was actually murder, also because Sayama was wanted by the Metropolitan Police Department in relation with the investigation of bribery case at his ministry. This man's death is rather convenient for his superiors. A important suspect comes up during the investigation, but there is one problem: the suspect has an ironclad alibi. The suspect had to be in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyuushuu on the night of the murder, but that would have made it impossible for him to be in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaidou the next morning. How did the man manage to teleport from one side of Japan to another?

And to admit another thing: one of the reasons I love this novel is because I lived in Kashiihama, Fukuoka for a year. I was only a minute away from the crime scene of Points and Lines. I have stood there at the beach dozens of time. Kashiihama was a wonderful place to live. So rereading the novel really brought up some great memories of this little neighbourhood in the eastern ward of Fukuoka. More than fifty years have past since Matsumoto first wrote this story and things might have changed a bit in those years (nowadays the road from the station to the beach of Kashiihama is not really lonely, for example), but Matsumoto's description of Kashii and Kashiihama is not as outdated as one would think and conveys the ambience of the quaint little block wonderfully. Matsumoto's writing might seem dry at times, but he actually has a wonderful knack for describing ordinary day scenery and customs expertly in just a few words. His short story Harikomi ("Stakeout") for example also features some great descriptions of Kyuushuu, the problem with it is just that it is not a mystery story at all. Matsumoto himself was from Kokura, so he must have have been familiar with Kashii. Interesting is that the two stations at Kashii (a JR station and the private Nishitetsu line), that play an important role in the story, are still in use today. Points and Lines actually made Kashii famous and even now there is a Seichou Sakura to commemorate Points and Lines planted at the Nishitetsu Kashii station.

But nostalgia is a dangerous thing, Tezuka Osamu's impressive series Phoenix taught me, so what about the story itself? Is Points and Lines worth reading if you have not lived in Kashii? As can be guessed from the summary, this is a story that revolves around the deconstruction of the main suspect's alibi and it is actually pretty ingenous. Matsumoto (the murderer) really did his best in coming up with a seemingly ironclad alibi with several safety nets for himself. It's a bit of a shame the English paperback version does not feature a map of the whole of Japan (it has a couple of maps of the Fukuoka area though), because for readers not familiar with Japan's topography, it might be hard to imagine how the distance between Kashii and Sapporo. It is really, really far away. Which makes the alibi trick all the more awesome. I actually want to write a bit more about the trick, but I guess that be nearing that ever-dangerous spoiler area, which is something I want to avoid.

And now for my third confession, I don't think I've ever read anything written by Freeman Crofts. But the focus on alibis and trains in Points and Lines is similar to many of Freeman Crofts' stories, I've been told. Trains play a big, big part within the world of Points and Lines and that's not strange. Trains have been a very large part of the Japanese culture ever since their introduction in the early Meiji period (post-1868) and was crucial for nation-building. Many people have heard about the bullet-trains developed in Japan. Trains are still an important means of transportation for longer domestic trips and there is even a whole culture around the so-called eki-ben, boxed meals sold at stations with local specialties. Heck, the whole subgenre of travel mysteries and train mysteries (mostly by Nishimura Kyoutarou, but I haven't reviewed any of his travel mysteries yet) in Japan is pretty much built upon the whole train culture, linking domestic tourism and the detailed railway schedules of trains that magically never seem to be late. I assume that countries like the United States don't have such a tradition in train mysteries. In the Netherlands, I guess most train mysteries are doomed to fail because the time in the railway schedule seldom seems to correspond with the actual times, you usually have to count in a five minute lag. Or maybe ten minutes.

Points and Lines also occasionally relies on what some people like to call 'typical Japanese customs / way of thinking', which are actually not really such unique indigenous customs as those people seem to make them out be. Matsumoto's stories do often seem to feature some cultural customs as crucial plot-points. In fact, one of the more important insight the detective in the story has, is pretty much copied from Matsumoto's own debut story Kao ("Face"), which also revolved around a certain way of thinking. Point and Lines however makes much better use of the same 'trick', almost like Matsumoto himself thought the trick in Kao could and should have been used for something better.

Like I admitted, I love Points and Lines partly because it is so strongly related to a place dear to me, but it is also a good alibi deconstruction mystery that is satisfying not only to those reviewers who praise Matsumoto for describing how a chair looks like in Japan in his novels, but also for people interested in a good old mystery that happens to be set in Japan.

Original Japanese title(s): 松本清張　『点と線』

Murder in the Mews

「最初は湯気のしずくに花火の色が映ったのかと、そのまま見すごしていたのですが、やがて、紅の飛沫は益々はげしく降りそそぎ、彼自身の額や頬にも、異様な暖かなしたたりを感じて、それを手にうつしてみれば、まがう方なき紅のしずく、人の血潮に相違ないのでした。そして、彼の目の前の湯の表に、フワフワと漂うものを、よく見れば、それは無慚に引き裂かれた人間の手首が、いつのまにかそこへ降っていたのです。北見小五郎は、その酔うな血腥い光景の中で、不思議に騒がぬ裸女達をいぶかりながら、彼も又そのまま動くでもなく、池の畔にじっと頭をもたせて、ぼんにゃりと、彼の胸の辺りに漂っている、生々しい手首の花を開いた真赤な切口に見入りました。か様にして、人見廣介の五体は、花火とともに、粉微塵にくだけ、かれの創造にしたパノラマ国の、各々の形式の隅々までも、血液と肉塊の雨となって、降り注いだのでありました」
『パノラマ島の奇譚』

"At first he just looked at it, thinking the drips of dew were reflecting the color of the fireworks. But the scarlet splashes rained down more and more; he himself felt the strangely warm drops on his head and cheek and when he put some on his hands, there was no doubt those scarlet drops were in fact human blood. And when he looked carefully at the thing floating lightly on the surface of the hot spring in front of him, it turned out to be the wrist of a man, cruelly ripped off; unnoticedly it had fallen down. Amidst that drunkenly blood spectacle, Kitami Kogorou wondered about the naked women who strangely enough didn't panick at all; and he too didn't move one bit, leaning his head on the footpath of the pond, dreamingly gazing at the scarlet fresh wound on the wrist floating near his chest. And thus Hiromi Kousuke's body had exploded into countless of pieces, and it was his flesh and blood that was raining down onto every corner of the Panorama Kingdom he himself had created."
The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

The summer means firework in Japan. And the biggest firework event in Fukuoka, is probably the firework in Oohori Park. Which was yesterday. Luckily, no people who blew themselves up together with the fireworks. Though I was certainly mentally prepared for it.

Somehow, I feel cheated because nobody yelled kagiya or tamaya. The kid behind me did scream tamago (egg) several times though, when the fireworks burst in circle-patterns. Close, but not really what I wanted to hear.

Oh, and also an annoyance when hanami-ing: people who only use half of the space of the giant sheets they lay out to reserve sitting place. Use space more efficiently!