Afterword
On Roads All Round the World
As the headings of each chapter of this book indicate, the bulk of the writings collected here were
composed between the summer of 2005 and the fall of 2006. I didn’t write them at one stretch, but
rather a little at a time, whenever I could find free time in between other work. Each time I wrote
more I’d ask myself, So —what’s on my mind right now? Though this isn’t a long book, it took quite
some time from beginning to end, and even more after I’d finished, to carefully polish and rework it.
Over the years, I’ve published a number of essay collections and travel writings, but I haven’t had
much opportunity like this to focus on one theme and write directly about myself, so I was scrupulous
about making sure it was exactly the way I wanted it. I didn’t want to write too much about myself, but
if I didn’t honestly talk about what needed to be said, writing this book would have been pointless. I
needed to revisit the manuscript many times over a period of time; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able
to explore these delicate layers.
I see this book as a kind of memoir. Not something as grand as a personal history, but calling it an
essay collection is a bit forced. This is repeating what I said in the foreword, but through the act of
writing I wanted to sort out what kind of life I’ve led, both as a novelist and as an ordinary person,
over these past twenty-five years. When it comes to the question of how much a novelist should stick
to the novel, and how much he should reveal his real voice, everyone will have his own standard, so
it’s impossible to generalize. But for me, there was the hope that writing this book would allow me to
discover my own personal standard. I’m not very confident that I’ve done a good job in this area. Still,
when I finished, I had the feeling that a weight had been lifted. (I think it may have been just the right
moment to write this book when I did.)
After I finished, I took part in several races. I’d been planning to participate in a marathon in Japan at
the beginning of 2007, but just before the race, unusually for me, I caught a cold and couldn’t run. If I
had run, it would have been my twenty-sixth marathon. As a result, I reached the end of the season—
which ran from the fall of 2006 through the spring of 2007—without running a single marathon. I feel
a little regretful, but will try my best next season.
Instead of a marathon, in May I participated in the Honolulu Triathlon, an Olympic-length event. I
could finish it easily and really enjoy myself, and ended with a better time than the last. And at the
end of July I was in the Tinman Triathlon, also held in Honolulu. Because I was living there for about
a year, I also took part in a kind of triathlon training camp, practicing with other Honolulu residents
three times a week for three months. This kind of training program really helped, and I was able to
make some “Triath buddies” in the group.