Thanks for taking the time to write that up, I really enjoyed reading it.


It's interesting that you thought it might not have been Kamita knocking, when I read it I didn't even consider that it might not be him. If my view of Kamita is correct, then we're both correct though. I thought that Kamita was supposed to be the embodiment of his heart. Kamita knows everything that is going to happen because you can't control your heart. He also takes care of everything because you can't escape your heart/feelings. Kamita also realizes the signs that Kino is not ok, that he's just covering it all up. So I thought his knocking at the end was Kamita, or his empty heart as you put it, finally catching and telling Kino that he needs to grieve.

I thought the cat was a calm presence in his life, a metaphor for what he was going through. Kino, and Kamita (his heart) both think that everything is ok when the cat is around, but as soon as he's gone they realize that there's snakes lurking, the cat is just a momentary distraction to what is really going on. While the cat was there he was distracted from his emotions, but he can't control the cat and eventually the snakes come back.

I did not get the snakes ambiguous intentions at all. I was thinking that maybe the snakes are a person's emotions and their ambiguous intentions means that they serve to help you heal or to make things worse. You don't really know which emotions are doing what. Seems like a stretch though.

My guess with the postcards was that Kamita knew Kino would eventually write something on the postcard. The blank postcard he keeps sending is Kino's refusal to accept his emotions. He's completely withdrawn and emotionless just like the blank postcard. When he signs the card, he's finally understood how lonely he is and wants to reach out to someone. Kamita then shows up, it starts to pour rain and he finally weeps.

The bar, and the cat were just things for him to focus on and convince himself that he was ok when he wasn't. He needed to follow Kamita's advice and get away from it all in order to take care of his emotions.




That's really interesting about the word Kino. I had no idea it meant yesterday, and that also ties in nicely with the other story where that is a prominent song. I wonder if it was planned by him.

I didn't find the right word to describe the snakes' intentions, and still haven't found it. What I meant to say was that the snakes can serve as guides, but whether they guide for good reasons or bad, or for good reasons or evil ones isn't easily known.

I like your interpretation of the postcards. I toyed with the idea that they were similar to the monoliths in 2001 in that they were instituted to track Kino's progress. I hadn't occurred to me that Kino's writing a message would trigger an alert. I saw it more as a failure to obey the gods.

A man with no money worries, in the midst of an existential crisis, loses a cat in every book he writes, it seems.

Kamita exorcising the possible yakuza guys, and Kino sleeping with the woman

Also, why does Kino have to close the bar? Serious trouble occurred, "not because I did something wrong, but because I didn't do the right thing?" Kamita, however, is also at fault for whatever occurred.

I think I understand your point regarding the snakes intentions.
If they are supposed to represent emotions like I think, then they're just something that need to be dealt with and followed, regardless of where they go. Depression is not a nice snake to deal with, but if Kino wants to recover he will need to face it.

Good catch with Kamita's description and that importance which is revealed later on. He is a larger than life figure, capable of doing anything, but for some reason he's cramped in a corner.

I believe Kamita taking care of the two yakuza was to establish how Kamita can handle any situation quickly and effectively. When he tells Kino he needs to close the bar, it's been established that this guy knows what is best.
Of course, as the reddit article mentions, it is difficult to differentiate what is surreal and what is not. It's possible that this was also supposed to be a way of showing that Kino was not capable of handling tough business.

I think Kino had to close the bar in order to let the rain come/deal with his emotions. When the woman offers to show him something and he says (from what I recall) "Whatever it was she wanted to show me, I didn't want to see it," it's a good indication of just how apathetic to everything he is.
He was in a position to help, but chose not to. He was also in a position to potentially help himself but chose not to. He has completely withdrawn himself from the world at this point. When the cat, his sense of security, leaves and the snakes show up, he is about to be flooded with rain. If the bar is open then he will continue to be distracted and not deal with the rain or the snake. By being sent away he is very alone, forced to deal with his issues, and finally realize that he's been apathetic and needs to grieve.

In many locations, it's the job of house cats to keep snakes out of the yard. (It is at my house.) It's possible that the cat was told to leave so that the snakes could enter. I think this would support the idea that the snakes represent emotions, and their time had come.

Also, I keep thinking about willows. I don't know what role they play in Japanese mythology, if they play any role at all. I don't remember willows in any other Murakami books, although they do appear in the Tom Bombadil story line of Lord of the Rings.