Life was like a book
Kazu’s life experience is devastating, and the book opens by showing his assumption on life using a simile. Kazu says, "I used to think life was like a book: you turn the first page, and there's the next, as you go on turning page after page; eventually, you reach the last one." The simile shows Kazu’s first assumption that life is smooth sailing. However, Kazu later learned that his perception of life was wrong. For instance, life is not as easy as walking in the park, but it is full of vicissitudes. The reality hits Kazu hard when he finds himself living in Ueno Park among homeless people. While living in the park as a homeless man, Kazu remembers how he failed to provide for his family, making him feel bad about himself.
Every face looks like a small pool of water.
The inability of Kazu to differentiate the people coming and leaving the park signifies his perplexity about life. Kazu says, "Each and every face looks like a small pool of water." People come to the park station to travel and others to have fun before leaving. However, Kazu is bewildered, and he is in deep thought, reflecting on how iniquitous life is because he does not see the meaning of living. According to Kazu, his mystification is evident because he cannot recognize the faces of people in the park because they all look identical, like a small pool of water.
Felt like a child who had been orphaned
The anonymity of life inspires Kazu's loneliness, and he compares himself to an orphaned child despite his parents living in their old age. Kazu says, "When I sat there, I felt like a child who had been orphaned, even though both of my parents had lived into their nineties, never leaving their village in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture.” Kazu’s comparison to an orphaned child signifies his grief and trouble that make him feel futile. Kazu is a mature man who thinks that he is unlucky and unwanted in this world. He sits at the exit of Uono Station's park to look at his fellow homeless people and thinks he is cursed.
