Chapter 2

In this chapter Ryuji and Fusako go for a New Year's walk in the park and the mood is very sentimental becuase Fusako doesn't want Ryuji to go again. They express their feelings and how they want this year to be perfect and the best year yet becuase they have each other. Ryuji then casually asks Fusako to marry him. 

"Will you marry me?"

"What?"

"Annoyed at having to repeat himself, he blurted things better left unsaid: "I'm asking you to marry me." (pg. 113)

Chapter 1 Quotes

"His cheeks were streaked with rain-or were those tears?" (pg. 96)

"Ryuji slipped his hands under Fusako's coat and clutched wildly at her body as though searching for life in a corpse he had saved from drowning." (pg 96)

"They had imagined during the months apart that their conversations would be difficult when they met again; restoring the bond between them to what it had been after three summer days had seemed impossible." (pg. 97)

"But the tears of joy had washed anxiety away and lifted them to a height where nothing was impossible." (pg. 97)

"In the instant needed to cross the threshold, a subtle doubt assailed him." (pg. 98)

"And listening, be struck with terror. Then she knew she was waiting...." (pg. 100)- she ddint want to admit that she was waiting for Ryuji, but deep inside she knew. 

"....he was the man they had been waiting for, the man they loved." (pg. 101)

"He was tense from waiting, his body under the covers stiff as a board, and yet, somehow, these weren't quite the footsteps he had expected." (pg. 101)

"Noboru had prepared for Ryuji's ebtrance byresolving not to smile with pleasure. Using illness as a pretext, he succeeded in maintaining a glum face." (pg. 102)

"They were even more insensible than he had suspected: they were cradled in the numbing arems of love." (pg. 103)- Norboru talking about Fusako and Ryuji.

"Mr. Tsukazaki, when will you be sailing again?

.....

"It was the questions she most wanted to ask, and most dreaded." (pg. 104)

"Red with rage.....Noboru pulled his diary from under the pillow as soon as they had left....

Charges against Ryuji Tsukazaki

Four: coming back here again in the first place." (pg. 105)

Chapter 1

In this chapter Ryuji returns to Fusako and Noboru in Japan. He has been out sailing all fall and has now come back in late December. Fusako is overjoyed that Ryuji is back, however, Noboru is not as certain. Last summer he did not like how Ryuji took so much time with Fusako and changed their family dynamic. Now he is back and Noboru is unsure of how things are going to turn out. He is rude to Ryuji when he comes to his room to visit him since he was sick and could not come pick him up with his mother at the pier. 

Part 2

Chapter 8 Quotes

"Noboru thought of the sailor toiling now, and soon to sail away; and he was flushed with pride"
(pg. 85)

"Fusako considered mentioning how lonely she was going to be and decided not to." (pg. 87)

"For the moment, as a man leaving a woman behind to voyage around the world, as a sailor, and as a Second Mate, Ryuji was perfect." (pg. 88)

"Ryuji wanted to kiss Fusako but he was intimidated by Noboru. Besides, like a man who knows he is dying, he felt a need to be equally tender to all." (pg. 88)

"Noboru, listening, knew that the phantom he had watched two nights before was real, understood that he was present at the spot where all dreams began and ended." (pg. 90)

"The gangplank had been raised; the last link between ship and shore was broken," (pg. 90)

"....the Rakuyo's horn screamed one last enormous farewell."......"Ryuji was lost from sight."
(pg. 92)

Chargest against Ryuji Tsukazaki

1. Smiling at me in a cowardly, ingratiating way when I met him this afternoon. 

2. Wearing a dripping-wet shirt and explaining that he had taken a shower in the fountain at the park- just like an old bum. 

3a. Deciding arbitrarily to spend the night out with Mother, thereby placing me in an awfully isolated position.

3b. Answering when I asked when he would be sailing again "Im not sure yet"

4. Coming back here in the first place.

However, after thinking about it Noboru erased crime 3a becuase he thought it was too obvious and he would get caught. 

Part 1, Chapter 7

In this chapter Fusako and Ryuji go out on a date and Fusako ends up not coming home. Instead Fusako and Ryuji stay at a hotel and they go out for dinner, talking about tomorrow, the day Ryuji has to leave. Fusako tells him and she has fallen inlove with him and eventually both are crying tears of joy and sadness. Fusako staying with Ryuji for the night, frustrates Noboru becuase he was looking foward to watching them through the peephole. Noboru then makes up a crime list for Ryuji. 

Chapter 6 Quotes

"But at this unhappy, unexpected meeting, the sailor had presented himself as a pitful figure in a waterlogged shirt and, as if that wasn't enoug, smiled like a fawning idiot." (Pg. 63)

"And when Noboru challenged the soaking shirt, he should have answered:" (pg. 63)

"The sailor's pleasure at being entrusted with a secret, his reassuring smile and quick assent, disapointed Noboru." (Pg. 64)

"Obviously the houskeeper resented Ryuji and she appeared to be venting her disgruntlement on Noboru." (Pg. 65)

"You'd probably put an old pro like me to shame."

"I dont like to be flattered." (pg. 65)

"Happiness that defies description." (Pg. 70)

Part 1, Chapter 6

In this chapter Ryuji meets Noboru in town after have taken a walk in the park and soaked himself in the fountain. Noboru is clearly starting to doubt his view of the sailor. He talks about Ryuji like he is a hero who had been on so many cray adventours and now he had brought his awesomeness to Noboru and his mother. However, today when Ryuji says something like "I took a little shower at the fountain up there in the park." This emberassed Noboru becuase he wanted it to be something like "I rescued a woman who had thrown herself off the pier". 

This is when Noboru makes a list of "crimes" which Ryuji has committed whilst being with Noboru's mother. Though the list is written in the evening of the same day, which is in the next chapter. This encounter happens to be one of the "crimes"

In this chapter Ryuji and Norboru talk a lot about ships. Noboru tries to learn from the sailor and the sailor tries to quiz Noboru. In the end of the chapter Ryuji goes to meet with Fusako and Noboru falls alseep on the couch. 

Quotes from chapter 5

"That sailor is terrific! He's like a fantastic beast that's just come out of the sea all dripping wet. Last night I watched him go to bed with my mother." (pg. 49)

".....the uselessness og Mankind, the insignificance of Life." (pg. 48)

"Don't you realize there is no such thing as a hero in this world?" (pg. 50)

"There's a huge seal called 'impossibility' pasted all over this world." (pg. 50)

"Real danger is nothing more than just living." (pg. 51)

"Of course, living is merely the chaos of existence." (pg. 51)

"There was indication that this hollow house had nourished the chief's ideas about the overwhelming emptiness of the world." (pg. 55)

"The boys were overjoyed at the spattered blood on the log." (pg. 58)

"You did a good job. I think we can say this has finally made a real man of you-" (pg. 61)

Part 1, Chapter 5

In this chapter we get to know more about Norboru and how he is with his friends. He and his friends are up to no good that morning and they ran away from their duties and went to the pier. We see Noboru disobey his mother, be submissive to the "chief" of the group, kill a kittten and become a man and worthy member of the group. To some extent we can say we saw the "beast" in the young man.

Noboru is growing up which means, he get sexually curious, friend oriented, possibly more agressive and feel the need to prove he is a man and not a cowered. He is so consumed by all these new feelings, that he would kill a kitten without hesitation. This also suggests he has numbed out compassion from his system. In the beginning of the chapter Norboru is telling all his friends about the sexual activities he witnessed in his house the night prior to their meeting. This shows an immaturity in Noboru but also his admiration of Ryuji becuase he talks about the sailor as if he is some kind of hero.

This new perspective of Noboru makes us wonder just how disciplined the young man is. We can assume he is at a rebelious stage in his life which means he might not always consider the consequences. At the same time we sense a fear in him when he runs into Ryuji, suggesting that he knows he would get punished if his mother found out he had disobeyed her.

The dead kitten

Part 1, chapter 4- summary and quotes

The reader gets to know Ryuji Tsukazaki a bit more and his view on life and destiny. 

The scenario in this chapter is Ryuji walking around in the park, waiting for Fusako to finish at work. He goes down to the pier for a little while and then sits int he park. He gets flashbacks from last night as well as his past. We see him struggle and having an inner conflict about glory and destiny. We know he has an inner conflict about the land and sea, wanting to not live in either places. 

The chapter ends when he runs into Noboru outside the park. 

"He hadn't been able to explain his ideas of glory and death, or the longing and melancholy pent up in his chest, or the other dark passions chocking in the ocean's swell. Whenever he tried to talk about those things, he failed." (pg. 38)

""It's not easy to find a woman who is willing to be a sailor's wife." (pg. 38)

"Those men have thrown opportunity away-there's no hope for them any more" (pg. 38)

"....I'll have to jump out of bed and set out alone." (pg. 38)

"Nor had he mentioned his concept of ideal love: a man lencounters the perfect woman only once in a lifetime and in every case death interposes- an unseen pandarus." (pg 39)

"And he has been certain that the woman before him was the woman in the dream. If only he had found the words to say it." (pg. 39)

"......his only memories of life on shore were of poverty and sickness and death, of endless devestation; by becoming a sailor, he had detached himself from the land forever..." (pg. 40)

"It was the sea that made me begin thinking secretly about love more than anything else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you." (pg. 41)

"She's just another body" (pg. 42)

"Ryuji was ready to die happily that very moment. Only when the cold tip of their noses brushed did he realize with a chuckle that they were two firm separate bodies." (pg 44)

Quotes, chapter 3

"He'd be smart to forget about it if he is. This is a miserable business is ever there was one." (pg. 31)

• Tsukazaki is telling Fusako that Noboru should not become a sailor becuase it is not a good life. 

"But today Fusako was enveloped in paralyzing gentleness." (pg. 33)

• Fusako is taking care of a customer she can noramally not tolerate, but today, the day after her night with Ryuji, she feels gentle and calmer. 
• Juxtaposition- gentleness and paralyzing should not be in the same sentence. 

"I've never talked so much with a man before, not since my husband died...." Pg. 36)

• She feels safe with Ryuji and they got to know each other well. 

Part 1, Chapter 3

In this chapter Fusako takes the reader back to the day when she met Ryuji. Her on Noboru was very interested in ships and she took him to the Takashima pier. When they walked onto the boat Rakuyo, the captain was not there and Ryuji ended up showing Fusako and her son around the ship. To thank him Fusako invited him to dinner and he accepted.

Fusako and Ryuji got to know each other that night and took a walk in the park and then he came home with her.

A couple of days later they are facing their last night together becuase he sets sail the next day.

The freighter Rakuyo

Quotes from chapter 2

"Stars were his only companions, and the sea." (Pg. 15)

• Was a sailor destined to be with humans or were they destined for lonliness?
• Stars- symbolizim of destiney and fate. 

"He found himself in the strange predicament all sailors share: essentially he belonged neither to the land nor to the sea." (pg. 16)

• He felt lost and like he did not belong anywhere. 
• There is nothing more than land and seam therefore one could assume he did not feel like he belonged on earth at all. 

"Possibly a man who hates the land should dwell on shore forever." (pg. 16)

• He does not feel at home on land nor in the sea, therefore he has to find middle ground. 
• Dwelling on the shore is another type of imprisonment, just as he thinks land and sea is a prison. 

"But a ship was another kind of prison" (Pg. 16)

"At twenty, he had been passionately certain; there's just one thing I'm destined for and that's glory.....He had no idea what kind of glory he wanted, or what kind he was suited for. He knew only that in the depths of the world's darkness was a point of light which had been provided for him alone and would draw near someday to irradiate him and no other." (pg. 16)

• Arrogance
• Blinded by his vision
• Reality VS illusion 

"He could feel the glory knifing towards him, like a shark from some great disstance in the darkly heaping water..." (pg 17)

• Foreshadow- the glory he seeks will not bring happiness. 
• Glory is a good thing, but it is put in a negative context.  

"....but the tears welled directly from a dark, distant, enervated part of himself he had neglected all his life and couldn't command." (pg. 18)

• There is darkness and sadness inside of him that he does not know how to control or where it comes from. 
• His past is haunting him. 
• The life as a sailor is not making him happy. 

"Ryuji stood watch and slept, woke up, stood watch and slept again." (pg. 18)

• Routine, day in, day out. 

"By them time he realized this was a woman, it was done...." (pg. 21)

• He moves so fast he doesn't pay attention to what is happening. 
• He does not enjoy life but rather runs through it. 

"I still don't understand how this could have happened. I mean' - her confusion rang a little false- "it's just incredible." (pg. 23)

• Fusako is talking about how incredible their meeting was. 
• She seems confused and a little nervous. 

I can't give up the sailor's life

"The whistle wails and streamers tear, 

Our ship slips away from the pier. 

Now the sea's my home, I decided that. 

But even I must shed a tear

As I wave, boys, as I wave so sad

At the harbor town where my heart was glad."

Part 1, chapter 2

Summary of chapter;

The reader learns about the sailor, Ryuji Tsukazaki, and how he became a sailor and what his view on the world looks like. In this chapter we learn a lot about Ryuji;

• He has been to China, India and Taiwan as a sailor. 
• He was not a man who liked to fool around with women nor talk trash with other sailors. He was known as unsociable on the freighter Rakuyo. 
• He felt/feels very lost as to where he belongs and he does/did not feel at home on land nor at sea
• He thinks that land traps people and yet at the same time he thinks that a boat is just another type of imprisonment. 
• In his 20's he was arrogant and believed that he could conquer the world. 
• Though he travels a lot he keeps up to date with society on land. 
• He likes to sing to himself, sailor songs as well as new modern songs.

At the end of the chapter we see more of his and Fusako's relationship.We also know that Ryuji is leaving the next day which creates some tension in the relationship.