Lovely little book! A kind of a love story, but an oblique one. Lonely Tsukiko drinks alone in a local sake bar, where, by chance, she meets one of her old high school teachers. They talk, and meet regularly over a period of time, eating, drinking and talking. Their friendship deepens, and gradually begins to allow the possibility of something more. This is a beautifully delicate, short novel; the descriptions of the passing seasons, the food and sake they drink, and the minutiae of Japanese life are are evoked quietly and directly. There's a little of the strangeness of Haruki Murakami, but without the inconclusive cryptic techniques he uses.