(We enjoyed our first real snowfall of the season here on Sunday.)

One cloudy winter afternoon I found myself on a Chuō-line train, gazing at the mountain range through the window. Naturally, the mountains were pure white. But rather than what you'd call a snow white, it was more like the color of the mountain's skin. As I looked out at the mountains, the memory of a certain incident came to me...

It had been four or five years ago, on another cloudy winter afternoon. I was in a certain friend's atelier, chatting before the cast-iron stove with my friend and his model. Apart from my friend's own oil paintings, the walls of the atelier were completely bare. The bob-haired model, who was smoking a cigar, had a certain kind of exotic beauty, like someone of partly mixed parentage. For reasons unknown to me, however, she had plucked out every one of her eyelashes.

The conversation eventually turned to the fiercely cold weather we were having. My friend told us about how the soil in a garden feels the seasons. Above all, he told us about how the soil in a garden feels the winter.

"So, you see," he finished, "You might say that the soil is alive, too." He packed his pipe with tobacco, looking back and forth between the bob-haired model's face and my own. I sipped my coffee and made no reply. He seemed to have made an impression of some sort on her, though. She blew a smoke ring and raised her red eyelids to stare through it intently. After it had dissolved, still gazing into the air, she spoke without directing her words at anyone in particular:

"Skin is the same way. Ever since I got into this business, I've had trouble with my skin, too..."

One cloudy winter afternoon I found myself on a Chuō-line train, gazing at the mountain range through the window. Naturally, the mountains were pure white. But rather than what you'd call a snow white, it was more like the color of someone's dry, neglected skin. As I looked out at the mountains, the memory of that model came to me. That exotic-looking Japanese girl who did not have a single eyelash.

(Original)