‘He would feel sick whenever he spotted a payphone when he was out in town. Overly sensitized, I suppose. He sees all kinds of things he shouldn’t – I don’t mean like ghosts or anything, but things that flood his senses. Like flashy billboards, for instance, which he also couldn’t stand. He found them completely overwhelming.’ She looked at me as if to check that I was following.

‘When he couldn’t handle phones and billboards and that sort of thing, what did he do?’

‘He’d go straight home to bed.’

This felt a little over the top. Then again, I guess it was a fairly mild reaction to things you really couldn’t cope with.

‘You’d think someone like that wouldn’t survive. I was afraid he’d end up a total hermit.’

I’m really glad he avoided such a fate. He must have fought so hard to endure in a world full of things he couldn’t deal with. What had rescued him? I wondered. Was it her?

‘One other thing – sometimes when he used to walk about outside, the ground would suddenly look absolutely filthy to him.’

‘You mean roads that hadn’t been cleaned?’ I really didn’t get it.

‘Whatever road he was walking down – in other words: the world. Life. He said it all just looked so utterly filthy to him.’

She sounded as if she was joking. I was having trouble seeing any similarities between her Yanagi and the Mr Yanagi I knew.

‘Rude, don’t you think? It’s like he was saying that I, walking along without a care, didn’t mind being filthy.’

‘The Mr Yanagi I know is very kind and reliable. I don’t get the feeling that he’s over-sensitized.’ I was trying to be careful with what I said.

‘True enough,’ she said. ‘But it wasn’t easy to get him to that point. And he was also going through adolescence, which amplified everything. Back then everything made him feel sick. He was desperately looking for a place to escape to. But there was no safe place he felt at ease in, where his nerves wouldn’t get frazzled. Going home and pulling the covers up over his head seemed the best strategy to him. When that wasn’t an option he’d crouch down on the floor, shut his eyes and stop up his ears. He wanted me to rub his back for him, and I can’t tell you how many times I did that.’

I couldn’t picture the Mr Yanagi I knew in such a state.