I've read Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami numerous times, and the book has inspired me to live.

I watched a performance of a play based on the book at Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center on July 11, 2014. It was directed by Yukio Ninagawa and written by Frank Galati. I'd love to see the real Nakata, who is able to communicate with cats.

Will he ever catch Mr. Koizumi's Goma?

Eichmann studied how many Jews could be packed into each railway carriage, what percentage would die of "natural" causes while being transported, the minimum number of people needed to keep this operation going, the cheapest method of disposing of the dead bodies - burning, or burying or dissolving them. Seated at his desk Eichmann ported over all these numbers. Once he put into operation, everything went pretty much according to plan. By the end of the war some six million Jews had been disposed of. Strangely, the guy never felt any remorse. Sitting in court in Tel Aviv, behind bulletproof glass, Eichmann looked like he couldn't for the life of him work out why he was being tried, or why the eyes of world were upon him. He just a technician, he insisted, who'd found the most efficient solution to the problem assigned him. Wasn't he doing what any good bureaucrat would do? So why was he being singled out and accused? Sitting in these quiet woods with birds chirping all around me, I read the story of this practical guy. In the back of the book there's a pencilled note Oshima had written. His handwriting's pretty easy to recognise.

″It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine. It's just as Yeats said: In dreams begin responsibility. Turn this on it's head and you could say that where there's no power to imagine, no responsibility can arise. Just as we see with Eichmann.″

I try to picture Oshima sitting in this chair, his usual nicely sharpened pencil in hand, thinking back over this book and writing down his impressions. In dream begins responsibility. The words hit home.

″Kafka On The Shore (P.172)″ (Haruki Murakami)