Chapter 50Outside the station, Hiroshi waved down a taxi. Akiko was right—it was drizzling and the humid air smelled like more rain to come. He could catch the express from Tokyo Station, but he would have to hurry.
The buildings grew shorter and shorter, more spread out, the farther the train traveled from Tokyo Station, with each station they shot through becoming less peopled. Sprawling hillside apartments and chunky housing complexes turned into clusters of houses with small yards. Those yielded to wooden farmhouses with rice fields glistening in the rain.
After passport control, he took the spacious elevator, bigger than the hospital’s to the high-ceilinged, check-in area. Thousands of people pushed oversized luggage, blabbed into cell phones, and followed tour group leaders, fidget
