It was five years later but

Daily writing prompt

What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?

Kirin no Tsubasa by HIGASHINO Keigo. When I was on the JET Program, the library of the high school I worked at had a newspaper up in the window with a book review for it that included a large reproduction of the cover. It was this image that captivated me:

Cover of *Kirin no Tsubasa* by HIGASHINO Keigo, released in 2011.

The kirin was just so damn cool I had to read the book. It turned out to be one of a set of sculptures adorning the bridge Nihonbashi in Tokyo. I was living in Fukuoka at the time but didn’t really go to Tokyo for anything after the initial JET orientation. It wouldn’t be until 2016, when I went to visit and for GACKT’s LAST VISUALIVE tour, that I stayed with a friend in Tokyo and took the opportunity to visit Nihonbashi.

It’s hard to get the whole thing in a photo though. (May 2016)

The nearby railing has a simplified version of the kirin statue on it. (May 2016)

The plaque reads “Nihonbashi”, the name of the bridge. Though I should clarify Nihonbashi is the bridge these statues are on, not the overpasses above. (May 2016)

I have a few other photos of Nihonbashi in the Japan Photography section of this blog, linked to in the menu at the top of every page.

In answering this prompt, I learned that the book was translated into English and published in 2022 with the title A Death in Tokyo. I don’t know what the translation’s like, but I enjoyed reading the original Japanese and went on to read a few other books by HIGASHINO Keigo through the years. I recommend it for those who enjoy murder mystery detective stories.