Watanabe and Midori’s reunion in the rain marks a decisive turn in their relationship: the closeness they had avoided naming becomes an acknowledged love, and Watanabe recognizes that he wants a future with her. Yet the reunion does not erase his attachment to Naoko. Instead, its force comes from the coexistence of two truths—Midori is alive and drawing him forward, while his love for Naoko remains quietly preserved—and from his inability to make that conflict disappear by acting sincerely.

The Reunion and Its Intimacy

After the rain, Watanabe and Midori go to her flat in Myogadani. They buy a towel at a linen department, take turns drying their hair, and then shower separately while their clothes dry. Wearing a bathrobe Midori lends him, Watanabe sits with her at the kitchen table over coffee. These ordinary acts of shelter and care follow the rain-soaked reunion, shifting its intensity into a private domestic setting where the two can speak directly about how they see one another.

Midori describes the objections her former boyfriend had raised to her clothes, smoking, drinking, speech, and criticism of his friends. She asks Watanabe to tell her if there is anything about her he dislikes and says she will change it if she can. His response rejects the premise that she must be corrected to be loved: he tells her he likes how she dresses, acts, speaks, walks, and drinks, and cannot think of anything he wants her to change. Her question about whether she is all right as she is makes the exchange an affirmation of her whole character, not merely an expression of attraction.

The conversation becomes openly affectionate when Midori asks how much Watanabe loves her. He answers with the image of loving her enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter. Satisfied, she asks him to hold her again. They lie together, kiss as rain sounds outside, and talk about subjects ranging from the formation of the universe to how hard boiled eggs should be. Their intimacy is thus presented not only as physical closeness but as ease in conversation and a willingness to remain together in the ordinary aftermath of an emotionally charged encounter.

Acknowledging Love and Its Complication

After leaving Midori, Watanabe finds that he cannot read the newspaper on the train. He is preoccupied with what the day means and with what may change. He has no regret about their closeness: he knows he would choose the same day again, including holding Midori on the roof in the rain and going home with her. He recognizes that he loves her and is glad she has returned to him; the certainty of that feeling contrasts with his uncertainty about what to do next.

Watanabe’s realization is not that his love for Naoko has ended. He believes he has loved Naoko all along and still does, describing that love as quiet, gentle, and transparent. What he feels for Midori is different: it has a force that seems to carry him into the future. He also acknowledges that he had been avoiding this conclusion for a long time. The reunion therefore changes his understanding of his own feelings without simplifying them into a choice already settled or a past attachment fully overcome.

That division is sharpened by his concern for Naoko’s condition. Watanabe thinks he cannot tell her that he has fallen in love with someone else, particularly while she is unwell. He holds open an inner space for Naoko even as his relationship with Midori has acquired what he calls decisive finality. The two relationships are not interchangeable: one remains a tender, enduring bond, while the other is active and oriented toward the life ahead. The event’s emotional change lies in his recognition of both, not in the removal of one by the other.

The Letter to Reiko

Unable to explain the new situation to Naoko, Watanabe decides to write to Reiko with complete honesty. At home, he sits on the veranda watching rain fall over the garden and puts phrases together before going to his desk to write. He summarizes his relationship with Midori and what happened that day, then sends the letter by special delivery. Reiko’s reply arrives five days later, dated 17 June. The correspondence gives his confusion a direct recipient and makes the reunion’s consequences extend beyond the couple’s private encounter.

In the letter, Watanabe insists that he has not stopped loving Naoko, but says that what exists between him and Midori has a decisive finality and an irresistible pull toward the future. He describes his feelings for Midori as a different kind of emotion, one that affects him profoundly, and asks Reiko for advice because he does not know what to do. His appeal is not a claim that sincerity will resolve the problem: he says he has tried not to lie or hurt others, yet finds himself caught in a situation he cannot explain. The letter preserves the tension that the reunion creates rather than supplying an immediate answer.

Significance and Limits of the Turning Point

The scene’s movement is from uncertainty toward acknowledgment. Midori asks whether she can be accepted as she is; Watanabe answers that he likes her as she is, and then recognizes the depth of his love. Their reunion gives him a living, reciprocal relationship that points toward the future. At the same time, the rain-soaked closeness does not make Naoko’s place in his feelings vanish, and his subsequent letter makes clear that moving toward Midori entails a painful moral and emotional conflict.

The novel’s earlier formulation that death exists as part of life gives this divided attachment a larger context. Watanabe has learned that death is woven into living, but that understanding cannot cure the sorrow of losing someone he loves. The reunion does not offer an escape from that grief or a neat resolution between past and future. It shows him choosing, without regret, the closeness Midori offers while still carrying Naoko within him. Its significance rests in that imperfect beginning: love becomes unmistakable, but the cost and consequences of living on remain unresolved.