#38 「ピクニックと綱」

The October Picnic: Gathering in the Park

In October, a picnic organized by novelist Yunoki Masako took place in a Tokyo park. What had started as a plan for seven or eight people had swelled to more than a dozen by the time it happened. Asai Ryo attended with his elementary-school-age son. When they arrived at the meeting spot, Nishi Kanako and Tanaka Nobunari (田中信也) had already spread out a leisure sheet. Tanaka does not own a smartphone, which made locating each other in a large park with multiple entrances a concern—but another attendee happened to walk over with him, and the group came together without incident. Asai's son spotted them from a distance and called out, "It's Kanako-chan and Shinya-san!" before breaking into a run. Asai ran right alongside him.

Yunoki Masako's Enormous Bags and Relentless Hospitality

Yunoki, who had organized the picnic to begin with, arrived with both arms overflowing despite an atmosphere where coming empty-handed would have been perfectly fine. She had brought cucumber-and-dill sandwiches, coronation chicken sandwiches (deceptively plain-looking but layered with complex umami), freshly baked scones, milk tea in an insulated thermos, and handmade marron chantilly.

The marron chantilly was Yunoki's recreation of a legendary item served only two or three days a year at the café run by Holthaus Fusako. She made it without knowing what the correct version actually tastes like, yet Asai declared it "the best chestnut thing I've eaten this season" and kept going back for more. Yunoki had reportedly been saying since the previous year, "I was born to peel chestnuts," mass-producing chestnut paste and showing up to every gathering with chestnut crêpes. The scones were fresh from the oven; the sandwiches were kept perfectly moist—she had deliberately chosen heavy insulated containers to maintain temperature. Asai said he found himself genuinely worried, asking her, "What time did you wake up?"

An AERA article had quoted Yunoki saying that no matter how much care you lavish on readers in fiction, it is never too much—and that same hosting spirit was playing out at full power on the picnic blanket.

The TV Camera and Yunoki's Ambition

While everyone was absorbed in the marron chantilly, a man carrying a camera bearing a TV network logo approached and asked whether anyone lived in the area. Since the group had come from all different parts of the city, they answered no, and the man moved on.

At which point Yunoki announced, "I want to be on TV, so I'll go tell him I live here," and began to stand up. Everyone objected, and she was physically held down by the shoulders. This kind of television ambition is nothing new: she had once proposed to Asai that if they lined up first at a midnight bookstore launch event for Murakami Haruki's new novel, cameras would inevitably show up, and she could mention being an author when asked her profession.

The Rope Nishi Kanako Brought: A Tug-of-War Tournament

Frisbees and badminton had been packed as well, but the wind was too strong for either. As the group looked for another activity, Nishi Kanako reached into her backpack and produced a genuine rope—a real tug-of-war rope with a red marker at the center. A collective "Why did you buy that?" feeling swept through the group, but Nishi, who had lived in Canada, explained that tug-of-war is a massive hit there too. They started with small matches of roughly two-on-two, and the energy immediately took off.

Murata Sayaka was the most enthusiastic participant—and genuinely strong, using low-center-of-gravity technique to hold her ground. She had long maintained, "I'm good at sumo," only to be largely ignored by those around her. Asai admitted on the spot that she had been telling the truth all along. Inuyama Kamiko ranked at the top in pure arm strength. In a head-to-head between Kanehara Hitomi (金原ひとみ) and Murata Sayaka, Kato's son served as judge, and scenes rarely witnessed in any context followed: Kanehara being dragged across the ground, Murata being toppled over.

The Big Jump Rope and a Son's Unexpected Talent

The same rope was repurposed as a long jump rope, and a new competition took shape. While Asai was jumping, Kato's son simply stepped in at exactly the right moment without any hesitation and jumped face-to-face with him in perfect sync. Kato, who had assumed her son was "generally bad at sports," was genuinely stunned: "Eight years together and I had no idea he had this in him."

Her son then asked to see her try. Kato accepted the challenge. Her son and Kanehara each coached her on timing, but their instructions contradicted each other slightly, and every potential entry point began to look like the wrong one—she froze in place. Eventually the rope snapped against her and she failed to get in. She never made it into the big jump rope at all, and described herself afterward as having enjoyed the whole thing from the outside, "like the wealthy character watching from the sidelines in Kaiji."