The Snow of Hokkaido

"Memory is the gentlest tyrant. It makes us willing to become prisoners of the past.", Lin Yuan, Snowfall in Hokkaido

Three years ago, piano teacher Xia Mian disappeared into a vast, snowy night in Hokkaido, leaving behind only a faded blue-checkered scarf and twenty-seven uneaten tangerines. Freelance writer Lin Yuan was trapped in a maze of memories until one snowy morning, when he received an anonymous copy of Debussy's The Snow Is Dancing.

"For some people, death isn't the end. They become snow that never melts in someone else's life.", Zhou Ling, Diary of the Azure Sky Bookshop

At the Azure Sky Bookshop in Sapporo, owner Zhou Ling was restoring a yellowed copy of Snow Country. When she turned around, the wind chime startled the sleeping black cat and caught the attention of Lin Yuan as he stepped through the door. Her fingertips bore the same calluses as Xia Mian's from playing piano, and the butterfly-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck showed faintly in the light.

"We all make the same mistake: treating memories as facts and obsession as love.", Xia Mian, The Unsent Letter