The Garden of Words

Takao Akizuki, a high school student who dreams of becoming a shoemaker, slips away on rainy mornings to the Japanese garden in Shinjuku Gyoen, sketching shoe designs in his notebook. One day in the rainy season, in this garden almost no one visits, he meets a mysterious woman drinking beer and eating chocolate alone—Yukino Yukari. Dressed for work, her manner carrying an indefinable weariness, she both troubles and unsettles him. After that the two appear on rainy days as if by agreement, moving from initial silence to slowly exchanging their burdens: the boy speaks of his dreams of leather and lasts, while the woman conceals her identity and circumstances. Only after several conversations does Takao learn that Yukino is the classical Japanese teacher who caused a scandal at his own school and was forced to resign; and her line—"A faint thunder, the sky overcast, yet I pray the rain comes, to keep you here"—has already left its mark between them. When the rainy season finally ends, Takao decides to make her a pair of shoes with his own hands, hoping she can find her own way forward on her own feet. Written by Makoto Shinkai himself, the novel uses multiple perspectives: besides Takao and Yukino, supporting characters—his mother Reimi, his brother Shota and Shota's girlfriend Rika, Yukino's ex-boyfriend Soichiro Ito, and the student Sachiko Aizawa—each have monologues that fill in the backstory and inner lives beyond the film's running time.