Tokyo Blues

Chapter 4

In a dreamlike atmosphere, Mulan and Yurina scamper through a department store in downtown Tokyo. Eating ice cream, Mulan complains about his sad life in Italy, Yurina talks of her admiration for Cowboy. Mulan buys Yurina a pair of earrings, and they kiss.

At the clinic, Dr Sanae tells Dr Mario Bertini that the day before two men in black asked about him, but she was non committal, because they were quite rude.

During the break between classes, sitting on a fence bordering a canal, Dr. Bertini and Saverio run into each other, Mario admires Saverio for his advanced knowledge of Japanese, Saverio feels surprisingly at ease and boasts about his relationship with Yurina, showing a picture of her, the girl with the blue forelock, on his smartphone. They exchange their respective addresses. Down the street appear two men dressed in black, like salarymen, out of place in this part of the city, and suddenly Mario disappears.

At the therapy session, the marriage between Aimi and Taro is discussed. Aimi comes from a rich and traditional family, her parents opposed marriage to Taro, a penniless artist, but had to resign themselves in the face of the young woman's insistence. To secure a future for the family, they secured Taro the position of editor of "Sunglasses", a lifestyle magazine; this makes him somewhat obligated to the family, and forces him to overwork.

"The Fake Kiss" plays at a street party. As usual, Mulan has not prepared for it at all, and improvises on a lyric taken verbatim from Shakespeare. Contrary to expectations, Cowboy appreciates it very much. Pleased, Mulan goes on with a sort of ballad made with the names of the stations of Yamanote Line, Tokyo's circular line, and this, too, is quite successful: but at the very best Cowboy gives up the bass, pulls out a box cutter and gets a large X-shaped wound on his chest. The party is ruined by the following stampede, Mulan is shaken.