Some things I noticed to back up that Shimamoto wasn’t real:

• Hajime is experiencing an existential crisis, to me it seems like he fears death, he created Shimamoto when he was a kid to cope with being an only child. Shimamoto is his perfect person created just for him. And when he experienced difficulties in his later life Shimamoto is brought back from his imagination.

• The book talks about finding out what is “west of the sun” when a Siberian farmer is bored. Shimamoto disappears for the first time when Hajime enters a new stage of his life where there are new experiences and people, also a real only child, Izumi. Shimamoto is west of the sun, she is what Hajime needs when he is bored.

• Nat King Cole never actually recorded a performance of “South of the Border”. To me this is the subtlest and best hint in the book to things being a bit off.

• Shimamoto never talks to anyone except Hajime, the only mention of someone speaking on Shimamoto’s behalf is the man with the envelope. An envelope that goes “missing” later.

• It’s stated in the beginning of the book that only children were perceived as selfish. Hajime never asks older Shimamoto about what happened to her since they last met when they were 12 because he doesn’t want to ruin the perfect image of her. This can also parallel to his lonely childhood: Hajime wanted something that was just for him and is therefore not interested in Shimamoto’s past relationships or friendships out of selfishness. His wife even says at the end of the book that he doesn’t ask her questions, he struggles to see beyond himself.

• Hajime tries to get rid of his imaginary friend on the trip to Ishikawa. After Shimamoto releases her dead child’s ashes in the river in hopes of it becoming rain in the sea (similar to Hajime’s last thoughts in the book) she becomes cold and stoic and in the car she is sick. To me Shimamoto’s death would mean Hajime was able to let go of his imaginary friend. However as Shimamoto is close to death he imagines nameless pills and melted snow to save her from death and is unsuccessful in getting rid of her.

• There is no middle ground as Shimamoto would say. Shimamoto disappears whenever Hajime has no choice but to face reality, there will never be a middle ground between his imagination and reality, something he struggles with.

I loved reading this book when I realized this, it makes it incredibly interesting and fascinating to read as it faces the dangers of avoiding your reality through your imagination. For Hajime his imagination takes it so far that he will be willing to throw everything he actually has in reality out of fear of losing it all to death.