I’ve been wanting to read this book for quite some time because of Kenshi Yonezu’s song, “Campanella”, which is based on the characters from this story - I received the final push from my Japanese classes, where we were reading another Miyazawa story, “Yamanashi”.
I grew up reading books in Japanese, and I am once again reminded of how different a tale can be told ‘just’ from its language. I actually half read and half listened to this book (the audiobook is available on Youtube! the narrator has such a nice voice) and it was a magical experience. 
I already was expecting this after reading ‘Yamanashi’, but damn - the stunning imagery!! the gorgeous descriptions!! the flowery words and this overwhelming sadness you can just *feel* by reading this book. It has many moments of simple... contemplation and silence? Which is something that has been lost in more recent works, unfortunately. 
Thinking back now, actually, this book just felt like that train scene in Spirited Away. Mystical, full of reflections, all in this one trip to somewhere unknown. I can’t quite describe it, it’s an experience and feeling you can only get from reading it.

this has become pretty much a rant and a loose collection of my thoughts, but id like to finish this by saying that this book is a diamond, packed of love and care. 

head full, all the thoughts.