Let's draw a map!! -Afternoon on the Islands of Langerhans-　Haruki Murakami

   I love to draw maps. So when someone asks me, "I want to visit your residence, could you draw something like a map?" I happily draw it out. For example, when you get off the bus, there's a big sunflower blooming here, and next to it, there's a house with a gate like this, so you go straight past there, turn left at the sign for "Morinaga Homo Milk," and I get carried away with details like that. Even when I'm too busy to take on a writing assignment, I take the time to draw a map like this because it's something I enjoy. Just as there are good and bad writers, there are also good and bad map drawers. A poorly drawn map is nothing but a disaster. The three elements of a bad map are:

1. Poor balance, meaning that the relative proportions of things like road width and distance are all over the place.

2. Unclear memory, as in, "Was it the second right or the third?"

3. Missing points, where the most noticeable landmarks aren't marked at all.

If you're holding a map like this while walking in an unfamiliar area, it can be unbearable. It's okay if you're walking alone, but if you're Columbus, your subordinates might revolt. I've always thought that since there are so many calligraphy schools and Japanese writing classes, why not have a "Map Drawing Class"? Imagine if a girl who learned how to draw maps properly at such a place joined a company and every time someone needed a map, they were told, "Oh, if it's a map you need, go ask Sato-kun in the General Affairs department. She's really good at drawing maps." It makes my heart feel warm just thinking about it. I may have a somewhat biased way of thinking, but if there were a girl nearby who could draw maps well, I might fall in love with her. I once drew a map of a fictional city and wrote a novel based on it, and it was a lot of fun. Mizumaru Anzai is also good at drawing maps and explanatory diagrams.