The book opens with, "Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being." From then on, I positioned myself as Ruth, letting the pages guide me into being a time being, connected with Nao's time. The story alternates between Nao, a Japanese schoolgirl, and Ruth, a Canadian author who finds Nao's diary washed ashore, likely from the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. What drew me at first was the question of whether the tsunami linked their lives. But as I read on, I moved at Nao’s pace instead. Her diary is heartbreaking, covering three generations: her suicidal father, her Buddhist nun great-grandmother, and her kamikaze grand-uncle. She writes about the bullying and harassment she faces every day, in the plain language of a teenager, as if it were normal life.
Or maybe none of these things will happen except in my mind and yours, because, like I told you, together we're making magic, at least for the time being.
Do not think that time simply flies away. Do not understand "flying" as the only function of time. If time simply flew away, a separation would exist between you and time. So if you understand time as only passing, then you do not understand the time being. To grasp this truly, every being that exists in the entire world is linked together as moments in time, and at the same time they exist as individual moments of time. Because all moments are the time being, they are your time being.
What if I travel so far away in my dream that I can't get back in time to wake up?
As I have not much time left in life, I am determined not to be a coward. I will live as earnestly as I can and feel my feelings deeply. I will rigorously reflect upon my thoughts and emotions, and try to improve myself as much as I can.