A Wild Sheep Chase: Tokyo to Hokkaido

The story starts in Tokyo in 1978. A mysterious man representing "The Boss" contacts the narrator's business partner. The narrator's agency has printed a photo of a pastoral scene, and it must stop. The Boss's secretary says the sheep in the picture is the secret source of his power. The narrator has one month to find the sheep, or his career and life will be ruined. So he sets out for the north with his girlfriend.

Location precision: The novel names Tokyo but no exact address for the agency; the pin marks the city centre.

The couple fly to Sapporo to begin the hunt for the landscape and the sheep in the photo. The girlfriend's ears guide them to the Dolphin Hotel, which is a shadow of its former self. Upstairs lives the bitter, eccentric Sheep Professor, who remembers the sheep. The hotel is fictional, so there is nothing to find by that name.

Location precision: The Dolphin Hotel is invented; the pin marks Sapporo only.

Readers trace the trip by its details: the party goes north from Asahikawa and then east. The sheep hunters board trains from Asahikawa, which makes the station a natural marker for the journey into the countryside. Asahikawa Station opened in 1898. The current station building was designed by Hiroshi Naito.

Location precision: The novel does not name the station; the pin marks Asahikawa Station as the starting point of the northern leg.

Visitor guidance: Asahikawa Station is a working railway station.

On the way north the protagonists take a train from Asahikawa and cross Shiokari Pass, which stands 263 metres high. Readers use this crossing as one clue to place the final setting in northern Hokkaido, since the book never names the village.

Location precision: The novel names the pass only through readers' reading of the text; the pin marks the pass itself.

At the end of the line, the narrator waits in an isolated house for the Rat. Then the Sheep Man appears, a peculiar four-foot figure. The Rat later explains the house belonged to his father. The villa is fictional, but Niupu Station, the end of the Misayuki Line, opened in 1964, and farms near it are said to be one model for the story.

Location precision: The novel never names the place; Niupu is a traditional guess by readers, and no pin is given.