Haruki #1 was a kamikaze pilot who died in World War II he was forced to become a soldier even though he did not believe in the war. Jiko also tells Nao about her son, Haruki, for whom Nao’s dad-Haruki #2-was named. Jiko teaches Nao about the principles of Zen Buddhism and encourages her to practice zazen, the Zen Buddhist art of meditation, to help her cope with her anger and sadness over her classmates’ bullying and her dad’s suicide attempts. Nao’s life begins to get better when her great-grandmother, Jiko Yasutani, a Buddhist nun, comes to visit their family in Tokyo and offers to let Nao stay with her at her temple in Northern Japan during summer vacation. Her dad feels so ashamed of losing the family’s savings and being unable to find work that he eventually tries to commit suicide. Nao not only has to deal with her classmates’ physical and psychological abuse, but she also has to deal with problems at home. When they tire of physical torture, they begin to shun her completely and even go as far as to stage a fake funeral for her. They pinch and scratch her, leaving scars all over her body. At school, her classmates bully her mercilessly for being a transfer student. Nao is very unhappy in Tokyo as she identifies more as American than as Japanese. After her dad is laid off and they lose their family savings in the stock market crash, the Yasutani family returns to their native city of Tokyo. Before returning to Japan, Nao and her parents lived in Sunnydale, California where her dad worked for a software company. Nao begins writing her diary after she and her family have been living in Tokyo for about a year.

Ruth a tale for the time being