Nor do we need to know every meal the characters eat.
Back in the apartment, a soothing fragance filled the place. Nakata was bustling around the kitchen preparing some steamed daikon and deep-fried flat tofu. (p. 356)
At six Nakata made dinner–grilled salmon and a salad, plus a number of little side dishes he’d concocted. (p. 358)
They breakfasted on rise, miso soup with eggplant, dried mackerel, and pickles. Hoshino had a second helping of rice. (p. 359)
At noon they stopped by a diner and had curry. (p. 361)
At three they went into a coffee shop, where Hoshino had a cup of coffee. Nakata puzzled over his order, finally going with the iced milk. (p. 362)
At noon they stopped by a restaurant specializing in eel and ordered the lunch special, a bowl of rice topped with eel. At three they went to a coffee shop, where Hoshino had coffee, Nakata kelp tea. (p. 364)
Notice the page numbers. Now Nakata and Hoshino are on a mission and they’re driving around for a couple days in search of something, but Murakami even throws in when these guys go to the bathroom. Oddly enough, that’s always been one of the things folks began to notice in novels and tv shows and movies: Nobody goes to the bathroom.
Me, I’ve always been bugged by the family sitting down to dinner and crowding around only one side of the table so that no one’s back is to the camera.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology