Murakami, section 3

In class, we looked into the contant references (or lack thereof) to names, the cold, time and Sheep. I noticed something similar while reading. There seems to be some sort of oral fixation in this novel. The characters, Boku especially, are almost always eating, drinking or smoking. It reminds me of when there's an awkward silence and you start eating or offer someone a drink to start conversation. But this is in a book and there's no awkward silences. It's just text. It also reminded me of when someone's nervous or fidgety and need something to do with their hands, for example, smoking. Is there a significance to the characters always eating, drinking or smoking or is it just a way to fill space and transition? There has to be a reason, otherwise it wouldn't make its way into every single chapter. It would make sense to say that Boku would be doing such things to calm nerves or keep him occupied if fidgety. But the problem is, he's not either of those. In fact, he's so laid back and so non chalant about everything. It's almost a lack of caring, apathetic to the world. For example, when we talked about time we mentioned how he had a specific month long deadline and he just took his time with everything. There's no rush with anything. Boku's eating and drinking could be seen that he goes out a lot, but even at home his eating and drinking habits are a large part of his day. He cooked at the cabin and had three glasses of wine. He is constantly drinking beer and coffee at home and out. He drinks whiskey in the winter and beer in the summer. A few times he is mentioned drinking coke, as is Girlfriend. Coffee seems to be the biggest non alcoholic drink in his "diet;" same with Girlfriend. This is interesting to me because I always picture people from Asian descent drinking tea and not coffee. I associate coffee with America and Western Europe. Perhaps that's very stereotypical of me though, and completely off base.