There are two pool scenes in Haruki Murakami’s short story. You could contend that both scenes reflect a central theme.

The first pool scene takes place in the hotel Satsuki stays at. When Satsuki visits the hotel pool, she finds that it’s not for “serious swimmers.” Instead of swimming, Satsuki reads. After reading, she falls asleep and dreams about a white rabbit.

You could argue that both reading and dreaming are a form of escape. You might consider how escapism—a break from reality—is a key theme in the story. Satsuki’s real life is not so great: she seems to devote a fair amount of energy to hating her ex-husband and wishing he was dead. At the hotel pool, she tires to escape into a dreamworld but fails. Her dream about a white rabbit leaves a "bad taste in her mouth."

However, the second pool scene succeeds in separating her from her spiteful reality. Now, Satsuki has a big, idyllic pool all to herself. She also has Nimit, who seems to be at her beck and call. He plays jazz and serves her ice tea and sandwiches.

Again, her situation in this mystical pool seems to contrast starkly with her real life. It’s almost like a fantasy. Instead of a husband who cheats on her and won’t let her listen to her beloved jazz music, she has Nimit, who accommodates her and loves jazz. It’s like she’s created a temporary fairytale for herself.

In Haruki Murakami's short story "Thailand," the main character, Satsuki, experiences a metaphorical spiritual renewal as the water in the pool washes over her and fills her with a peace that she has forgotten can exist within her.

Satsuki is completely consumed by her resentment and hatred toward her ex-husband and finds herself constantly wishing that he be killed by a sudden earthquake. Her heart and spirit are hardened. However, as she floats in the peaceful water, listening to the soothing music of jazz that her driver is playing out of the car, she begins to reflect on that state of her spirit. A short while later, a fortune teller explains to her that she has a cold stone inside her and that, in order for her to be released from her resentment, a snake must appear to her in a dream and devour the stone of hatred that has consumed her life. Satsuki resolves to allow this dream to occur, symbolizing her desire to let go of her resentment and hatred and become at peace.

The pool scene deals with a sort of spiritual cleansing for the central character, Satsuki, who is so bitter towards her former husband that she wishes an earthquake would kill him. After being taken to a fortune teller, she is informed there is a hard stone within her body that a snake must remove in a dream. If this does not happen, the stone (representing her resentment and hate) will kill her.

At one point, Satsuki is taken to the pool by a mysterious driver, Nimit, who also has a past with his former employer. At the pool, Satsuki is alone in the water. The moment is one of peace, with Nimit playing jazz in the car, which takes Satsuki back to her childhood (her father loved jazz music too). It is a moment of rest, foreshadowing Satsuki's redemption and eventual release.

As one of the stories from the collection After the Quake, "Thailand" has as its main character Satsuki, a pathologist, who lives with a hardness of her heart, harboring hard resentment against her former husband to the point of wishing an earthquake would take his life.

After flying to Bangkok for a professional conference, Satsuki has planned a vacation at a luxury hotel. But, since the hotel pool is crowded, her limousine driver called "Nimit" takes her to a larger pool where Satsuki can swim alone for as long as she wants.

The rectangular stretch of water was beautiful, surrounded by lawn and trees, and undisturbed by swimmers. 8everal old wooden deck chairs were lined up beside the pool. 8ilence ruled the area and there was no hint of a human presence.

The central theme of Emptiness in Self is reflected here. Satsuki has quelled the spirit in herself and hardened herself against her former husband, hoping the earthquake has taken him. She has "thrown down the well" the child she has never had, and she does she allow herself to feel.  When Nimit plays the jazz in the car, she is reminded of her childhood in which she lived under the love of her father. He later takes her to see an old woman in the town of Kobe, from where her husband has come to remind her of him. This woman tells her that she will have a dream in which a snake will appear and she must allow it as a representative of her life to eat the stone of hatred so that she can pursue a life without hatred. So, on the night before her departure, Satsuki recognizes that she has a "hard white stone inside herself" and prepares to sleep and "wait for the dream to come."