Into The Unknown Universe of Japan

by Dudi Richards (Australia)

A leap into the unknown Japan

It was sixteen past seven in the morning as I was walking the wide footpath of Shinjuku West. My google map was as clueless as my navigating skills, trying to locate Hotel Roynett, the hotel I would stay for my two-week stay in Tokyo. It was just one block away from the Hilton. After thirty minutes of walking back and forth the same footpath following disoriented GPS signal on the google map, I gave up. I looked upon the buildings, gazing at signs in Kana, Kanji, and English. 'Starbucks, Mini Cooper, Hilton, … Roynett Hotel!' I mumbled. The last one was right in front of me, hiding behind a construction site. It was a tall building with the steps leading up to the glass entrance doors. There was an automatic door to the hallway to the receptionist, black glossy desk with a warm LED lit on the dark wall. A glowing Roynett sign fills across the wall. A young girl was behind the counter, wearing an immaculate dark uniform, landed me a smile. 'I'm afraid you came a little earlier than our check-in time,' She apologetically replied. 'But you're more than welcome to store your bag here then come back later,' She continued, eyeing on my only luggage sitting on the floor. She let me check in earlier after I told her I was exhausted after my sleepless flight and needed room to rest. I woke up as the moonlight was shining through the large window in my hotel room. I must have slept the whole day through the night. City lights dotted dark, tall buildings like millions of fireflies landed on dead skeletal trees. Traffic was buzzing low, gently tickling the glass windows. The aircon blew gentle heat circulating in the dark, floral-scented hotel room. Tiny squares of digital displays gleamed fluorescent white on the bedframe and walls. From the display monitor, it showed thirty past seven, and fourteen degrees Celcius tonight with the clouds hanging over Tokyo til the end of the week. Cherry blossom season almost reached its end. It was only a week before the golden week where everyone throughout the country would be away on a long holiday. I found myself bathing in the lights of Shinjuku. There were futuristic neon lights and giant TV monitors. They were all showing off commercials and new movie trailers. Flickering typos were running across, and they reminded me of the scene from the movie 'The Blade Runner'. Cool breezes of a spring night pushed me away from the crowds onto smoky dark alleyways hidden behind glossy neon-lit stores. There were men--their face was glazed with sweats--wearing headcloths behind the smoky charcoal-fuelled bar, toasting sticks of Yakitori. The famous Japanese assorted BBQ served on bamboo sticks are mainly the tourist attraction of it all. There are signs' English Menu Available' in front of tiny shops as a friendly gesture for foreign tourists who don't understand Japanese. Sake ceramic glasses clinked as peals of laughter broke up the heated air. A middle-aged man greeted me before asking him if he could squeeze me in his tiny restaurant. A man who sat right in the front gave me a gesture to sit next to him. His warm smiles were somehow curious as he looked up at me. I replied to his broken English with my broken Japanese. His laugh was filling up the entire shop. I wasn't sure if I sounded funny to him or he laughed at my clumsy Japanese speaking skill. He taught me a few Japanese words in between sips of beer, and bites of Yakitori. A cold spring night of Tokyo was suddenly warm and content. I found myself intrigued by what and how Japan would bring me till the end of my first-time Japan trip. Will Tokyoite subcultures keep surprising me that I would always feel like I walked into the unknown parallel universe? Suddenly my imagination went wild. I saw myself walking into the hidden world through one Tori gate of time and space to another Tori gate. In Tokyo, it was strange that I couldn't resist to let myself lost into the unknown, but I knew, in the end, I would be found again.