Interior, night. Room 503-A of the Akamonkai Nippori Ryo. It is the eve of the weekend and it all began only two weeks ago. It is raining; the wind has finally stopped chasing itself up the stairwell of this building, and I can now perceive almost every single sound — and silence — of the lives in these apartments.
The earth, however, is trembling. Light, constant, sometimes imperceptible; other times with more intention. It does so often, when you least expect it; and even though you know it will happen again, you never find yourself quite ready enough to go along with it.
Japan is like this — it trembles often — and little by little you get used to it; it is a bit like an uninvited friend who drops in unannounced every so often.
Though, to be honest, I do not know whether I will ever truly get used to it. But my days are slowly filling with habits and rituals, with a whole new everyday routine that I like, that makes me feel light, fresh, full of life, charged with an energy I had forgotten.
There is the 8:30 alarm for work, messages with the family who gets up early to go to the office and cannot wait to hear from me, and school that takes up most of my week. Then there is the 4:30 ritual — the phone call with the people I love, while I walk through the streets of Nippori towards the Main Campus library where my new classmates are waiting to study together; the walks around Yanaka, the shopping at Inageya, coffee for everyone on Sunday morning up on the terrace.
This is my new life. It is made of smiles, of study, of sacrifices, of new people, of konnichiwa and sumimasen, of hand-pulled ramen from the guy in the square, or okonomiyaki at Don Don; it is made of places to explore, of unexpected things, of incredible experiences, of waits that seem endless but that are worth it — because you know they are, you believe in it.
It is now past two in the morning; the rain has stopped falling and the only sound I can hear is the broken neon light outside my front door, still flickering on and off at intervals.
The time has come to go offline.
Soundtrack "Sigur Ros - Glósóli"