monthly topic …
Adam Hacker walks on by.
Like a moth to a flame, each time I return to Tokyo my heart leads me to my old apartment in Shoto. Can‟t explain why exactly. I know it‟s there. Probably will be tomorrow too, but this urge has grown in the deepest levels of my psyche. Even now as I write, Tokyo-bound, I imagine my route to Shibuya and know that by day‟s end I‟ll have returned to my beginnings. I don’t mind this compulsion. Each walk is a return to a time when life seemed less difficult. Simple. I walk through the crowds of Shibuya station and its worldfamous crosswalk. Some say the busiest in the world, and I believe it. I pass the tall, cylindrical 109 Building, taking the right fork toward Bunkamura Concert Hall. I begin my ascent into Shoto and, even now, the noise seems miles behind. I pass nicely dressed Oba-sans, but seeing a foreigner here is no surprise to them. The traffic noise is gone and I‟m finally alone with my thoughts, in a city of millions. I turn left as I approach the bottom of my street, then follow the hedge to my right, around the bend, and it‟s revealed: Shoto Stripes House. I walk closer and imagine the textures of the facade, the grey and white tiled entry, and as I 12
reach out to touch, memories of childhood rush to the fore of my consciousness, all realized the moment my fingers touch the rock wall! It‟s fantastic. It‟s emotional. It‟s my beginning. I’ve done this walk at dawn and nearly every hour of the afternoon. But I most enjoy leaving the bustling nightlife behind, and with a beer in hand, I sit on the old white marble doorstep of an old life. Today I carry the same notebook in which you will find notes from my first return here in 2007, and I peer over them. I wonder how in the world‟s largest city I find a peace within me that cannot be elsewhere. Shoto was a time of new adventure and it was the beginning of the life I have today. For three years I lived there with my family, so I do understand this habit. It‟s a tangible artifact, unchanged, amidst a chaotic city where nothing is static and no one stands still. This place marks the beginning of a life less ordinary – my life. A life different from ninety-nine percent of all others. And so new beginnings I welcome. They will change your life forever.