Tokyo ’14, final
Checkout was at 10 a.m. After breakfast, I gathered up my things, shoved everything into my one rolling suitcase, a token of my time at Ogilvy & Mather, and left it at the desk while I went out to take a last stroll around the area. I walked down to Akihabara, turned east, crossed under the highway, and circled around. On the way I found a slightly depressed covered market called Satake, surrounded by older houses similar to the kind of old houses you find occasionally in Taipei, or at least until they’re all torn down.
Lunch was some fried pork chop with rice at the shop with the rude (for Japanese) waitresses, and then I headed back to the hotel. On the way I happened on an interesting second-hand camera store, but I didn’t have time to check out the lovely Leica M4s in the window; I had to catch the Skyliner out to the airport.
Oddly enough, the woman at the counter said all the aisle and window seats were taken. When I asked for an emergency exit seat, she checked, and found me an aisle seat that had miraculously appeared. When I got on the plane, the economy class was indeed booked solid. The business class was completely empty.
In any case, I had to follow the world outside the plane though the monitor screen, which was fairly entertaining.
Now I’m back at the Water Curtain Cave, transferring the few photos and videos I managed to take on this trip to my hard drives, and sorting dirty laundry, etc. The security guy downstairs is raising a kitten he found nearby. I’m fairly sure it is related to Rusty, the kitten I found for Chris Ly when she lived here years ago.
I’m not sure if this trip resolved anything in particular. It was mostly just me wandering around. I suspect my soul needed something like that, but 1) the benefits of such things are rarely immediately apparent, and 2) it’s a drop in a well. I’m glad I went, though. I got out from under things for a short time, managed to, as Winogrand put it, “not exist for a short while.” Fortunately it is the mid-autumn festival this weekend, so no work until Tuesday. I’ll worry about all that then. Or maybe I won’t.
