image: xeeliz
“Flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of yakitori in the air.”
I was on a quest for a recently opened spot I’d seen featured somewhere. Despite my map—I was still new to the city—I kept walking down the wrong streets. In Shibuya, a new bar or club hidden down a side street or in some dingy basement was to be expected, so I was pretty gung-ho [1] about turning into every tiny alleyway I encountered. As I walked down one such street, flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of barbecued yakitori in the air, there they stood. Two girls in sailor suits [2], like the kind worn by junior high or high school students, playing badminton. Close to them was an old man, belly protruding from a stained white shirt. He glanced at me. The girls were laughing and enjoying themselves, as if playing badminton in a dirty alley in the middle of Shibuya was the most obvious—and of course innocent—thing to be doing. 
referenced works
- "Gung-ho is a phrase borrowed from the Chinese language, frequently used in Chinese as an adjective meaning enthusiastic." (Wikipedia). ↩
- Sailor outfits can be purchased in Japan online or at shops called Burusera (ブルセラ), a contraction of the English Bloomers and Sailor Outfits (we like these contractions). Unrelated to ブルセラ病 (Brucellosis), an infectious disease transmitted from animals to humans, which was in development by the U.S. as a biological weapon toward the end of World War Two. With muscular pain, weakness and depression among its symptoms, Brucellosis would make it very difficult to play badminton. ↩
location information
- Name: Dogenzaka
- Time of story: afternoon
- Latitude: 35.658732
- Longitude: 139.698873
- Map: Google Maps
033 “Dewy eyes closed, her porcelain arms and legs splayed attractively”
032 “The ika had made too many turns.”
031 “A tongue was moving around my big toe, like a warm slug crawling. ”
030 “Ichor will gush out of this carefully constructed image”
029 “I wince, more than her.”
028 “Their schoolbags were puddled around their socks, forgotten”
027 “Amongst the bottles and the obscure records and the crimson velvet walls”
026 “Nostalgia isn’t an easy indulgence for amateurs”
025 “... but anyway please take one of these little cheese cakes ...”
024 “The inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes.”
023 “Yeah … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
022 “I was dead broke. It was winter.”
021 “The district's energy had faded to rest on my last night there.”
020 “The slightly bald salaryman didn't correspond to any memory I could conjure up.”
019 “She laughed at my effort and responded in English, ‘Long time, no seduction.’ ”
018 “In my dreamy state, oblivious to signs and announcements I often boarded the wrong train.”
017 “I was fifteen years old and it was one of those nights.”
016 “That ear of corn just wanted to go home”
015 “With his painstakingly coiffured mane blowing in the wind”
014 “Her voice, even across languages, betraying her worry.”
013 “I saw them drawing bamboo sticks from a silver rectangular box.”
012 “A simulacrum of someone else's home, equal parts comfort and loss.”
011 “Jumbled Escheresque insanity where geography in any traditional sense ceases to exist.”
010 “I could hardly make out anything apart from his glowing eyes...”
009 “Shibuya was like a stroke.”
008 “I cried for a while and wiped the dead bracken off my karate pants.”
007 “Both my tie and my disposition hang limp as I calculate the remaining distance to the station.”
006 “I once read about a Chinese maiden whose feet were unbound by a cruel man …”
005 “The Bad Girl strutted off and I was left with a ham egg pie.”
004 “I arrived expecting an irritated Japanese person to step out of the crowd and identify himself as Hideki.”
003 “The woman at the ticket window seemed surprised to see another human being. I was the only visitor.”
002 “Flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of yakitori in the air.”
001 “For two weeks the day began with this morning walk, our shared routine.”
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