image:“The district's energy had faded to rest on my last night there.”
Akihabara was the place for me. I took it on building by building. If there was a sign and a staircase in the Chuo-dori1 area, I explored it.
It was my last night there, and the district’s energy was fading as people walked towards the station. I remember warmth and neon. Fluorescence. A softbox for my soul.
My ear buds pulsed with “Pete Standing Alone” [1] as I walked south towards the corner that would take me to the station. All the blasting store announcements, solicitations, j-pop music and melodramatic voice acting were muted or simply missing from the atmosphere by this hour. I turned my music down just enough to hear the shuffle as passers-by speed-walked around me.
As I reached the end of the street, I turned the corner and stopped listening to my song. Feeling the need to absorb one more visual, I paused a few yards from the Sato Musen building and turned around. I pulled out my five-month-old digital camera, held her steady and snapped without the flash. It felt like I was saying farewell to a close friend. I sighed a “thank you” into thin air.
location information
- Name: the street facing Sato Musen in Akihabara's Denkigai (Electric Town)
- Address: 1-11-11 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo
- Time of story: evening
- Latitude: 35.698179
- Longitude: 139.771902
- Map: Google Maps
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