SAMURAI STREAMER
Inspired by Asian Andy, Johnny Massacre, Wong Kar Wai and Haruki Murakami.
As Anna looked out of the plane’s cabin window down at the neon illuminated city of Tokyo below, she found the music playing through her air pods were perfectly in sync with her tender emotions.
In fact, the staccato beats of the drum machine were so eerily precise in their rhythm with her own heartbeat she had to check it wasn’t her heart dictating the beat of the track over the Roland TR-808 itself. She’d been experiencing a pronounced feeling of departure anxiety, especially as she sensed she was leaving something significant behind in Japan and wondered why she had boarded the flight without so much as a second thought.
The further the plane flew away from the city high above the clouds, the more permanent her decided fate now was.
The track suddenly broke out into a kaleidoscopic cascade of piano melody which in turn shattered her heart into a thousand pieces.
As several tears fell from her cheek into her glass of ice water, she, without hesitation drank it and closed her eyes, hoping to sleep away her heartbreak and wake up in England.
One week earlier, sitting in his favourite ramen bar ‘サンボウル Sun Bowl’, watching the rain flood the neon soaked streets of Tokyo, Will had an epiphany. He had come to realise he now felt more at home in exile than he ever did back in England.
Prior to leaving his native country, he’d always felt he had existed in a permanent state of arrested development and now, alone in this anonymous side street, he felt truly free, as any perpetual, assimilated tourist might. There is a sense for the expatriate that you can put aside the past and be as new in a foreign land, where the only things that haunt you are memories. Will figured he was still too young to have the kind of memories that do that to you anyway, though he sensed it was only a matter of time before he would be haunted by something or someone and then perhaps finally his perpetual spirit of youth would be truly tested. In some ways he almost desired the melancholy of loss and regret to keep his creative spark alive and add some gravitas to his radical move abroad. So far, he could honestly admit to himself that he was still only surfing superficially on his skin deep cultural fetish for Japan though it had done pretty well to get him this far.
Inspired by Blade Runner and Ikira (two of his favourite movies) as well as his adored Nintendo 64 games, Will had made his big move to the land of the rising sun on aesthetic grounds more than anything more practical. To him, Japan was like a dream state, a place where nothing seemed impossible, where tradition and modernity worked together in perfect symbiosis.
Here, he felt less afraid of the future and more equipped to embrace it.
As he slurped back the broth from his ramen bowl, he could feel the chilli infused steam burn his eyes.
The head chef of 'Sun Bowl' laughed as Will's flushed face re-appeared from behind his bowl.
“目のためのサウナのように Like a sauna for the eyes!”
Nodding in agreement, the head chef replied ; “チリビジョンで世界がよく見えますか You see the world better now with chilli vision?”
Will widened his eyes in exaggerated fashion as the two men laughed uproariously. He couldn’t help feeling proud at his comprehension of the Japanese language. All those many years watching Manga and Anime were clearly not in vain and had paid off for Will, who already had an aptitude for linguistics.
Leaving with a sincerely delivered “sayonara”, Will exited the bar, dropping his skateboard to the pavement and pushing off toward his apartment in the Kabukicho district.
As the wind and rain beat down on him, the young Englishman felt truly adapted to the city in all its dimensions. He had become as much a part of the environment as the ground he skated on and the steel towers that dwarfed him.
In some ways it felt like he had been re-incarnated into a different culture and was living a second life, with his old life in England akin to a skin a lizard might shed, enabling his personal growth.
Listening to some synth heavy electro through his ear pods, Will felt as if his heart was in sync with the beat, making his overall sense of harmony with the city even more pronounced.
He was at one in his young life and as far as he was concerned right now, nothing could break his current sense of overall peace.
And yet, for all the sense of freedom Will was experiencing out and about in the city, he might have happily traded it all in for a good night’s sleep. Living in an apartment next to a brothel with paper thin walls, he’d rarely gone a night without continuous interruptions from all the noise.
Far from being in anyway erotic, the carnal activities next door had only increased Will's desire to either become permanently celibate or alternatively find the purest form of true love, with the former being the least likely outcome for his desirous young heart.
Having exhausted numerous dating apps with scant reward, Will had decided once and for all to let fate play its hand in matters of love. So far, he had enjoyed a few brief liasons in Tokyo but most attempts at either sex or romance were typically thwarted by the visceral grunts heard through his apartment wall.
One of the many reasons he wandered the streets of Tokyo so late at night was because he now slept mostly in the day and as a consequence had become an habituated nocturnal animal.
And although Will had friends, he far preferred being solitary in the city, listening intently to the sounds of the environments he frequented in a bid to inspire his music making. When he wasn’t listening to new tracks by his favourite artists, he recorded the ambient sounds of spaces and places all around him. Over time he had built a considerable reference library of sounds and had now in his own unique way reconstructed the city of Tokyo in pure audio. He would carefully curate these sound samples and strategically deploy them for his music tracks to chart his own Japanese story.
Making music was Will’s passion and his tracks were memories charting his own personal soundtrack in Japan.
He’d named his current track “Ramen Bowl” which he would dedicate to the manager of the ‘Sun Bowl’. The guy would probably hate it, but no matter. Will enjoyed creating something new and giving it away similar to Tibetans with their sand mandalas that they would ritualistically dismantle. It felt genuinely cathartic to offer his art as gifts but he knew deep down he needed to get real about making proper money, preferably without resorting to prostitution himself, otherwise he might find himself in the baccanalian land beyond his bedroom wall.
Some might say live streaming your life to thousands of followers was a form of prostitution but Will didn’t see it that way. He saw it more like his life was one long continous movie and if people liked watching it, why not let them in on all his adventures in all their many forms. And the fact was it just about paid for his rent and utilities, which was essential for his daily survival.
Having a camera switched on for large durations of his daily life meant paradoxically that Will was both exposed to thousands of people whilst at the same time being completely alone and solitary in the city. Often he did nothing more than skate around the city and talk about his life and the world at large. He felt free to talk about a myriad of subjects in Japan in a way he never did so much back in England.
As an expatriate, Will commented on his daily live streams about the madness of his native country from afar, disbelieving in the insanity unfolding back there. In many ways it suited him to criticise England as it further vindicated his decision to leave it behind. But deep down, it broke his heart that his home country was becoming such a crucible of divisiveness and political correctness. Compared to the functional dysfunction of Japan, it all seemed so much more bleak.
Fans of his live streams would often tell Will that he epitomised the very definition of Englishness which confused him somewhat as he felt that he was far more Japanese since adopting the place as his new home. Had he become a caricature of the Brit abroad without even realising it? He hoped he would be more self-aware than that, or then again perhaps he had just become his very own cross-cultural meme.
In the time he had been living in Tokyo, he had changed his image several times. Currently, he had a shock of acid green hair and was dressed like Light Yagami from the anime series; Death Note which afforded him many second glances from passing natives familiar with the reference. Here, he was free to culturally appropriate without being persecuted and he exploited that freedom without hesitation or apology.
It was a Sunday and Will was running endless circuits round Shinjuku Gyoen, often compared to New York’s Central Park. He was aiming to run the equivalent distance of a half marathon in a Totoro style costume outfit whilst raising funds for his local kick boxing gym where he often trained at night. His loyal subscriber/patron base for his channel were avidly watching his current live stream. The entertainment factor for them was mostly having the opportunity to blast out random sound clips to accompany his run. In the early days of having his super chats amplified he quickly learnt the hard way about the sadistic cruelty of his followers as they made sure to humiliate and embarrass him with the most offensive and shocking sounds imaginable in public. Over time however, he had learnt to cultivate his audience to be a touch more discerning and provide more sympathetic and complimentary audio excerpts to accompany his online streaming excursions. Now it was more as if they were curating the soundtrack of his life stories and it had become more of a living, breathing interactive art project where he was the subject in focus.
He went by his gamer name of Samurai Streamer, owing as much to his love of Kurosawa as his adeptness at playing video games.
With the The Fight Song by The Flaming Lips blasting through his blue-tooth speaker connected to his phone on-lookers were cheering him on as he fought through the pain threshold of his fatigue. He showed little embarrassment about drawing attention to himself in his absurd Ghibli costume though one of the advantages of being crazy in a foreign land is you don't feel so inhibited about being strange.
And then, without any warning, Will felt a significant thud as he scattered to the ground, injured by a passing roller-skater headed in the opposite direction to him.
With his phone sent sprawling and his blue-tooth speaker smashed, his live stream had come to a sudden and abrupt end.
Dazed and confused, Will slowly sat up to survey the damage of the collision, partially removing the Totorro head part of his costume so he could breathe more easily.
He was quickly attended to by some kind members of the public, as was the other victim of the incident.
As the two injured parties faced one another, they were instantly struck by a sense of vague familiarity.
Will got up onto his feet and approached the attractive young lady, still reeling from the accident and checking the bloody grazes on her knees.
“Are you hurt bad?”
She shook her head.
“No. Just massively embarrassed.”
“You’re English?” Will said, suddenly realising he was speaking plain English to a person for the first time in weeks.
“So are you!”
“Well we definitely showed the natives how to make a scene,” Will said, helping the young woman to her feet.
"Thanks. I’m Anna.”
“Will.”
He then quickly assured the several helpers attending to Anna that he could now take care of the situation. They looked a little unconvinced at first, perhaps because of his costume, but with polite insistence they left them to recover.
“Seriously are you alright?” Anna asked of Will.
“Apart from smashing my phone, fine.”
“I’m so sorry! I feel terrible. Is it insured?”
He shrugged, unable to remember if he had ever been so sensible as to insure a phone or in fact anything in his life.
“Perhaps I can pay you some money towards getting a new one?”
“Why? Are you loaded?”
“No. But I feel bad if I smashed your phone by clattering into you just now.”
“I’d feel better if you went for a drink with me tonight?”
Anna visibly winced at his cheesy pick-up line.
“I don’t feel quite so bad about your phone now I must say.”
“So, what? We almost end up ending each other and then never see each other again?”
“Well, I could possibly do breakfast tomorrow morning if you like?”
It was now Will's turn to wince at her suggestion, knowing how hard he found mornings, especially after barely sleeping due to the house of ill repute next door.
“Well I do know a place we can get bacon and eggs?”
“Why would I want bacon and eggs in Tokyo?”
“It tastes better when it’s less commonplace.”
Anna looked unconvinced but agreed to their arrangement and nursing their various scratches and bruises departed from one another in a far calmer atmosphere than their first exchange.
The Suke6 diner was famous for being the best place to enjoy western style breakfast food in Tokyo.
Will watched the rivets of hot black coffee pour like a steady stream into his mug. Since his collision with Anna in the park the day before, he’d managed to just about fix his phone and explain to his subscribers what exactly had happened in the events leading up to their sudden loss of transmission.
Off-line and present in the moment, Will felt unusually happy about meeting Anna this very morning. It was the first time in a long while where he had decided not to broadcast the events of his daily life to his followers.
“You look deep in thought!”
Will looked up from his coffee to find a beaming Anna wearing an embroidered Totoro cap.
“You look recovered.”
“The magic of make-up,” she replied casually.
"Are you deliberately trolling me with that cap or something?"
"Me? No! I love Totoro!"
Will passed Anna a menu and she took a seat, maintaining eye contact with Will before she surveyed her breakfast options. Will couldn’t help but feel his heart accelerate at the very sight of Anna who very much reminded him of his very first crush way back at secondary school in England.
“So, how is England?”
“Dreary as usual,” Anna said with a sigh.
“That’s how I remember it too.”
“A cake-filled misery-laden grey old island I heard it described once."
“Are you going back?” Will asked his leading question hoping she’d say no.
“I have no choice. I’ve got to go back and pay for this trip somehow.”
“Ah.”
And so as to hide his obvious disappointment he added a joke so as to cover his tracks.
“Don’t worry. I’ll pay for breakfast.”
“I didn’t mean I’m poor right now. Or at least, I deliberately try to ignore the crater-like holes in my bank account until I get home.”
"You must have racked up some serious bar bills on your travels I reckon!"
"Mostly matcha smoothies actually," she said with a wry smile.
Will laughed. He liked how dead pan she could be. It suited his mood, especially this early in the morning when he typically was at his most craggy.
Taking a measured sip of his coffee, Will watched Anna curl her hair with her finger as she procrastinated over the menu. For some reason this delicate habit of hers affected him deeply.
“Did you come out here on your own?”
“To Japan, yes. But I flew to Australia first with my friend when I first started out on this tour.”
“Did you upset her or something?”
“No! She just wanted to stay in Oz and I wanted to move on.”
“She won’t be moving on anytime soon then I reckon?”
“How do you mean?”
“Seeing that the place has become a prison island since the virus that shall not be named descended on the place.”
“The price you pay for true love I guess.”
“Oh, so it was love that separated you both from travelling together.”
Anna snapped the menu shut, putting an abrupt end to Will's inquisition. He read nothing more into this than frustration, but perhaps with further inquriry he may have struck upon something deeper that made her ill at ease.
“I think I’ll just have Eggs Benedict and an orange juice.”
“Okay.”
And with that, Will summoned one of the dutiful staff over to add the extra items to his order.
“ありがとうございました Thank you”
“You seem very assimilated if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Because I can say thank you in Japanese?”
“No. I heard you yesterday talking to the locals in the park.”
“Ah, Well I have been here nearly five years and watched a shit tonne of Anime.”
“You don’t miss home then?”
“No.”
But even as Will said it, he could hear how unconvincing he sounded out loud.
“What did you run away to Tokyo for? Did you kill someone?”
“Only my Gran. But she was in her 90’s already so it doesn’t count.”
“Fair enough.”
And before Anna could interrogate Will further, her coffee was poured in front of her with the same hypnotising flow as before.
“Thank you.”
The staff member bowed politely before exiting their table.
“They would never accentuate a pour like that back home?” Will said impishly.
Anna laughed out loud as the quieter, more austere customers surrounding them stared at her.
“You’re making a scene again!”
She smiled in recognition of Will’s indisputable observation and bit her lip in that sexy way that Will had seen old fashioned movie stars do in black and white films he had crashed out watching on cold rainy days back home.
“You want to catch a movie?”
“Sure! Can I eat my eggs first though?”
“Go right ahead.”
Will sat back in his chair and felt so comfortable in Anna’s company he almost forgot they were in a public setting.
“Feels like home,” he said out loud.
“What does?”
“Being with you.”
Disarmed by his honesty, Anna felt suddenly self-conscious that her response to him would reveal her mutual attraction to him. She was very much a cards close to the chest kind of person. Sometimes to a fault.
"How long are you here for anyway?"
"Til sunday," she replied, immediately sensing Will's disappointment.
She was happy to see her Eggs Benedict arrive to divert attention away from the sudden and unexpected candid tone Will had brought to their conversation.
Settling into the orange and green seats at the retro Cinema Vera in the heart of the Shibuya district, Will and Anna felt more tangible chemistry between them in their near silence of the movie theater than the whole time they had talked over breakfast.y
Will’s thoughts about Anna were so amplified in his mind, he worried she might overhear them and he would then be completely exposed as the hopeless romantic he tried to conceal from her.
Watching the classic Audrey Hepburn film Roman Holiday in the intimate cinema, the two of them found the electrical currents of their emotions perfectly reflected and projected in the love story up on the big screen.
The 1950's Cinecittà atmosphere of the film felt especially evoctive as the charm and innocence of the old fashioned story seemed a universe away from the overtly sexualised popular culture of the 21st century.
Afterwards, Anna, found herself dabbing a tear or two from her eye as the sad ending of the movie caught her by surprise.
“Who knew that old films could make you feel so sad.”
“Well, he should have just whisked her off to some obscure place, never to return,” Will said regarding the character of the reporter (played by Gregory Peck) who spends a day in Rome with a runaway princess (played by Audrey Hepburn).
“I guess she had her duties to fulfil.”
Will sensed that Anna related to the Hepburn character and he more so to Gregory Peck.
"Why don't you stay longer here in Japan?"
"Why?"
"Because going back home doesn't seem like much fun."
Will bit on some remaining ice from his large paper cup of Cola-Cola.
"Fun can't last forever," Anna said mock seriously.
"You remind me of my father who used to forever quote Corinthians at me."
"Corinthians? From the Bible?"
Will nodded.
"When I became a man. I put the ways of childhood behind me. I always think of my skateboard for some reason when I think of that line."
"I'm not pious though. I was never going to stay here forever."
Will passed the remainder of his coke to Anna who happily took it from him until she realised it was empty.
"You drank it all!"
“Can I make an observation?”
“Go right ahead.”
Will cleared his throat so the truth could come out easier.
“It kinda feels like you’ve already left Tokyo and returned home.”
“What do you mean by that exactly?”
“I don’t feel you’re fully present somehow. Your mind and heart seem elsewhere.”
“Anything else?” Anna said defensively.
“I said it because I don’t want you to leave.”
“We’ve only just met?” Anna exclaimed, somewhat astonished by Will's transparency and forthrightness.
"It’s like I said, being with you feels like home.”
Seizing upon an opening, Anna turned the metaphorical tables on Will.
“It sounds like you’re the one who’s already left Tokyo by the sound of it.”
“Me?”
“You sound positively homesick!”
“Well, only one of us has a flight to catch on Sunday.”
Feeling uncomfortable suddenly, Anna finally deflected away from the topic.
“Well I’m here for the rest of the week. How about we meet up tomorrow or friday so you don’t feel too aggrieved when I’m no longer here in your beloved Tokyo?”
Will smiled in bemused fashion.
“Okay sure. You don’t want to hang out this evening?”
“I’ve got a slight headache and should rest,” Anna said instinctively putting her hand to her forehead as if to legitimise her obvious excuse.
"It's because I finished off all the coke isn't it?"
"Don't be silly."
Will knew better than to force the issue of extending their date into the evening and escorted her back to the Shinjuku district where her hotel was located.
As they passed through the bustling streets, the familiar melody of “Moon River” could be heard being played by a ventriloquist street performer who was throwing her voice through a Studio Ghibli inspired puppet.
Outside her boutique hotel, Will and Anna said a formal good evening with only the lightest brush of lips before he headed back to his ramshackle apartment. It felt strange for him to be without his skateboard which had become far more an extension of him than even his phone but the memory of their brief kiss helped quicken his journey home.
As the sound of heavy groaning through the walls kept him awake once again, Will was far too pre-occupied with the thought of Anna to let it bother him so much. He had never felt such an attachment to someone so quickly and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to him right now as to why that should be.
For some reason he couldn’t get Moon River out of his mind and then finally accepting defeat regarding getting any sleep, he decided to make some music of his own.
He often liked to stream the process to any of his subscribers that enjoyed watching him create something out of nothing. Plus he suffered from ADD (self-diagnosed) so it helped calm down his easily distracted mind to have 'company'.
“It’s late and I was hoping to get some sleep, but since I’m up, I figured I should do something epic.”
As he set to work creating the track using his cherished Roland TR-808 and a sound mixer, he had a sudden premonition that he was making it exclusively for Anna and it struck him suddenly with a sense of profound sadness that it would be a farewell gift to her and that he probably wouldn’t see her again once she had boarded her flight back to England.
The sound of a superchat donation stirred him from his melancholy as he thanked one of his many "five dollar patrons."
By the time the dawn’s early light had spread across his messy looking sound desk through the slats of his musty blinds, he added what he hoped were the final touches to the track and ended his broadcast to the world at large.
“Goodnight one and all. You witnessed greatness tonight.”
Having spent most of her remaining time together in the days that ensued, their final evening felt unusually heavy. Perhaps that was inevitable thought Will, but he had also come to suspect that maybe these feelings of attachment were more in his heart and head than it was in Anna’s. In many ways she represented something nostalgic to him and he could just about detach his emotions enough to recognise that she was his homesickness in human form.
Walking amongst the grounds of Sensoji temple illuminated with pools of lights from red lanterns, the couple held hands and breathed in the nocturnal atmosphere that relaxed their shared angst somewhat.
Anna finally ventured to break the silence.
“Do you want my ticket?”
“Huh?”
“My ticket home?”
“You’re joking.”
“No.”
“What would you do? Live in my apartment?”
“Why not?”
“Security breach.”
“Your apartment?”
“No. The airline.”
“I was only joking,” but Anna knew that was not entirely true.
“What’s the opposite of homesickness?” she asked out loud.
“Wanderlust!” Will replied immediately, as if he had already prepared the answer in advance.
They walked further on in silence after musing on their strange and emotive brief conversation.
The bright red roof of the temple appeared majestic in the darkness, looming above the trees with its golden filigree appearing to sparkle, reflecting the bright moonlight that shone upon it..
Pausing by a koi pond, Anna became suddenly excited at the sight of bright orange and black spotted fish gliding elegantly through the still water, where small ever increasing ripples reflected the red orange glow of the lanterns nearby.
“So pretty.”
“They’re meant to bring good luck.”
“How so?”
“It’s said they give the observer strength of purpose. It’s a Buddhist thing.”
“Oh.”
Will laughed at Anna’s minimalist Zen response.
Before leaving the temple grounds, they stopped by the ablution fountain, where a huge sculpted dragon sat atop a bronze pagoda altar.
“Take your shoes off!”
“I say, that’s a bit forward!”
“You need to stand in the fountain and let the water run over your feet so you can be truly absolved.”
“What do I need to be absolved from?”
“Breaking my heart!”
Anna rolled her eyes at Will, but somehow in jest, he had said out loud what he truly felt inside his heart.
But then Will noticed he read the sign all wrong and corrected himself.
“Wait, it’s ablution. Not absolution. Doh. Lost in translation. I'm always reading things wrong at first. It’s actually more to do with purifying yourself.”
“I’m totally pure.”
Tentatively, Anna removed her shoes and placed her bare feet in the gently trickling torrents of water that ran over them like translucent silver.
‘Okay. This is actually quite relaxing.”
Will watched as Anna closed her eyes, completely at peace. It made him happy to share this precious moment with her.
As he gazed at her he made a mental note to add an additional section to the music track he had been unable to stop meddling with each night so it would be ready before her departure.
“I’m glad we met,” he said without thinking.
“Me too!”
Later that night, after returning to the Shinjuku district, Anna invited Will up to her hotel room to stay with her for her final night in Tokyo.
Enamoured with the pristine luxury of the hotel room, Will felt like a kid at Christmas, finally able to relax away from the squalor he had grown accustomed to back in Kabukicho district.
As they lay on top of the firm hotel bed, Will, who had barely had a decent night’s sleep in years, fell quickly into the deepest of sleeps, much to the surprise of Anna who had anticipated the very real possibility of them both having sex this very night.
As she watched him asleep, she breathed in unison with his gently rising chest and found it enhanced her affection for this lost son of England now living in self-imposed exile.
She turned off her bedside lamp and joined Will in deep slumber as they slept like babes in the wood.
When Anna woke up in the morning she was surprised to find Will had already left without stirring her from rest.
All she was left with was a handwritten note written on some of the hotel's official looking notepaper, placed on the pillow he'd slept on.
It simply read: Back soon! X
Somewhat affronted by his absence, Anna took a shower and then proceeded to pack her luggage in preparation of her late afternoon flight.
Back at his sepia stained apartment, Will was still tinkering with Laura’s track. Once he was seized with inspiration, he hated to lose it, like water falling through the cracks of his fingers.
By the time he had finished the track, it was much later than he had imagined. He would barely have time to catch Anna before she left.
He downloaded the track onto his phone and left his apartment in a frenzy, nearly colliding with a John headed for some pleasure on the stairwell of the building.
As he skated his way to the Tokyo Metro on his skateboard, he heard a message n notification ping on his phone but he didn’t check it. He didn't want to lose any more time reaching Anna at the airport.
Will arrived in the departures lounge, horribly out of breath, unable to find Anna anywhere in sight.
He finally checked his phone message.
“You lost us a day. Sayonara”
He quickly texted something back hoping she still had Wi-Fi signal before take off.
“I made you something.”
He sent the sound file to her phone as he saw she had received the message instantly.
Standing alone in the airport departure lounge, he could see Anna’s plane slowly begin to take-off on the runway.
As it made its steady ascent into the night sky, he turned up the volume of “Tears In The Rain” from the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack downloaded on his phone and he suddenly felt the haunting pain of memory creep up on him.
Will felt guilty and angry with himself for sabotaging a chance to cement something substantial emotionally with Anna on their last day together.
But perhaps this act of self-sabotage had a purpose.
Self-preservation.
He remained like a statue watching the plane until it disappeared from view, high above the wispy Hokusai-like clouds.
Sitting at the back of a Isakaya in Golden Gai, Sinjuku, Will drank himself into a stupor, not wanting to feel any more pain that he had to.
He wondered if Anna’s siren song had been a call to return home and he had somehow rejected that possibility after their brief dance this past week.
Even in his inebriation he could realise that he avoided spending the final day with her so that he could continue to live his life in Tokyo as a loner. As a digital samurai.
A passing waitress checked to see if he should could take his glass and as he nodded and smiled at her drunkenly with tears like pearls in his eyes, she made eye contact with him.
ねえ、私はあなたを知っています。侍ストリーマーではないですか？“Hey. I know you! Aren’t you Samurai Streamer?”
Before he could answer coherently he was hypnotised momentarily by the familiar sound of Elvis Presley's “Suspicious Minds’ playing on the retro jukebox.
Staggering through the back alleys of Golden Gai, Will sang to himself in slurred tones.
“Oh, let our love survive. I'll dry the tears from your eyes. Let's don't let a good thing die when honey, you know I've never lied to you."
He look around at the ghostly and ancient part of the city and suddenly felt utterly lost.
Perhaps he would always feel this way.
Like a tourist.