It was late December in 2020. I was walking towards my apartment, approaching Musashikoyama station when I saw the warm glow…
I always loved Tokyo in the winter, especially the nights. Sunsets were hauntingly red. And soft light lingered longer until the street lights finally turned on. The last commuters would pass by. Sometimes stopping at a combini as they flowed out from the station. I noticed a distinct rhythm and pace to these nights. It was the embodiment of “Tokyo slow”.
It was the first winter during the Covid pandemic. The city was heavy with feelings of uncertainty and isolation. Daily life, or at least the life I had come to know from living there the two years prior, had all but shut down. People were mostly working from home. Restaurants were closed at night. There was little for me to do after work but wander from my office in Shibuya back to my home in Musasikoyama each evening.
I got to know the backstreets of Tokyo. It was remarkable how quiet the city was. Tokyo was a typically “quiet” place for me due to my inability to speak Japanese, but those nights the stillness was magnified. My walk home was about one hour long. And each night I would try to get dinner along the way. While the combini was always an option, there was always such a weight that was lifted if I could find an open restaurant where I could sit down and have a meal. Just a place to feel some pre-pandemic normalcy for a moment. However, this often lead to more frustration as there were complex dining rules (often take out only rules) and my struggles with communicating often left me leaving places empty handed. It’s hard to articulate now years later, but these interruptions to seemingly routine experiences provided perspective on how welcoming the ordinary can be. So one night when I was walking towards my apartment, approaching Musashikoyama station I saw the most ordinary of fry stands. A sight you will see in and around any local station in any part of Tokyo. However, that night it was open late and people were congregating towards it. It stood out in my eye among the dense dark streets behind it. I thought to myself, wow it’s like an oasis.
What an ordinary sight… I was so thankful.