Shinjuku and Akihabara

The sky was still gray, as if Tokyo hadn’t fully woken up.

[Shinjuku – Haruto]The platform was crowded. Haruto stepped off the train and merged into the tide of people. A glowing sign flickered above the east exit. The air smelled of wet asphalt and fast food.He checked his watch: twenty minutes left until he met his friend.

[Akihabara – Nozomi]The train came to a smooth stop. Nozomi stepped onto the platform and rode the escalator up. The colors shifted instantly—bright signs, voices calling out promotions, anime posters on every corner.She took out her phone to check a message, but ended up staring at a shop window filled with miniature figures.

[Shinjuku – Haruto]He ducked into a narrow café. The hum of conversations and the aroma of coffee gave him a brief respite. He ordered a latte and sat by the window. Outside, people crossed the avenues as if the rain didn’t exist.

[Akihabara – Nozomi]She crossed a street lined with electronics stores. A raindrop landed on her nose, and she laughed to herself. At that moment, a shop assistant in a red uniform approached her.“Are you looking for something in particular?” the woman asked.Nozomi turned her head toward the voice.

[Shinjuku – Haruto]Elsewhere in the city, Haruto’s friend called to him from the café door.“Hey, Haruto!”He turned his head too… in the same direction as Nozomi, though they were kilometers apart.

[Akihabara – Nozomi]“Ah… no, just looking,” Nozomi replied to the shop assistant with a smile. Then she kept walking, with the strange feeling that, for some reason, turning her head to the right had been important.

[Shinjuku – Haruto]His friend suggested going to a record store. Haruto agreed, but along the way he stopped in front of a vending machine for no reason. He bought a cold drink.

[Akihabara – Nozomi]At that exact moment, in front of a music store, Nozomi stopped to look at a record in the display. The cover art showed a gray sky and a wet city. Without knowing why, she murmured:“Looks like… yesterday.”

[Shinjuku – Haruto]While browsing through the record shelves, Haruto said quietly, almost to himself:“Looks like… yesterday.”His friend gave him a puzzled look, but he hardly noticed.

[Akihabara – Nozomi]With a taiyaki in hand, she crossed the street as the light flashed green.

[Shinjuku – Haruto]With the unopened drink in his pocket, he crossed an avenue as the light flashed green.

That day, Tokyo was split in two: one half in Shinjuku, the other in Akihabara. But there were fleeting, invisible moments when it felt as if the two of them were walking down the same street.