The Maze of Nagoya Station

The hot and bothered Aya-senpai stood there trying to fan herself. I think it wasn’t particularly effective. Can I let you know a fact? The Nagoya Station is huge, reader. Within the complex, are nestled two towers. One office, the other a hotel. 245m and 226m respectively. A lot of money is shuffled around here, both literally and figuratively. Not just that, but it was almost maze-like. There are so many lines to go through if you want to change. We wanted to go to the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line, and the app says to do that - but Toyodahommachi Station is on the Tokoname Line. Yeah. It’s all confusing.

And to top it off, the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line is served by a different station that is still technically Nagoya Station - except it isn’t. It’s Meitetsu Nagoya Station. This is both Japanese bureaucracy and over-complication in action. Meitetsu Nagoya was located near some underground mall. Thank god, Aya-senpai was essentially going around to every worker asking for help - otherwise, we would’ve been fish out of water. I’ve obviously been to Nagoya Station, but I’ve never really needed to change lines to an actual railway. Safe to say, it’s not been a nice experience, so far.

You know what? Ignore that Japanese bureaucracy or overcomplication comment. The truth is honestly a lot of these issues are down to the private ownership of these transit lines. These companies can only bargain with so much. Surely, one can see how silly this whole thing is? Multiple railway operators can’t share the same Nagoya Station, so Meitetsu have their lines in their own station whilst another competitor, Kintetsu, have their lines within their respective station too.

What?

Can no one see the absurdity of this all? It’s all the same station complex, but do we have to refer to them as different stations? Like really? Why is no one questioning why it has to be this complicated? You know, what. I’m just ranting. I’m angry that I’ve had to look on my phone as Aya or Kazumi are asking me to try to look for it. That’s it. Everything I said was in anger. I take it back.

At last, we finally found the Meitetsu Nagoya Station. Look, I don’t like to judge the world around me as well as blame systems built in place way beyond my time - but I think one could put two and two together, no? We had to make sure we hopped on a train that had a terminus on the Tokoname Line. So far, so good. We might even be early. It’s only 9:49.

As I lamented the ridiculousness of how Nagoya’s urban planning was, I noticed Sayako was dazed. All of us entered the station, except for me and her. Then she interjected.

“Umm, I have a stomach ache.”

I have an idea.

“Everyone, I’ll go quickly with Sayako to buy some medicine. There should be a pharmacy nearby, no? I mean, I haven’t entered the station just yet. We have time too, so you guys can just wait for the next train if need be.”

Kazumi-senpai did a slow clap. Then she praised me.

“Good job Fukaze-kun! This is clearly husband material.”

I swear this teasing is going to have to stop one day.

Then, I said, “I guess everyone is okay with me doing that?”

Both Aya-senpai and Tateishi-sensei gave a thumbs-up. There goes the first event of the Culture & Travel Club. There’s still enough time, I hope.

“Sayako, let’s find a pharmacy,” I told her.

She gave a slight nod. I could clearly see her slouch. I probably needed to buy some antacids and some minor painkillers.

We left the entrance. There were several… unusual stores shall we say. One store was selling jewels at ¥700 apiece. Real and genuine! Probably with the tiniest asterisk ever.

I wanted to protect Sayako. To be honest, it was only a few days where she said “I’ll look over you” or something along those lines, and now I have to oversee her. Isn’t it ironic?

“I’m sorry Honzo, but I’ve pretty much been under the weather, since the very beginning. It got really bad when we were walking around the station. I might have a stomach bug.”

Don’t apologize, Sayako. It’s fine. I think we’ll still be able to go to the community event.

I reassured her and let her know that it was only a stomach ache. I guess that the flare-up is stress induced by trying to find the entrance to this place. I think most of us either took the bus or our parents drove us around the city. Plus, despite there being a lot of places in Aichi, there’s no need to visit them, except for family. So, we never needed to take the train.

Ah! I spotted a pharmacy. It was only just 10:00 AM!

I quickly entered. Despite not ever entering this place, I think I could get what I needed within a minute. Most pharmacies follow a similar pattern. The antacids were at the back. Numerous tablets filled the cabinet. I picked the brand my parents always used when I had an upset stomach. I hope it works for Sayako. Next was painkillers.

I only just realized how strange this shop was.

Half the tiles were missing, and there was no staff member currently present. Someone was attending it, but he just left before he saw me enter. I hope he at least knows I’m here as the door rang a bell as soon as I pushed it. Pretty annoyingly, actually.

The painkillers were… right next to the condoms and reproductive health? I’m not going to comment on that, but that certainly seems unusual. Then again, we’re probably near some brothels. Such is the life of a neighbourhood next to a train station. I guess you need the painkillers after you get hit and robbed by one. Unless it’s them who need it? Now I get the reasoning.

The staff worker finally returned. He gave a big old yawn. Maybe it was the tail end of a night shift for him. He certainly looked finished. I looked out the window and saw Sayako leaning towards the window. I handed the shop attendant a 1000 yen bill and headed out.

“You can keep the change!”

I say that, but it was only 10 yen. What a bargain for these two, by the way.

My acceleration was like a bullet. Except it was more speed walking, to be honest. I opened the door straight towards Sayako, who was now sitting on the ground.

“Hey, Sayako, you still feeling bad?”

“What do you think, Honzo?” She jokingly remarked.

Fair point.

I opened my backpack and took out a bottle of water. No. It wasn’t open. Yes, I was thinking about an indirect kiss. I don't care how immature that makes me.

I gave her some milk of magnesia. I told her that it’s fast acting but doesn’t last long. Shockingly, it was like she became a child getting told. She just kept nodding to everything I said. Being the good person I am (not), I recommended her to just take it every hour. Then, I told her to take the painkillers if her abdominal pain is that bad.

She then let me know she needed the toilet. One last stop.

“Can you wait just outside the door?”, Sayako requested.

Is she okay? Me? Me, outside a girl’s toilet? In a busy train station? Clearly, she wants me to be sent to prison. With these conviction rates? It’s over.

“Umm, Sayako, that’s fine, but you should hurry up.”

“Of course! We have a train to catch.”

She said that, trying to fight the pain from her stomach ache. You know what, I think it worked. Suddenly, it was like she got better. Do antacids act THAT fast? It was like 2 minutes at most since she had drunk the milk of magnesia. Suddenly, she got very talkative.

“Hey, Honzo. Is there a reason why you were staring and talking with Sakura-chan earlier? She told me she doesn’t like talking to anyone. If you’re trying it with her, just give up. Stick to our year, no?”

Did she feign illness just to talk to me? We have a serious event to attend to! Think about the Nepali immigrants!

“Are you lying about the stomach ache?” I told her.

“Not really. Although I kind of used it to my advantage. If I didn’t have it, I would’ve probably mentioned something else, if we found ourselves alone… I think.”

The way she said it was slightly flirtatious. A bit cheeky. I honestly don’t think she was trying to be seductive, but it certainly came off that way. Especially to someone, like me, who struggles with intimacy. I call it that intimacy crisis. A crisis of intimacy. The intimacy crisis is the want to be intimate and closer with others, but it feels painful and terrible. No way did Sayako-chan want to be with me.

Wait shit, I said I wouldn’t make up random terms on the spot. So much about self-change. You know what. I just had an idea.

Is the self just pure subjectiveness, reflecting on yourself? Think about it. That may seem a bit far-fetched or out there, but just think deeply about it. Maybe, the reason why we experience things differently is because of that.

I mean I like to think of people’s personalities as a 3D shape. Let’s say mine is a red cuboid. Just picture that. You can only have one 2D perspective on it. If I show people the rectangle side of things, they’ll only see the rectangle of me. Let’s say this represents my social outward personality. But what about the square on the top? And what about a weird mixture of the two? You see. The sense of self and personality is fickle. Identity is the same too. What about others? You realize that everyone has their own sense of self and yet, you will never know it because you are not them. And they are not you.

The hard problem of consciousness. Let me bring up something quickly whilst I wait for Sayako in the toilet. I don’t have much time, but I hope I do the concept justice. David Chalmers is a philosopher. He came up with the idea of the fact that there exists a ‘hard problem of consciousness.’ Essentially, why do humans seem to have subjective consciousness? Why do I see what I see? Red is red, to me - but red is a different type of red to you. He says that science can find all the ‘easy problems’ of consciousness, such as how memories work and some things.

But none of those will get to the original problem. The real problem is that consciousness is subjective. Science could never solve it. Or something along those lines. I’m not a philosopher, after all, and I am just regurgitating what I’m reading on Wikipedia, right now. However, from what my weak understanding is, the actual hard problem is why do we have all these mental processes accompanied by subjectivity? How do you make a memory subjective? We can discover how memory works but that doesn’t make my phone conscious. Or does it? So many questions?

There are several sides to the debate. You could subscribe to the fact that everything has consciousness. I don’t think quarks have consciousness, but hey, maybe they do. But I do think consciousness is bigger than the emergence of neurons. I don’t know.

I stood there pondering, looking at the ceiling. Someone must’ve spotted me and thought I was defeated. I’m overthinking this. And to be honest, I think I’m overthinking it to deflect from the fact that I think Sayako is quite literally dropping hints that she likes me. Is that true?

Can’t be. I’m unlovable. How can someone like me if I don’t like myself?

“Honzo! Honzo!”

Sayako screamed at me.

“Honzo? Are you okay? You seemed out of there.”

I must’ve been severely catatonic or something along those lines. Thinking just paralyses me. Damn. Thank God, Sayako got there in time.

Then she put my hands on my cheeks, teasing me and making sure I woke up. Later then, she massaged them. It was really stupid, to be honest, and made me ticklish. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

Classic.

You know, I think that kind of calmed me down. Certainly, there was a brooding sense of an identity crisis coming out. I think.

I had to respond to Sayako. “Yeah. I’m cool. Just really, really fatigued from a few things. I’ll just take a small nap on the train to Toyodahommachi.”

“That’s good. You want to rest on my shoulder?”

I never blush. I have never blushed. Sadly, I’m afraid I have a condition that makes me red like a tomato.

Then I acknowledged what she said. “Huh? Are you sure?”

Sayako gave a shiny grin. It made her completely stand out from everything around me.

“Why do you think I’m looking after you?”

I noticed her very dignified stance. She stood, almost as if she was a statue in a memorial. Too bad within a second later, she then slumped over.

“Take your painkillers Saya-chan.”

“Sure…” Sayako groaned in a weak voice.

It turns out, the toilets we entered were not that far off from the entrance of the Meitetsu Nagoya Station. It was only 10:06. Luckily, the train hadn’t arrived yet. I hope we will be in time to help ourselves to Nepali cuisine, I mean help teach Japanese to people.

Both of us used our manaca cards. We united with the group. As luck may have it, the train arrived.