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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Solitary late night walk to FamilyMart

During my Perth days, I always liked the idea of taking a late night walk to, say, a convenience store nearby. Either to buy a drink, or some snacks (often a chocolate bar).

But back then, I was usually going to the petrol station opposite Murdoch University. I remember going there almost every night whenever I had to sleep over at the editing rooms.

I like walking at night when certain places and the route I take are only partially illuminated by the streetlights, or the lights of the school buildings. There's something magical about those once-familiar places at night.

When walking alone, away from the editing rooms, I'm alone with my thoughts, I can take a breather, thinking over on what to do next, mentally reassessing previous scenes to see what I've done wrong, or I can just think nothing, and hear only the sound of my own footsteps, and the distant sound of cars passing by.


Normally I care more about the journey, than the destination. The breather I craved was the walk I took, and not the snacks and drinks I bought at the petrol station.

Of course, returning to Malaysia and staying for a year, I never really had the chance to do that again. In fact, I've forgotten about all these until I started writing this post.

This post was really meant to be about the late night walk I took to the convenience store just an hour ago. I was about to write and post the photos I took until I suddenly remember that I used to do the same when I was in Perth.

A few nights ago, I took my very first walk to the FamilyMart convenience store near Waseda University. So I decided to do the same again just now, but this time bringing a camera with me.

This is my view when I walk out of the back of my dormitory.

Late night solitary walk 1

Late night solitary walk 1


Normally I have to walk down this long flight of stone steps to my uni. I personally believe that it was the main culprit that made me lose that much weight since I came to Tokyo.

Walking up and down the steps is hellish, especially nowadays, under the scorching summer sun..

The imposing flight of stone steps

The imposing flight of stone steps 2


But at night, the trek is much easier. I tried snapping photos of the empty streets near my university, but everything came out blurry. If you look carefully on the right of the photo below, there's a woman walking by herself. I think she might've freaked out if she'd noticed someone taking photos of her from the distance.

Empty streets. Solitary woman.


I reached FamilyMart. Entering the place, i was immediately greeted by loud and cheerful J-pop, there were a few guys at the magazine/comics section, I walked past them to catch a glimpse on what they were reading. It wasn't porn. Just the latest issue of JUMP WEEKLY.

With the loud music, and the blindingly bright lights, and the nearby human presence, convenience stores like FamilyMart feel like an oasis of activity amidst a desert of stillness and darkness.

FamilyMart

Dude reading comics in FamilyMart