Aki-Essays: Christmas under Toyota Amlux building (12-14-08)

The glitter of lights and ornaments is a symphony played through the weight of tranquility. Those man-made products cooperate together to make up trees and buildings for Christmas. But even for all of the inanimate decorations, the nature of Christmas which is approaching seems formal. Those devices are merely mechanisms operating on and off like clockwork.

The feeling of indifference exists for people, too: there seems to be no concerns over human matters such as the recent slew of layoffs.

At some companies, those were the decisions made to bid farewell to each over 300 employees, an example figure, some of them had just joined the company, while other companies were determined to effect a more radical layoff, like Sony which would let go of 16,000 of its employees.

Given the situation, what one might wonder about is not only how those terminated people would get by but also what expression Santa Claus, were he real, would be wearing when he delivered gifts.

Still, whether believing in the existence of Santa Claus, one might hold a hard preconception that an act of exchanging Christmas gifts imparts a certain degree of pleasure and peace of mind to help people feel better. [Would need a better transition to link this idea and the rest of the story together.]

On a personal note, for the first time my best friend Takeko recently asked me to let her follow my small journey to Animate, a chained store dealing with comics and animation-related items, in Ikebukuro. We made an arrangement to see each other at the Sunshine 60 building shortly after 6:00 p.m.

The store with its closest station, Higashi-ikebukuro, on the Yurakucho subway line was located between Sunshine 60 and the TOYOTA Amlux building. The Amlux was abright with stripes of blue neon lights, a splendid juxtaposition with the darkness of the yet cool sky just behind the store. High on one side of the Amlux building, a certain not large space gave life to white lights to compose animations. The animation showed two sets of movements alternately: a bell was swinging from one side to another; two lumps slid to form a snowman. Those works kept me company and amused as I was waiting for Takeko’s arrival.

Shipping a Christmas present to my friend, a lady who teaches English in London, has been my annual custom. Every time I choose somewhat odd-seeming items that “otaku guys” (geeks who are into animations and video games) would likely be pleased with. Indeed, last Christmas I sent her a figure of a pretty girl made of rubberized plastic. As I would follow the same tradition this year again, Takeko, then, was wanting to buy a Christmas gift for her private English teacher, the reason why she joined my shopping. This occasion was not for purchasing a gift for one another between us.

The Animate building required shoppers to do some exercise as they moved up and down across eight floors by steps. (There was an elevator but it was not a comfortable mode of moving due to its small size.) Yet each floor nicely impressed both me and Takeko, by a wide range of products. The floors from the first to the fourth were mainly filled with comics, and the seventh and eighth were mainly for DVDs and video games. The fifth or the sixth floor seemed the best place to find a Christmas gift, showing assortments of items, such as figures, accessories, cards, stationery, toys, clothes and cups, making her look mesmerized. Thanks to the wide variety and relatively low prices, she, given a good choice of things, spent a pretty fun time while looking for something expected to match her teacher’s taste.

While she was engaging in her own business, on the sixth floor I was wavering between two kinds of stuffed toys: one was “Ponyo,” an animation character designed by Hayao Miyazaki, while the other was a taiko, a traditional drum of Japan, a character from “Taiko no Tatsujin,” a popular video game. While a small Ponyo out of a range of sizes was cheaper, the taiko enchanted me with its comical face and was expected to give tactile comfort as a cushion. And, while I was afraid that goods about Hayao Miyazaki were selling in London as well, I conceived of a taiko as specific to Japan. So, the decision was made on the taiko which shortly later got wrapped in Christmas-themed decoration on the eighth floor free of an extra charge. I just believed that the recipient would be pleased with something unique, finding none of the traits of the chosen gift offensive. [What do you mean by this?]

After the purchase, I descended to the fifth floor where Takeko was deciding on a box of a jigsaw puzzle. She chose the smaller one of a pretty girl, curbing the cost.

Those blue neon stripes were shining behind us as Takeko and I got out of the building for dinner.

We first considered looking for an “okonomiyaki” (Japanese style pancakes) restaurant in the basement of the Sunshine 60 building. That was where I and my classmates shared lunch during my technical college days, probably several times. Though, I was unsure about the exact location of the restaurant. To attest to the uncertainty, the restaurant didn’t show itself as we passed a big white Christmas tree and other ornaments hung around the basement area. So, after having the view of the blue neon stripes once again and crossing the highway, we decided on a Chinese restaurant near the Tokyu Hands building. Although another available route was an underground tunnel from the shopping mall on the same level, we just missed the cool night air.

After relishing Chinese dishes at affordable prices, we moved to a cafe on Sunshine 60 Street and had coffee, having dismissed the idea of walking to the basement under the Ikebukuro station building.

We parted, then: I headed home while Takeko would have an English lesson in private and hand her teacher the present.

The night was memorable, even though we didn’t spend so much money on either a Christmas gift or dinner, although it was not the exact day of the festivity. [This doesn’t make sense; what are you trying to say?] Instead of any brand new product, I bought the stuffed taiko and Takeko bought the jigsaw puzzle. However much we paid, we could still feel Christmas Day just by seeing artificial achievements as even Santa Claus himself was a human creation. He may know the brightness of the midnight sun, but may actually not do the darkness of night. Despite the possibility of his ignorance, people strive to decorate the secular void. Although each present of importance is bound to lose its original physical state over time, experiences in the merry days, in which people put each difficult situation to a halt, will stay calm in mind and out of nowhere spring back to his or her sensation every time the festive day, even if it’s not going to be snowy, approaches.