Early one Sunday morning, I took the first train on the Yamanote loop that embraces central Tokyo. The ride from the nightclub quarter of Shibuya to my home in Komagome normally took 20 minutes. However, on the train my thoughts drifted back to the previous night as I slid into deep uninterrupted sleep.
I woke up six hours later and casually got off at my stop. I still wonder how many times I passed my home in that circular journey as I slept. And I wonder if it really matters.
Tokyo is a boundless city formed of several sub-cities. It began life as a maze-like castle town, and remains a dense urban network that never truly reveals itself. Caught in a perpetual cycle of destruction and rebuilding, it is a city with no beginning and no end.
Around and around we go… and like that fateful train ride, my memories continue to circle back to Tokyo, time and time again.