lingqi's Journal: September 3rd, 2004

September 3rd, 2004 (0:33am)

Recently Japan seems to the target of large scale natural disasters all at once. First we had flooding in Niigata (a couple monthes ago), then we had various typhoon bombard various parts of japan, causing localized flooding in kagoshima just last week. Adding onto that, yesterday we had a mild earthquake during the day and then at night Mt. Asama in Gunma prefecture (not too far from where I am - in fact on a clear day we can see the mountain) erupted; spewing smoke and lava...

-- Continues --

I don't think I have fully expressed what I wanted to say about the choice I was making because it had plagued me during my entire trip to the capsule hotel. The choice, while seemingly simple, was actually quite difficult to make. While it was indeed that the inevitable ennui that would have resulted from staying in the airport that prompted me to seek this hotel business, it is also the guaranteed resting place that gave me the biggest temptation. The train was one way, which means that if I had failed to locate a place to spend the night, I would have at the mean time forfeited my, no matter how boring, relatively comfortable dwelling. Literally, I would have forfeited it the moment I step onto the train, and there was no turning back. It would not have been so bad if I simply was driven to a position of no choice - say if airport simply did not allow passengers to stay overnight - but to forfeit what one have to seek something better is a most difficult thing. It was this difficult even when I was near 100% sure of the existance of a capsule hotel in kamata, and that it was open. I can not imagine myself making the same choice if the certainty was any less.

This translates to many things... One is that people always say that to have a stable country, as a government you must create a stable middle class. Such a saying is full of wisdom, and it is exactly this feeling of unwilling to forfeit what I already have that will ensure that revolutions will never happen when most of a country is fairly well off. Similarly it also underlines how easy people can take a course of action that's classified as "terrorism" when driven to desperation: when things cannot get any worse, any road with a hope of betterment would be taken.

Then there is business related: in bunisess, often similar sacrifices must be made in order to proceed to the next goal. Heck, it's the basics of investment - you part with your money at the beginning and hope that you will have a good return but also risk losing it all. Hence I do admire business owners who begins their company by using their own savings, because to part with such possession, especially considering how hard-earned it is. Maybe that is why there are more people who start business empires from literally nothing - because psychologically it's easier that way.

The closest capsule hotels around Haneda Airport are in Kamata, which is almost directly westward and inland from the airport. Haneda Airport lies most entirely on the watery fronts of tokyo bay, and on the map it looks like a strangely geometrical obstrution; though it is never out of place, as the entire tokyo bay is lined with such geometrical obstructions.

The train I took was the kei-kyuu line. And correspondingly it was the kei-kyuu kamata-station that I arrived at. JR also have a kamata station a little more eastwards from the kei-kyuu one, and all the excitement happens around JR stations, and it is little wonder that the capsule hotels are similarly located there as well.

Exciting the station, I was greeted with a tokyo in unrestful slumber, but nonetheless the hour was reflected by the scene. While cars still passed the main street quite frequently, they were sparse and hurried. Much construction was occuring around the Kei-kyuu station but none was attended, only the lights, lonely but dutifully flashing, emitting a mechanical click / buzz that you can hear when you get near.

The JR station was quite some ways from the Kei-kyuu station, and this is felt especially when one have had an exceptionally long day (by this time it was nearing 2am) and carrying a huge backpack. The road to the Jr station was not wide and nearly no cars went past there. A 7-eleven was open and a few people was around that area but as you go away from the convenience store, people reduces drastically until I was the only one walking under a row of yellow streetlights.

-- sorry, really have to continue later; I am falling asleep --