The call from Nerima§
The block came down in five days in the end, the ball working the standing half from the road and the breakers taking the ground floor and the basement walls apart in courses, and the pile was picked out by lorry in the week after that. Marginal opened at both ends, the 28 came back onto its own line, and the drying frames went back on their posts. The area is filled and rolled, fenced only along the road side, and the commune placed swings and the climbing frame at the old end, forty-five metres of open ground at the new, two benches and a line of young limes along the fence. The plan for the site goes to the assembly in October with nothing built over this ground. It is Sunday, early in the afternoon, and the neighbourhood has been quiet for days. Akima is in her kitchen in the diagonal block with the window open and the children audible below when her phone lights up on the table with the name that appears on it most evenings.
Akima
picking up on the second ring Moshi moshi. (Hello.)
Mother
Akima. Ima, hanaseru? (Akima. Can you talk now?)
Akima
setting her cup down Hanaseru yo. Kocchi wa nichiyou no gogo. Dou shita no. (I can. It is Sunday afternoon here. What is it?)
Mother
Ojiichan no koto na no. Byouki ja nai wa yo. Genki. Tada ne, mou hitori de wa muri na no. (It is about your grandfather. He is not ill. He is well. It is only that he can no longer manage on his own.)
Akima
Ikutsu ni natta no. (How old is he now?)
Mother
Kotoshi no natsu de kyuujuu. Tonari no Ueda-san ga shuu ni ichido nozoite kureru kedo, ano hito mo nanajuu-hachi yo. Yakusho kara mo hito ga kita kedo, ojiichan wa uchi ni irenakatta no. (Ninety this summer. Ueda next door looks in once a week and she is seventy-eight herself. The ward office sent somebody and he would not let them in.)
Akima
Okaasan wa ikenai no. (Can you not go?)
Mother
Nerima kara Kochi made ichinichi kakaru no yo, hikouki to basu de. Hiza ga kono toshi de dame ni natte, sannen ittenai wa. (Nerima to Kochi is a whole day, plane and bus. My knee has gone and I have not been in three years.)
Akima
Oneesan wa. (And my sister?)
Mother
Ano ko wa muri. Kodomo ga futari to shigoto. Kotoshi wa atashi no toko ni mo ichido shika kitenai wa. (She cannot. Two children and a job. She has been to me once this year.)
Akima
quiet for a moment, watching the children on the new ground Sore de, watashi. (So, me.)
Mother
Sou. Ichido de ii no. Ohigan no koro ni itte, ie no naka o mite, haka o kirei ni shite, ojiichan to sukoshi hanashite kurereba sore de ii wa. (Yes. Once is enough. Go around the equinox, look through the house, tidy the grave, sit with him a while. That is all.)
Akima
evenly Okaasan ga watashi ni nanika tanomu no, hajimete da to omou. (I think this is the first time you have asked me for something.)
Mother
Sou kamo shirenai wa ne. (It may well be.)
Akima
Ojiichan wa nante itteru no. (What does he say about it?)
Mother
Nanimo iranai tte. Denwa ni denai hi mo aru wa. Demo anta no koto wa oboete iru wa yo. Natsu ni nankai mo tomatta deshou. (That he needs nothing. There are days he does not pick up. He remembers you. You stayed there summer after summer.)
Akima
slower Oboete ru. Kawa to, gakkou no ura no michi to, ano ie no kaidan. (I remember. The river, the road behind the school, the stairs in that house.)
Mother
Ja, ikeru wa ne. (So you can go.)
Akima
Okaasan, ima wa henji dekinai. Koko kara deru no wa, okaasan ga omotteru yori muzukashii no. Shirabete kara kakenaosu. (Mother, I cannot answer now. Leaving here is harder than you think. Let me look into it and call you back.)
Mother
Muzukashii tte, nani ga. (Harder how?)
Akima
Ashita hanasu. Kyou wa mada seikaku na koto ga ienai kara. (I will tell you tomorrow. I cannot say anything exact today.)
Mother
Wakatta wa. Isoganakute ii no yo. Ojiichan wa dokonimo ikanai kara. the line quiet Sou iu imi ja nakute ne. (All right. There is no hurry. He is not going anywhere. I did not mean it that way.)
Akima
Wakatteru yo. (I know.)
Mother
Ja, mata ne. Gohan chanto tabete ne. (Well then. Eat properly.)
Akima
a small breath, close to a laugh Tabeteru yo. (I am eating.)
She stays at the window after the call ends, then writes two words on the corner of a newspaper, puts her shoes on and goes down. Vlad is across the new ground on the far bench, by the fence where the drying frames used to stand.
What her mother asked§
Akima walks down Marginal with the newspaper corner folded in her hand and turns in at the new block. The courtyard behind it is smaller than the old one and still raw, gravel where the grass has yet to take, the multi-capsules gone from the far end and their footings showing.
Akima
stopping a couple of metres short, one hand up Hi. sitting down on the wall, leaving a gap between them Your gravel is worse than our gravel.
after a moment, looking at the racks rather than at him My mother rang. Not the usual call. She wants me to go to my grandfather in Kochi, around the equinox, look through the house and see him. turning the folded paper over once in her fingers And I cannot go.
Vlad
And what can I do?
Akima
looking at him now You can go instead of me. seeing his face and putting a hand out flat, slowing it down Wait. I will tell you the whole of it before you say anything, because it sounds like a favour and it is not a small one.
He is ninety. He lives outside Kochi, on Shikoku, in a house my grandmother died in, and he will not let the ward office through the door. My mother cannot make the journey and my sister cannot either. Somebody has to walk through the rooms, see what is broken, tidy the grave and sit with him for an afternoon so that he has seen a face from the family this year. None of that needs Japanese. It needs a person standing in the room.
a short pause, the paper folded smaller in her hand And you have the two things I do not. You still hold euro at the cooperative from before you came, so the fare is yours to spend. And you can leave.
Vlad
You also hold euro if you saved yen from the outside. And I am not sure I will be able to go to Japan all by myself.
Akima
stopping, and her face changes I do. I paid all of it in when I arrived, the whole transfer, with the papers showing where it came from. I have never once had a reason to touch it. So the fare is mine.
folding the paper again And you would not go alone. Nozaki lives in Tokyo and she has read about this place every day for a week. I will ask her. She has her mother three days out of seven, so she may well say no, and then we think of something else.
The name on the paper§
Vlad
What is on the paper? There are two characters.
Akima
turning the corner of newspaper over and looking at it herself for a moment My grandfather's name.
里見
handing it across Satomi. I wrote it while she was talking. The first is village, and the second is see. This is the first thing I have written by hand in Japanese since I came.
Vlad
So... you want to send a turkish messenger to your grandfather's door.
Akima
a short laugh Turkish. looking at him sideways It's a joke I do not have. I am sending a man from Romania, and to him you will be a foreigner at the door either way.
Vlad
It wasn't a good joke, I am sorry. So, what are we going to do?
Akima
waving it off It was fine. I laughed. sitting forward on the wall Tonight I write to Nozaki and ask her, and I ring my mother back tomorrow with whatever answer I have. Before that I want two things from you. Go to the cooperative this week and find out what a person actually does to leave the country. And tell me whether you want to go at all.
Vlad
We'll decide after you talk to Nozaki.
Akima
nodding once Fair. standing up off the wall and looking down the length of the new ground toward her own block She works early tomorrow, so I will write tonight and there may be an answer by the morning. pausing before she goes Thank you for sitting through that.
Vlad
I'll wait for the answer.
Akima
already turning, half over her shoulder You will have it, one way or the other.
The teller at Calmura§
The 28 runs it inbound along the jingle line, Marquena, Dolvena, Serpina, four notes at each. Vlad gets down at Calmura, where the communal office stands on the square side, a low building with the constitution on a shelf inside the door and the currency cooperative's teller window at the back of the same room, under a printed card listing the days a teller is present.
Vlad
approaching the teller Sali, so, I need to go to Japan very soon and I need to convert some euros into yen for personal use. How do I extract and use them?
Teller
Yen is a hard currency. Your euro sits in Ireland and we hold it there for you, so a personal direct withdrawal for travel is straightforward. We hold no yen at all, and there is no counter here that will hand you yen notes. You can draw euro notes here, on notice, and change them at a counter after you land, or take a card.
The card is a Tuby's PowerCard. It is a CARD-ROM with a processor in it, and the software on it presents itself to a terminal as a card issued by a bank. The charge lands on your euro balance and the terminal does its own conversion. It works on older terminals. Some of the newer ones read the format, decide they do not like it, and refuse it, and there is no arguing with them at the counter. So you carry notes as well and you treat the card as the convenience.
We can issue one. It goes on the request and it takes days, and we issue very few of them, so bring the dates of your travel in writing when you come back.
Vlad
What is Tuby's PowerCard exactly?
Teller
It is an emulator. Inside there is a small computer with its own battery, and the software on it plays the part of a bank card at the terminal: it answers the terminal's questions in the order a bank card answers them, it produces the codes for each transaction as it goes, and it drives the stripe as a coil, so an older reader takes it as a swipe. Behind all that it is talking to us in Dublin, and what you spend comes off your euro.
The software is written by Tuby, a cooperative here. They write for PowerPC, so their card runs a PowerPC part, and the whole emulator is one piece of software they build and sign themselves. They have an ARM build as well. The people who repair these tell me the PowerPC one is the one that comes back least often, so that is what we hand out.
It fails at the newer terminals where they look at the format, decide it has no scheme they support, and stop.
Vlad
Now I know. I think in a week or so I will be leaving.
Teller
reaching under the counter and putting a printed form on the top of it, turning it to face him Then fill this now and the days start counting from today. Name, member number, the dates you travel, where you are going, and down there the amount in euro you want in notes and whether you want the card as well.
putting a pen beside it I will take it as it stands. Come back when you have the exact dates and I will write them in myself.
The request to Tokyo§
He signs it, takes his copy, and the teller drops the other into a tray behind the counter. Several hours later it is dark in Lindoma and morning in Tokyo. Akima is at her kitchen table with the window shut, the phone in front of her, writing to Nozaki Rie in long gaps while the other woman is on her way to work.
Akima's phone, times shown relative to Republic of Fluid
-
野崎さん、お願いがあります。長くなります。
Nozaki-san, onegai ga arimasu. Nagaku narimasu.
Nozaki, I have something to ask you. It will be long.
-
母から電話がありました。高知の祖父のことです。九十歳で、一人で暮らしてて、役所の人は家に入れてもらえませんでした。誰かが行って、家の中を見て、墓を掃除して、少し一緒にいる必要があります。
Haha kara denwa ga arimashita. Kochi no sofu no koto desu. Kyuujussai de, hitori de kurashite te, yakusho no hito wa ie ni irete moraemasen deshita. Dareka ga itte, ie no naka o mite, haka o souji shite, sukoshi issho ni iru hitsuyou ga arimasu.
My mother rang. It is about my grandfather in Kochi. He is ninety, he lives alone, and he would not let the ward office in. Somebody has to go, look through the house, clean the grave and sit with him for a while.
-
私は行けません。
Watashi wa ikemasen.
I cannot go.
-
行けないって、お金ですか。
Ikenai tte, okane desu ka.
Cannot go, meaning money?
-
お金ではないです。それは後で話します。
Okane de wa nai desu. Sore wa ato de hanashimasu.
It is not money. I will tell you that part later.
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代わりに友達が行きます。ヴラドです、前に話した、シミュレーターの人です。ルーマニア出身で、日本語は単語をいくつかだけです。
Kawari ni tomodachi ga ikimasu. Vlad desu, mae ni hanashita, shimyureetaa no hito desu. Ruumania shusshin de, nihongo wa tango o ikutsu ka dake desu.
A friend is going in my place. Vlad, the one I told you about, with the simulator. He is from Romania and his Japanese is a few words.
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一人で高知までは無理です。羽田で降りて、そこからもう一回飛行機で、空港からバスで、それから田舎の道です。案内が要ります。
Hitori de Kochi made wa muri desu. Haneda de orite, soko kara mou ikkai hikouki de, kuukou kara basu de, sore kara inaka no michi desu. Annai ga irimasu.
He cannot reach Kochi alone. He lands at Haneda, then another flight, then a bus from the airport, then country roads. He needs somebody with him.
-
つまり、私に一緒に行ってほしいということですね。
Tsumari, watashi ni issho ni itte hoshii to iu koto desu ne.
So you want me to go with him.
-
はい。断ってくれて大丈夫です。
Hai. Kotowatte kurete daijoubu desu.
Yes. Please say no if you need to.
-
週三で行ってます。妹に二日頼めば、三日空きます。
Shuu san de itte masu. Imouto ni futsuka tanomeba, mikka akimasu.
I go three times a week. If I ask my sister to take two of them, I have three days.
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シフトは二週間前に言えば替われます。
Shifuto wa nishuukan mae ni ieba kawaremasu.
The shift can be swapped with two weeks' notice.
-
本当にいいんですか。
Hontou ni ii n desu ka.
Are you sure?
-
高知は行ったことないです。東のほうしか行ったことないので。
Kochi wa itta koto nai desu. Higashi no hou shika itta koto nai node.
I have never been to Kochi. I have only been to the east.
-
行きます。羽田で待ち合わせて、龍馬行きの便を取って、空港からバスで高知駅まで四十分くらいです。そこから先はお祖父さんの家の場所次第です。住所を送ってください。
Ikimasu. Haneda de machiawasete, Ryouma yuki no bin o totte, kuukou kara basu de Kochi eki made yonjuppun kurai desu. Soko kara saki wa ojiisan no ie no basho shidai desu. Juusho o okutte kudasai.
I will go. We meet at Haneda, take the flight to Ryoma, and the bus from the airport to Kochi station is about forty minutes. Past that it depends where your grandfather's house is. Send me the address.
-
送ります。ありがとうございます。
Okurimasu. Arigatou gozaimasu.
I will. Thank you.
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お礼はまだです。その人、私に何て呼ばれたいんでしょうね。
Orei wa mada desu. Sono hito, watashi ni nante yobaretai n deshou ne.
Thanks can wait. What is he going to want me to call him?
-
ヴラドでいいです。
Vlad de ii desu.
Vlad is fine.
-
ヴラドセンさんですね。
Vlad-sen-san desu ne.
Vlad-sen, then.
-
それは違います。ヴラドだけです。センは付きません。
Sore wa chigaimasu. Vlad dake desu. Sen wa tsukimasen.
That is wrong. Vlad on its own. There is no sen.
-
すみません、聞き覚えがあっただけです。
Sumimasen, kikioboe ga atta dake desu.
Sorry, it only sounded like something I had heard.
-
明日、住所と、家の写真と、祖父の名前を送ります。母にも電話します。
Ashita, juusho to, ie no shashin to, sofu no namae o okurimasu. Haha ni mo denwa shimasu.
Tomorrow I will send the address, a photograph of the house and my grandfather's name. I will ring my mother as well.
Explaining in procedures§
Akima's phone, times shown relative to Republic of Fluid
-
分かりました。でも秋間さん、そこまで手順で話さなくていいですよ。送るのは分かってますし、私は待ってます。
Wakarimashita. Demo Akima-san, soko made tejun de hanasanakute ii desu yo. Okuru no wa wakatte masu shi, watashi wa matte masu.
All right. Akima, you can talk to me with fewer procedures. I know you will send it and I will be here.
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それ、ガラスの壁みたいなものです。仕事の話し方だと、そこで会話が終わっちゃうので。
Sore, garasu no kabe mitai na mono desu. Shigoto no hanashikata da to, soko de kaiwa ga owacchau node.
It is a glass wall of its own. When you talk the way you talk at work, the conversation stops there.
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もう勤務時間じゃないですし、約束しなくていいです。何か話してください。
Mou kinmu jikan ja nai desu shi, yakusoku shinakute ii desu. Nanika hanashite kudasai.
We are off the clock, and you owe me no promises. Talk to me about something.
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何を話せばいいのか分からないです。
Nani o hanaseba ii no ka wakaranai desu.
I do not know what to talk about.
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それが理由で連絡したんですよ、最初に。ニュースを見て、秋間さんがあの建物の隣に住んでるって知ってたので。
Sore ga riyuu de renraku shita n desu yo, saisho ni. Nyuusu o mite, Akima-san ga ano tatemono no tonari ni sunderu tte shitteta node.
That is why I wrote to you in the first place. I saw the news and I knew you lived next to that building.
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本当に心配でした。手順の話が聞きたかったわけじゃないです。
Hontou ni shinpai deshita. Tejun no hanashi ga kikitakatta wake ja nai desu.
I was worried about you. The procedures were beside the point.
-
あと、あのヴラドっていう人、あの建物に住んでたんですよね。
Ato, ano Vlad tte iu hito, ano tatemono ni sunde ta n desu yo ne.
And this Vlad, he lived in that building.
-
そうです。ヴラドはあの建物に住んでました。近所の人です。
Sou desu. Vlad wa ano tatemono ni sunde mashita. Kinjo no hito desu.
Yes. Vlad lived in that building. He is my neighbour.
-
心配してくれたの、ありがとうございます。
Shinpai shite kureta no, arigatou gozaimasu.
Thank you for worrying.
-
正直に言うと、母の電話がもう少し少ないといいのにと思ってます。かけてくるたびに、向こうのことが戻ってきます。今度は祖父です。
Shoujiki ni iu to, haha no denwa ga mou sukoshi sukunai to ii noni to omotte masu. Kakete kuru tabi ni, mukou no koto ga modotte kimasu. Kondo wa sofu desu.
Honestly, I wish my mother rang a little less. Every call brings that side back. This time it is my grandfather.
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マレンドは楽しかったんです。それだけの話で終わらせたかったです。
Marendo wa tanoshikatta n desu. Sore dake no hanashi de owarasetakatta desu.
Marendo was good. I wanted it to stay that and nothing else.
-
心配したことにお礼はいらないです。
Shinpai shita koto ni orei wa iranai desu.
You do not have to thank me for worrying.
-
それに、私もずっと秋間さん秋間さんって呼んでますよね。あなたって言う代わりに名前を置いてるだけです。
Sore ni, watashi mo zutto Akima-san Akima-san tte yonde masu yo ne. Anata tte iu kawari ni namae o oite ru dake desu.
And I keep saying Akima, Akima. I am putting the name where the word for you would go.
-
そっちの言い方でやったほうが合ってる気がします。
Sotchi no iikata de yatta hou ga atteru ki ga shimasu.
The Fluidian way would suit us better.
-
そうかもしれないです。私、人を遠くに置くのが楽だったの。距離を取れば、それで済んでたから。
Sou kamo shirenai desu. Watashi, hito o tooku ni oku no ga raku datta no. Kyori o toreba, sore de sundeta kara.
Maybe. I found it easy to keep people at a distance. If I put distance in, that settled it.
-
こっちではできないよ。ヴラドもマルリエンも、遠くに置けない。どうやっても近くまで来る。
Kotchi de wa dekinai yo. Vlad mo Marliene mo, tooku ni okenai. Dou yatte mo chikaku made kuru.
Here it does not work. Vlad and Marliene, I cannot put them far off. They come close whatever I do.
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私も近づきたいと思ってます。ずっとそうでした。
Watashi mo chikazukitai to omotte masu. Zutto sou deshita.
I want to come closer as well. I have wanted that for a while.
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最初は仕事の知り合いで、あとは画面の向こうの人でした。でも私の中では、ちゃんと気にかけてる相手です。
Saisho wa shigoto no shiriai de, ato wa gamen no mukou no hito deshita. Demo watashi no naka de wa, chanto ki ni kakete ru aite desu.
We started as people from work and then as somebody on the other side of a screen. In my head you have been a person I care about.
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たぶん、お互いそう思ってなかった時期もありますよね。それでも、こっちは気にかけてました。
Tabun, otagai sou omotte nakatta jiki mo arimasu yo ne. Sore demo, kotchi wa ki ni kakete mashita.
There were stretches when neither of us would have said so. I cared about you through them anyway.
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今、少し泣いてる。
Ima, sukoshi naite ru.
I am crying a little.
-
こっちに来て、人が気にかけてくれるのはここだけの話だと思ってた。日本に置いてきたものの中に、そういう人がいるって考えてなかった。
Kotchi ni kite, hito ga ki ni kakete kureru no wa koko dake no hanashi da to omotte ta. Nihon ni oite kita mono no naka ni, sou iu hito ga iru tte kangaete nakatta.
Since I came here I thought people caring about me was a thing that belonged to this place. I never counted somebody like that among what I left in Japan.
-
隣に座ってた時期もあったのに。もっと早く話しておけばよかった。
Tonari ni suwatte ta jiki mo atta noni. Motto hayaku hanashite okeba yokatta.
There were months we sat next to each other. I wish I had talked to you then.
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前にも言いましたけど、こっちの決まりごとも少しずつ緩んでます。全体ではないです。人によって、ゆっくりです。
Mae ni mo iimashita kedo, kotchi no kimarigoto mo sukoshi zutsu yurunde masu. Zentai de wa nai desu. Hito ni yotte, yukkuri desu.
I said this to you before. The norms here are loosening a little. It is uneven. It goes person by person, slowly.
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秋間さんのところは、その先を全部やってしまってる感じですね。途中の段階でもあるし、行き着く先でもある。
Akima-san no tokoro wa, sono saki o zenbu yatte shimatte ru kanji desu ne. Tochuu no dankai demo aru shi, ikitsuku saki demo aru.
Where you are looks like all of that already done. It is a stage on the way and the place it arrives at, both at once.
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ごめん、まだ泣いてる。止めないでおく。
Gomen, mada naite ru. Tomenaide oku.
Sorry, I am still crying. I am going to let it run.
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返事はあとでする。今はこのままでいたい。
Henji wa ato de suru. Ima wa kono mama de itai.
I will answer later. I want to stay like this for now.
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うん。そのままでいい。ここにいるから。
Un. Sono mama de ii. Koko ni iru kara.
Yes. Stay like that. I am here.
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秋間、前から思ってたんだけど、いい場所にいるときに限って先に出ていくよね。ちょうどよくなった辺りで、切り上げる。
Akima, mae kara omotte ta n da kedo, ii basho ni iru toki ni kagitte saki ni dete iku yo ne. Choudo yoku natta atari de, kiriageru.
Akima, I have thought this for a while. You leave the moments that are good for you, right at the point they turn good.
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今日は出ていかなくていい。
Kyou wa dete ikanakute ii.
Today you do not have to.
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文字だけでこんなふうに言ってもらえると思ってなかった。画面の中の記号の壁でしかないと思ってた。
Moji dake de konna fuu ni itte moraeru to omotte nakatta. Gamen no naka no kigou no kabe de shika nai to omotte ta.
I did not expect to be spoken to like that through text alone. I took it for a wall of symbols on a screen.
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一緒にいてくれる人はこっちにしかいないって、ずっと思ってた。
Issho ni ite kureru hito wa kotchi ni shika inai tte, zutto omotte ta.
I believed the people who stay with me were only over here.
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どんなに下手でも、みんないつかは自分の思いやりを使うことになるよ。上手い下手の話じゃない。
Donna ni heta demo, minna itsuka wa jibun no omoiyari o tsukau koto ni naru yo. Umai heta no hanashi ja nai.
However poor at it you are, everybody has to use their empathy at some point. Skill has little to do with it.
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私は相手を作らないできた。作ったら重荷になると思ってる。
Watashi wa aite o tsukuranaide kita. Tsukuttara omoni ni naru to omotte ru.
I have kept myself from having a partner. I think I would become a weight on them.
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支える側でもあって、一緒にいて楽しい相手でもありたい。両方できる自信がついてないだけ。
Sasaeru gawa demo atte, issho ni ite tanoshii aite demo aritai. Ryouhou dekiru jishin ga tsuite nai dake.
I want to be the one providing and the one who is good company. I have yet to believe I can do both.
Both at once is impossible§
Akima's phone, times shown relative to Republic of Fluid
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同時に両方は無理だと思う。少なくとも、あの暮らしの中では無理。
Douji ni ryouhou wa muri da to omou. Sukunaku tomo, ano kurashi no naka de wa muri.
I think both at once is impossible. Inside that life at least.
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野崎は私と同じくらい貧しいよ。給料の話じゃなくて、残るものの話。圧力が同じで、毎日が同じで、退屈だった。
Nozaki wa watashi to onaji kurai mazushii yo. Kyuuryou no hanashi ja nakute, nokoru mono no hanashi. Atsuryoku ga onaji de, mainichi ga onaji de, taikutsu datta.
You are about as poor as I was. I mean what is left over, in place of wages. The same pressure, the same days, and boring.
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こっちの近所も退屈なときはある。周縁だから、何も起きない日が続く。
Kotchi no kinjo mo taikutsu na toki wa aru. Shuuen da kara, nani mo okinai hi ga tsuzuku.
The neighbourhood here is boring at times as well. It is the periphery, and days go by with nothing in them.
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それでも見て回るのが好き。棟の壁の絵とか、木とか、中庭とか、石畳とか、新しい棟に行く道の両側の花とか。
Sore demo mite mawaru no ga suki. Tou no kabe no e toka, ki toka, nakaniwa toka, ishidatami toka, atarashii tou ni iku michi no ryougawa no hana toka.
I like walking around it anyway. The paintings on the blocks, the trees, the courtyards, the stone paving, the flowers down both sides of the street to the new building.
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今ちょうど中央線。周り見てるけど、本当に何もない。
Ima choudo Chuuou-sen. Mawari mite ru kedo, hontou ni nani mo nai.
I am on the Chuo line right now. I am looking around and there is truly nothing.
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壁と看板と広告と、あとは人。混んでるから余計にそう見える。窓の外も同じ建物が続くだけ。
Kabe to kanban to koukoku to, ato wa hito. Konderu kara yokei ni sou mieru. Mado no soto mo onaji tatemono ga tsuzuku dake.
Walls, signage, advertising, and people. The crowding makes it worse. Out of the window the same buildings keep going.
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小金井も退屈だよ。落ち着いてるって言えば聞こえはいいけど、見るものはやっぱりない。
Koganei mo taikutsu da yo. Ochitsuite ru tte ieba kikoe wa ii kedo, miru mono wa yappari nai.
Koganei is boring too. Quiet sounds better as a word for it, and there is still nothing to look at.
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リンドマは東京と比べたら小さくて古風な町だよ。通りの多くはただの住宅地で、それでも何でも近い。
Lindoma wa Toukyou to kurabetara chiisakute kofuu na machi da yo. Toori no ooku wa tada no juutakuchi de, sore demo nan demo chikai.
Lindoma is a small, quaint town next to Tokyo. Most of the streets are ordinary residential ones, and everything is near.
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乗り物が混むことはない。道の交通量も少ない。作った人たちは景観をちゃんと考えてる。
Norimono ga komu koto wa nai. Michi no koutsuuryou mo sukunai. Tsukutta hitotachi wa keikan o chanto kangaete ru.
The transport never crowds. There is little traffic on the roads. The people who built it paid real attention to how it looks.
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車は借りるものだから、道路自体が狭い。場所によっては道の真ん中を歩ける。
Kuruma wa kariru mono da kara, douro jitai ga semai. Basho ni yotte wa michi no mannaka o arukeru.
Cars are booked, so the roads themselves are narrow. In a good many places you can walk down the middle of the street.
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線路の大動脈もないし、島式ホームもない。
Senro no daidoumyaku mo nai shi, shimashiki hoomu mo nai.
There is no railway trunk artery, and no island platforms either.
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またリンドマの画像見てる。行けたらいいのにって思う。部屋も広いんだね。
Mata Lindoma no gazou mite ru. Iketara ii noni tte omou. Heya mo hiroi n da ne.
I am looking at pictures of Lindoma again. I wish I could go. The flats are spacious as well.
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二番目に出てきたの、地図なんだけど、普通の地図じゃない。矢印が神経みたいに引いてあって、区ごとに濃さが違う。
Nibanme ni dete kita no, chizu na n da kedo, futsuu no chizu ja nai. Yajirushi ga shinkei mitai ni hiite atte, ku goto ni kosa ga chigau.
The second result is a map, and it is no ordinary map. Arrows drawn across it like nerves, and each district shaded differently.
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それ、シチュアシオニストの地図。ヴラドが列車の中で説明してくれた。
Sore, shichuashionisuto no chizu. Vlad ga ressha no naka de setsumei shite kureta.
That is a situationist map. Vlad explained it to me on the train.
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矢印は人の流れで、濃いところは人がうろつく場所。うろつきがない区は、通るだけの区。一番太い矢印と一番濃い区が重なるところが、その街の本当の中心。
Yajirushi wa hito no nagare de, koi tokoro wa hito ga urotsuku basho. Urotsuki ga nai ku wa, tooru dake no ku. Ichiban futoi yajirushi to ichiban koi ku ga kasanaru tokoro ga, sono machi no hontou no chuushin.
The arrows are how people move and the dark areas are where people wander. A district with no wandering is a district people pass through. Where the heaviest arrow meets the darkest district, that is the real centre of the town.
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東京でやったら渋谷か、土曜の新宿。東京駅は矢印だけで、うろつきはゼロ。
Toukyou de yattara Shibuya ka, doyou no Shinjuku. Toukyou eki wa yajirushi dake de, urotsuki wa zero.
Run it on Tokyo and you get Shibuya, or Shinjuku on a Saturday. Tokyo Station is all arrows and no wandering at all.
Finding the house on the map§
Akima's phone, times shown relative to Republic of Fluid
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二つ見つけた。読める英語版がある。
Futatsu mitsuketa. Yomeru eigo-ban ga aru.
I found two. There is an English version I can read.
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https://situationism.fl/about/what-is
situationism.fl
Situationist design · What it is
Situationism holds that a settlement is judged by the time its people spend in it while going nowhere. Commuting is time surrendered to distance and work is time surrendered to an employer. What remains is the measure: sitting on a wall, walking a street with no destination, standing at a corner talking, taking the long way home. A place that produces none of that has been built as a corridor, no matter how well it moves people.
The doctrine came out of the drifting experiments of the 1950s and stayed marginal for thirty years. It entered practice through municipal design offices in western Europe from the late 1980s, first as pedestrianisation and traffic calming, later as the standard method for laying out a district. Most of what is now ordinary in a Dutch or Danish street plan is situationist in origin, applied without the name.
The Republic of Fluid took the doctrine further than the countries it learned it from. Where a European municipality applies situationist measures inside a land market and a road network it does not control, the Republic holds the ground in common, books cars instead of owning them, and can therefore narrow a road, close a through route, or hand a courtyard to its residents against no owner's objection. Housing, transport and the plan answer to the same body, so a district scoring badly can be redesigned rather than ignored.
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https://situationism.fl/maps/annex/method
situationism.fl
Annex: how a city map is measured
Three quantities are recorded on the ground and combined:
- ppm, persons per minute: A counter stands at a fixed point and counts people crossing a line, in both directions, for a measured period. This gives the flow and produces the arrows. Flow alone says nothing about the quality of a place, and a motorway footbridge can score highly.
- pt, person-time: The time a person spends in a place while neither commuting nor working. It is taken by observation over a fixed interval: a person who crosses in forty seconds contributes forty seconds, and a person who sits for an hour contributes an hour. pt is the situationist quantity proper, since it counts only unbought time.
- pt·d, cumulative person-time by density: pt summed over an area and weighted by the density of people in it. This separates a wide empty square where a few people linger for a long while from a narrow lane where many linger briefly. The shading on the maps is pt·d.
A district is marked as having dérive where pt·d passes the threshold set for its density band, and as utilitarian where it does not. The true centre of a settlement is the district where the heaviest ppm arrow terminates in the highest pt·d, which is frequently not the administrative centre and is frequently not the largest interchange.
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サイトの中に都市ごとの判定が並んでる。日本のは大阪だけあった。
Saito no naka ni toshi goto no hantei ga narande ru. Nihon no wa Oosaka dake atta.
The site has a list of verdicts city by city. For Japan there is only Osaka.
situationism.fl
Verdicts · Osaka, Japan
Surveyed 2019 and again 2024. Measured on the Midosuji corridor between Umeda and Namba, the Shinsaibashi and Namba arcades, the Dotonbori canal frontage, Nakanoshima, and the Umekita park opened in 2024.
Verdict: dérive present, and rising. The heaviest ppm arrow runs Umeda to Namba. pt·d is highest along the canal frontage and in the arcades, where people stand still in quantity and the density is high enough to carry the weighting. Nakanoshima and Umekita score well on pt and poorly on density, which is the ordinary profile of a park.
Notes: The city has been widening the Midosuji footways and taking traffic lanes out of service since 2019, with a continuous walkable route from Yodoyabashi to Namba planned to 2037. The 2024 survey found the linger time on the widened sections up against 2019 while flow was flat, which is the effect the method predicts and rarely measures cleanly. Osaka is the clearest Japanese case of situationist measures applied under a land market, and the ceiling of that arrangement is visible in the same figures: the gains stop at the kerb line the city is able to move.
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大阪だけって、ちょっと悔しいね。
Oosaka dake tte, chotto kuyashii ne.
Only Osaka. That stings a little.
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線路の記事もあった。読んでてちょっと嫌になった。
Senro no kiji mo atta. Yonde te chotto iya ni natta.
There is an article about railway lines as well. Reading it put me off a little.
situationism.fl
On rail corridors
A wide rail corridor moves people at an efficiency no stroad and no eight-lane boulevard approaches. The situationist objection stands anyway: a corridor is a wall.
What the surveys record on either side of a wide corridor is consistent. ppm along the corridor is high and ppm across it collapses to the few points where a bridge or an underpass exists. pt·d in the strip either side falls well below the band for its density. People cross the wall and they do not linger against it. The frontages facing the tracks are back walls, storage, car parking and hoardings. Buildings turn away from the line, and a district cut by one is measured as two districts with a gap between them.
The corridor is also ugly in a way that is difficult to design out. The structure carries fencing, gantries, signal equipment and overhead line, and it stays visible along its whole length. It is loud, and the noise arrives in a rhythm that people report as harder to ignore than a constant one. Overhead line at full voltage brings its own hazards, and the response to those hazards is more fencing, which widens the wall. Maintenance is expensive against the same distance of tram track, since heavy rail carries heavier axle loads, its own signalling and its own structures.
Many cities have railways running through them and score well regardless. The lines in those cases are narrow: two tracks, at grade or in a shallow cutting, crossed every few hundred metres. The surveys where the effect is severe were made on the corridors of ten tracks and more found in the large Asian cities, where the wall is a hundred metres wide and the crossings are kilometres apart.
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読んだ。こういう見方、一度も考えたことなかった。線路は便利なものだとしか思ってなかったから。
Yonda. Kou iu mikata, ichido mo kangaeta koto nakatta. Senro wa benri na mono da to shika omotte nakatta.
I read it. I have never once considered this view. I had only ever thought of the tracks as convenient.
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私も。壁だとは思ってなかった。
Watashi mo. Kabe da to wa omotte nakatta.
Nor had I. I never thought of it as a wall.
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写真見つけたんだけど、これ何。
Shashin mitsuketa n da kedo, kore nani.
I found a photograph and I have no idea what it is.
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調査隊が屋上にいて、片方がじゃがいも切ってて、もう片方が太鼓叩いてる。後ろは線路の高架で、ちょうど電車が通ってる。
Chousatai ga okujou ni ite, katahou ga jagaimo kitte te, mou katahou ga taiko tataite ru. Ushiro wa senro no kouka de, choudo densha ga tootte ru.
The survey team is on a roof, one of them cutting potatoes and the others beating drums, with the elevated line behind them and a train going past.
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場所、大阪。
Basho, Oosaka.
And the place is Osaka.
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その写真、大阪の記事の中にある。調査中に屋上を借りたって書いてある。太鼓は騒音の測定用で、じゃがいもは晩ご飯だと思う。
Sono shashin, Oosaka no kiji no naka ni aru. Chousachuu ni okujou o karita tte kaite aru. Taiko wa souon no sokutei-you de, jagaimo wa ban gohan da to omou.
That photograph is inside the Osaka article. It says they borrowed the roof during the survey. The drums are for the noise measurement and the potatoes are their dinner, I think.
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その下にもう一枚あって、拡大したら誰かが運転のゲームやってる。画面の文字が日本語と英語で交互に切り替わってる。
Sono shita ni mou ichimai atte, kakudai shitara dareka ga unten no geemu yatte ru. Gamen no moji ga nihongo to eigo de kougo ni kirikawatte ru.
There is another one below it, and zoomed in somebody is playing a driving game. The text on the screen is flipping between Japanese and English.
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それ、JR EAST Train Simulator。
Sore, JR EAST Train Simulator.
That is JR EAST Train Simulator.
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山手線と中央線を運転してたって言ってた。前に二人で話したのもこれだね。
Yamanote-sen to Chuuou-sen o unten shite ta tte itte ta. Mae ni futari de hanashita no mo kore da ne.
He said he was driving the Yamanote and the Chuo on it. It is the one you and I talked about before as well.
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線路の真上でそれをやってるの、別に驚かないな。
Senro no maue de sore o yatte ru no, betsu ni odorokanai na.
Somebody playing that directly above the tracks does not surprise me.
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本物が下を通ってるのに、画面の中で運転してる。そういう人はいるよ。うちのいとこは逆で、仕事で乗ってるから一回でやめたけど。
Honmono ga shita o tootte ru noni, gamen no naka de unten shite ru. Sou iu hito wa iru yo. Uchi no itoko wa gyaku de, shigoto de notte ru kara ikkai de yameta kedo.
The real thing is passing underneath and he is driving one on a screen. There are people like that but my cousin is the other way, he drives for work, so he gave it up after one go.
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知ってる。前に聞いた。
Shitte ru. Mae ni kiita.
I know. You told me before.
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もう遅いね。こっちは一時前。
Mou osoi ne. Kotchi wa ichiji mae.
It is late. It is nearly one here.
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今降りたところ。ここからは歩き。
Ima orita tokoro. Koko kara wa aruki.
I have just got off. I walk from here.
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私も一緒に降りて歩けたらいいのに。でももう寝る。おやすみ。
Watashi mo issho ni orite aruketara ii noni. Demo mou neru. Oyasumi.
I wish I could get off with you and walk too, but I am going to sleep now. Good night.