Malencholic

I just came back from a trip to Japan and right now, I feel kinda... malencholic.  I miss Tokyo alot.  This morning, if I tired, I probably would have shed tears.  That's how much I miss Japan.  It's a little scary how a mere 10 night stay can have this much affect on me but Japan is a great place for someone with my hobbies and interests.  Right now, the prevailing theory is that I just didn't want to go back to work, back to the daily grind.  So I'm sad about that rather than about not being in Japan.

The weird part is, while I was in Japan, I hardly missed Canada at all.  The hotel became my home, and exploring Tokyo became the routine.  It was lovely.  But there was one instance... just a fleeting minute or two, where I did miss my home in Toronto.  Just for a bit.

I will probably never forget the place in this photo for as long as I live.  It is here when I was reminded in Japan of how much I do miss home, if only for a moment.  This is a picture of a store in Akihabara and on the outside, it's really not that special.  Typical of some stores in Japan, the goods extend out to the sidewalk in a messy but neat kind of way.  Inside is a cramp-quartered store selling electronics.  It's a far cry from the Sources and Best Buys you see in Toronto.  Yet, it reminded me of home.

Thing is, it's not what I saw, but what I heard.  Playing on the speakers was 'Malencholic' by Junky and it is one of my favorite songs in Project Diva F.  Yet, it wasn't the same song.  Whoever sang this version isn't the same person from the game.  For those not familiar with Project Diva, all the songs in that game are not sung by real people but by machines.  But this version I heard sounded like it was sung by a real person.  It reminded me of home because in such a far away land I came across a piece of something which gave me, my girlfriend and my friends hours of enjoyment.  It made me miss home.

I do see the ironies.  For one, I was reminded of home by a Japanese song while IN Japan.  For two, it's not even sung by the same singer.  But none the less it made me melancholic for home.  There is some poetry to this.  Here I am in possibly one of the strangest places on earth.  There is something new waiting for me around every corner.  I feel like the song is kinda like this.  It is familiar but strange and is fitting for a place which, until that time, was halfway around the world.

I guess it just reinforced the idea of where I was while reminding me of where I came from.  In the end, I pretended to browse the goods while just listening to the music.  I was sad for a bit but when the song was over it's time to move on.  There was still much, much more to see.