Diane Joplin wondered how she had emerged from the myriad depths of Shinjuku Station in one piece. She figured she wouldn』t have made it out of there without the help of the AR unit, which superimposed instrus on to the glasses telling her exactly which exits to take. She had bought the AR on a whim and now it roving itself to be worth a lot more than the money she had shelled out for it. Diaood still on the pavement outside the exit trying to get her bearings as a non-stop n of Japanese humanity oozed out of the station all arouhe AR had superimposed a detailed map over the interse with blinking arrows indig the way to the Keio Plaza Hotel, which was located to the north just a few minutes walk away.
The snow had stopped falling and the cold Shinjuku air was surprisingly refreshing even though Diane found it difficult to get used to the numerous flickering images of giant outdoor ss and the blaring sound of advertising. This was exactly how she had imagined Japan but actually being here was altogether a totally different experience. All around her people moved to and fro, Goths, uniformly dark-suited salarymen, fashionably-clad office girls, elaborately dressed geisha in shimmering kimonos, and young people of various descriptions intermingled as they moved on to unknowinations. Diaiced makeup and hairstyles that would have had her dad ging in hirls with deathly-white foundation, blacked out eyes and hairstyles desigo resemble dragons, phoenixes and even cartoon characters milled around. Everyone was chattering away in Japanese, which she found very pleasing to the ear, or simply walking with that introspective look that was so quintessentially Japa least, that』s how she thought about them. On the asphalt lanes betweeeeming masses, lozenge-shaped cars of various shapes and sizes glided past, their octs moving swiftly through the fusion of Shinjuku, shielded from its trolled chaos.
And then Diaarted to move with the crowds following the AR』s arrows towards the Keio Plaza Hotel, which she hoped would provide refuge from all this. She was exhausted from the mental and physical activity of the last few hours and wanted nothier than to soak in a hot bath and recollect her wits. The din of Shinjuku was not doing that much to help with that so she stoically moved through the crowds, ing her o take a closer look when some impossibly-dressed or coiffed individual walked past her.
It seemed that Japan was not so much weling her as iing its DNA into her very being with all this his uing visual stimulation. Walking past a zillioment stores, impossibly-shaped buildings, most of which were called Shinjuku something or other. And the smell oreet, ohat was totally Japa was the unlikely smell of eleid yakitori fusing with expensive perfumes and damp crete. It was a moderhat assaulted your senses and just kept on assaulting.
And then she saw the Keio Plaza Hotel, just before the augmented reality reading said she was very close now. The two towers of the hotel were sandwiched between buildings that were so tall that their top floors disappeared into the oppressive clouds above, activity within signaled only by muted light soaking through the clouds, interlaced with whatever sunlight mao seep through. The Keio Plaza towers were crawling with black crab-like objects which Diane reized as building repair robots from some teology TV program. They were probably making repairs to the aging outer walls to make it look brand new and