Shibuya no Love
by Hannu Rajaniemi
They were eating takoyaki by the statue of Hachiko the
dog when Norie told her to buy a quantum lovegety.
Riina’s Japanese was not very good in spite of two
years of Oriental Studies and three months in Tokyo,
and the translation software on her phone did not
immediately recognize the term, so she just stared at
the small caramel-skinned girl blankly for a few
seconds, mouth full of fried dough and octopus. “A what?”
she managed finally, wiping crumbs from her lips.
Norie, who sat on the edge of the fountain and dangled
her impossibly tanned legs in the air, giggled.
“You don’t have them in Finland? How do you meet boys
there? Oh, I forgot, you have the sauna!”
“It’s not a -” Riina stopped. The concept of non-erotic
unisex nudity in a steamy room was something only her
Canadian friends had grasped so far. “Never mind. Tell
me about the lovegety.”
“It’s the most kawaii thing! I keep mine on all the
time. Look!” Norie held up her wrist. Her phone was
embedded in a Cartier platinum bracelet with a
jewel-studded Hello Kitty engraving that her boyfriend
Shinichi had given her for her birthday. Riina had
admired it several times, but had not paid attention to
the little teardrop-shaped plastic thing dangling from
it until now. It was hardly bigger than the tip of her
index finger, and its pink surface had the
characteristic teflon sheen of a nanovat-grown product.
There was a silvery heart-shaped logo on one side.
“They had these already when my mother was a schoolgirl
- that’s how she met my father! Then they went out of
fashion for several years, but now there is this crazy
otaku in Akihabara making new and better ones. Quantum
versions. Everybody has one!”
“So, what does it do?”
“I can’t tell you - you have to try it! C’mon, let’s go
find you one!” Norie leaped up, took Riina’s hand in her
own and tugged her towards the techno beat of Shibuya
and District 109 that was its heart. A forest of orange
hairdos, brown legs and spidery eyelashes swallowed the
girls. There was a crowd around the statue: it was one
of the few clear landmarks in the district, and
tourists loved the story of the dog who waited for its
master for years after his death.
Riina hesitated. Norie tended to assume that she was
equally good at assimilating the new memes that boiled
up from the teenage paradise of Shibuya as her Japanese
friends, who seemed to be able to turn the latest otaku
toy into a subculture or a fashion statement in a
matter of minutes. She was starting to become
desensitized to future shock, but the labyrinths of the
new and the old in this country still confused her. She
wondered how her father managed: good
protocol/etiquette software, probably. It was simply
impossible to figure out the right kind of bow, the
correct form of address towards a senior or a superior.
Let alone get a date.
She sighed, and allowed Norie to tow her deeper into
the crowd. The Japanese girl’s neon-rimmed eyes were
bright, and her small white teeth were flashing, her
canary-yellow backpack bopping up and down.
“Seriously - lovegetys are sooo kawaii!”
#
The boy looked like a painted little satyr: silver lips
and eyelids, orange ash-streaked hair and a heavy gold
chain around his neck. He couldn’t have been older
than twelve, but then in Shibuya a fifteen-year-old was
ancient and venerable. The drone of the bass beat that
seemed to permeate everything in 109 obscured the
rapid-fire exchange between Norie and the boy, but it
wasn’t long before he smiled hungrily and held his palm
out towards Riina, the little pink thing bright against
his dark skin like a tiny flower. She took it, and it
was still warm from the boy’s hand, a living thing
almost. Her MasterCard thumbnail sang an inaudible song
to the boy’s account, and suddenly she was the proud
owner of a quantum lovegety.
Norie gave her a nymphlike smirk as the satyr boy
vanished into the seething mass of Japan’s young around
them.
“Now comes the best part. We go to Starbucks, and you
get to try it out!”
Most of Shibuya was like a graffiti: clashing, bright,
screaming colors over a drab concrete surface, the
clothes shops and holograms and neon signs and rainbow
crowds a stark contrast to the utilitarian 90s
architecture. Starbucks was an exception - an
intricate, cylindrical two-story glass monstrosity, a
ten-meter hologram of the white-green all-seeing
mermaid hovering above it.
The girls sat at a small table on the second floor
sipping cardboard-flavored cappuccinos. Norie helped
Riina to calibrate the lovegety: it talked to her old
Nokia toothphone eagerly, a little light blinking in
the center of the silver heart. Menus with swirling
Japanese characters danced on her retina, barely
comprehensible. “Get2 setting? What is that?”
“Never mind that, you don’t want to set it that high for
the first go. We’ll go for ’karaoke’. Your VR stuff is
a bit old-fashioned, but - there. It’s mining the web
and creating your profile now - done!” Norie visibly
enjoyed her big sister role, affecting a firm motherly
tone.
“What do I do now?”
“Now? Silly girl, now you go and find a boy you like,
and enjoy the show.”
“Just a random guy? But what will I say to him?”
“You don’t have to say anything, that’s the point! Off
you go now - just wander around and pretend that you’re
looking for the ladies’ room. I’ll call Shinichi, and
we’ll go for dinner with him after he gets off work -
it’ll be fun!”
Riina swallowed the last of her coffee and got up,
feeling awkward. She took her purse, pocketed the
lovegety and walked towards the signs pointing to the
ladies’ room, trying to look innocent and casting
passing glances to the men sitting at the tables she
passed. There were a couple of businessmen, a glazed
look in their eyes as the imbibed caffeine seasoned
with the latest stock fluctuations, a couple of rare
daylight otaku wearing ill-fitting jeans, anime
T-shirts and subterranean mutant complexions, and
trendy neo-jinrui oozing illusory wealth, talking
loudly and dressed in pin-striped gangster suits. She
felt silly and focused her eyes on the white
skirt-wearing pictogram ahead, shaking her head.
The lovegety beeped. A female voice chattered something
in her ear like an exotic bird. Flashing icons guided
her eyes towards a lone figure sitting by one of the
large windows. Riina stopped, felt blood rising to her
cheeks and tried to think about lying face down in a
snowdrift, cold and dead: usually it worked.
Not this time. He had good cheekbones, short-cropped
black hair and large brown eyes behind rimless AR
glasses; he was scribbling something furiously with a
stylus on the screen of an old-fashioned palmtop,
forehead furrowed in concentration. Suddenly he stopped
and looked up, straight at Riina, a surprised look on
his face. His name was Hiroaki, she suddenly knew:
twenty-three, studying communications technology at
Keio University, single, four previous relationships,
likes old Takeshi Kitano films and Japanese jazz, owns
a cat.
The lovegety buzzed again. Riina caught a glimpse of a
brief animation: clunky cartoonish figures of a boy and
a girl holding lovegetys. The devices sent out little
arrows that shook hands in the air. “Karaoke Mode Initiated!”
chirped the shrill voice of the gadget through her
jawbone.
#
Riina was suddenly overwhelmed by a nauseatingly
powerful sense of deja vu mixed with vertigo. It was
like she was falling, only sideways, weightless. She
closed her eyes, and the feeling subsided. When she
opened them again, she was looking straight into
Hiroaki’s eyes, and felt his hand touching her cheek
gently. A confused tangle of new memories unfolded in
her head: a seafood dinner, games at the arcade,
strolling through 109’s boutiques of the bizarre,
joking about the latest fashionable trinkets. Tension,
hands and limbs brushing against another ever so
lightly, Hiroaki missing his train to walk Riina home.
And then- “The First Kiss!!!” piped the female demon in
her ear, and her mouth was suddenly full of Hiroaki’s
tongue and taste, his lips moving a bit clumsily,
uncertainly. But there was no clanging of teeth, no
awkwardness.
It was perfect.
And then it was over.
“To Experience Adult Situations, Upgrade To Get2 Mode!!!”
sang the lovegety and plunged Riina into a warm sea of
afterglow, into soft jazz tunes sung by a Japanese
voice. They lay on Hiroaki’s futon, Riina listening to
his heartbeat, her cheek against his smooth chest, as
he leaned on one elbow and toyed with her hair.
“Pillow Talk!!!” crooned lovegety.
“I’m going back home this fall", she said, not knowing
where the words came from, head heavy with newly
discovered plans and dreams. And the butterflies in her
stomach, the fear of losing all this perfection - where
did that come from? She looked up at Hiroaki, touching
his cheek.
“Would you like to come with me?”
“Yes," he said and smiled, and the lovegety carried them
away again.
Finland. Snow. Perfect weekends by the lake, in her
family’s summer house. Hiroaki learning to ski, nose
peeling from mild frostbite. Hiroaki making her tea. A
big warm water balloon swelling in her chest as she
thought about him. Staccato images punctuated by the
voice of the lovegety. Arguments. Hiroaki’s inferiority
complex. Her endless need to overanalyze her problems,
the desire for a safe male figures to replace her
father. The usual things, the pitfalls of pillow
psychology. And finally, Hiroaki’s back receeding into
the distance on one of the moving walkways of Helsinki
Airport, Riina holding back her tears and squeezing the
little ivory cat he had given her in her pocket.
#
“Karaoke Mode Ends!!!”
The voice was like a guillotine, sharp-edged and
unstoppable, cutting through the illusion. She fell
back to the mutter of Starbucks, felt her knees
buckling under her. Strong warm hands grabbed her by
the shoulders and supported her. She took a deep breath
and opened her eyes. It took only seconds for her head
to clear a bit, and she found herself looking into
Hiroaki’s eyes again. She almost cried from relief and
covered his face with kisses, but the lovegety world
was already fading away, the memories attaining a
dreamlike quality.
“Are you all right?” asked Hiroaki, a concerned look on
his face.
“Yes, fine", she stammered. “I was just - “
“Oh dear. That was your first time, wasn’t it? Come, sit
down and we’ll get you some coffee.”
“No... no, I’m all right now.”
“No, really, it’s no bother. I owe you that much at least.”
He winked. “Although I did hope that you’d have set it
all the way up to get2.” He saw Riina’s expression and
laughed. “Only joking. C’mon. It’s safe, I promise.”
Riina felt a bit better after a steaming cup of mocha.
Hiroaki watched her intently as she sipped the frothy
liquid. She heard a short buzz from somewhere far away,
and jumped in her seat: but nothing happened.
“Look, I’m sorry you got so shaken up," Hiroaki said
finally. “Your friend should have explained to you how
it works. Are you sure you’re okay?”
He touched Riina’s arm gently, his fingertips little
points of electricity on her skin.
“Yeah... yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for the coffee, by the way.”
“Any time.”
Norie waved at them from the other side of the room and
walked over, her pink Hello Kitty handbag swinging in
the air. Riina glared at her angrily, but her
irritation turned to astonishment as her friend bent
over Hiroaki and kissed him on the lips, full and hard.
He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. While you were drinking
your mocha, we went to Get2. Kind of accidentally.”
Norie pursed her lips. “Well, it didn’t seem to work out
between you two, and he is cute! You don’t mind, right?”
“What about Shinichi?”
“What about him? He’s not really a boyfriend anyway,
it’s more of an enjo-kosai thing, you know. We do
stuff, and he buys me things. Very practical. He
doesn’t mind, really - and we’re still meeting him for
dinner! Hiroaki can come along.”
Riina stood up.
“No, you guys go ahead. I... I think I need some fresh air.”
“Really? Are you sure? Look, I’m sorry, these things
happen quickly. Try some other setting sometime, it’s
really fun!” Norie gave her a tight little hug. “I’ll see
you soon, OK? Call me.”
As Riina started walking away, Hiroaki called after
her. “Riina! You are invited to our wedding, of course!
Next week! Try to make it!”
She ran then, tears in her eyes, towards the endless
heavy beat of Shibuya, trying to find an ivory cat in
her pocket, and her heart jumped when her fingers
closed around something small and warm: but it was only
the lovegety.
She threw it into the fountain by the statue of Hachiko
the dog, and watched it sink. The statue seemed to be
looking at her sadly with its bronze dog eyes, and she
knew that it too was still waiting, waiting for love in
Shibuya.
— end —
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