Tokyo Oasis Page #2

I wondered for a moment who she was,

but couldn't remember at all.

Isn't it someone

who comes here sometimes?

Well, I wonder.

It must be.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Is anything the matter?

Thank you very much.

Yoshida.

May I ask you a favor?

Yes, of course.

Yes?

Will you escort this lady home?

Because it's late.

I see.

I appreciate that.

His name is Yoshida. He'll be walking

next to you until you reach home.

Take good care of her.

I will.

Thank you for coming today.

Excuse me.

Touko san.

What happened?

It's been a long time.

What're you doing here?

I work here.

Here?

Yes.

Oh, the movie. It finished.

Here you are.

Thank you.

That's good.

Are you alright?

I'm fine.

But I'm just surprised.

Me, too.

I just finished with one of my jobs

and had dinner with everyone nearby.

You did?

I had a little too much to drink.

It's unusual for you, isn't it?

You think so?

You never seemed to be much of a drinker,

I thought you can hold your drinks.

I appeared to you that way?

In the past.

It feels kind of strange.

For me to sit here with you.

Yes.

Even before, there was no chance

for just the two of us to talk.

Now that you mentioned it, we didn't.

We really didn't.

Sorry, it's getting late.

Isn't it time to close here?

It's alright.

Kikuchi san, are you always here

by yourself?

There's usually another person

a young man to check the tickets.

He's out now on an errand.

Is he?

It may take a little more time.

I see.

How have you been since then?

Sorry to have disappeared

without saying goodbye.

It's just that,

suddenly you were gone.

Sometimes I wondered how you're doing.

I asked around,

but no one seemed to know.

I was thinking

I should at least tell you, but

after leaving the job,

I couldn't think of anything for a while

and did nothing.

I traveled abroad and

after some time had passed,

I thought it was time for me

to do something.

I took on a totally different job once,

but somehow i returned to a place

close to familiar grounds.

I've been working here

for the past few years.

A movie theater.

The movies you appeared in

are also shown here sometimes.

Here?

Sometimes new movies and

at times some old ones.

What about the movies you wrote?

We've shown them as well.

You still don't write?

I quit writing then.

Did you?

I thought about writing again, but

restarting something I had given up once,

somehow felt uneasy,

a sense of resistance within myself.

Why did you quit writing scripts?

Asking such a straight forward question

is so much like you , Touko san.

Is that so?

But it's been bothering me all along.

All the people I asked just knew

you'd quit, but not the reason.

They did?

Why did you quit?

In my heart,

I no longer found meanings

to continue in that way.

Perhaps, I realized

I'd have continued to write

without really knowing anything.

The more I wrote, the more questions I had

about other people and myself.

The questions increased.

Without solving these questions,

I, more or less, began to accept

the things that seemed fine

on the surface in my daily life.

Then, I noticed

what'd become of me.

Thereafter, all kinds of things

such as from sceneries to

everything inside my head

suddenly went blank.

Now, I see.

In those days,

you were thinking these things.

Sorry, I'm the only one talking here.

Don't be sorry.

Now to think about it,

you're the kind of person who'd think

that way. Somehow I can understand.

Can you?

In fact I think it's natural for people

to think that way.

But the fact I felt that way

about myself and my work

was something never dawned on people.

Maybe so.

While thinking only about these things,

I realized I'd worried to much

about what people thought of me.

I can now consider these things as minor.

Maybe because

I had quit writing scripts then,

I'm able to feel this way.

When I decided to quit,

I couldn't imagine

I would ever feel this way.

But as time passed,

things I thought I knew in those days

gradually became visible to me.

So, that's what happened.

But then,

recently, I'd think back on the days

I was writing scripts.

Why don't you write again?

I don't think you're the same person

as you were in those days.

Do you think so?

Yes.

I also get the same kind of feelings

sometimes as you did back then.

You too, Touko san?

Of course.

When you continue to do one thing,

to have such feelings

isn't something special.

If you try writing again,

I'm sure it'll work out, maybe.

So it's maybe?

Isn't it good enough?

It doesn't have to be perfect.

Perhaps it's better to take things easy

sometimes.

because it took much time to get here.

You think so?

The place you returned to

may turn out to be a new place.

Is it going to be that simple?

How will you know if you don't try?

You're right.

A little while ago,

something was left here.

Just left here?

Sitting alone on a chair over there.

Sitting?

An old woman was...

an old woman was left behind.

Who left her here?

She told me that she was sitting with

'someone' during the movie, but

when the house lights went on,

that 'someone' sitting next to her

was gone.

Here's your coffee.

Thank you.

While listening to her,

I thought that 'someone'

sitting next to her

might have been a stranger

from the very start.

A person she didn't know at all.

Just a person

that happened to sit next to her.

You may be right.

But for her, it was 'someone.'

It was 'someone' who sat next to her.

It was not a stranger, but

'someone' she knew briefly.

What happened to that old woman?

I was a bit worried about her, so

I asked the young man working here

to escort her home.

A person sitting next to you

can be thought in that way.

Welcome back. Was everything okay?

Yes. I walked her home.

Thank you.

Was anybody here?

An old acquaintance of mine was here

to see the movie.

Here's something.

How nice!

The old woman gave it to me

as I was leaving.

There's so much.

They look delicious.

Shall we eat?

Yes.

Thank you.

They're so good.

I just saw a person I told you about,

on the street back there.

Who's that?

A person who looked familiar.

Did you remember who she was?

I'm still not sure who it is.

Maybe it was 'someone'

you also didn't know after all.

I'm Mochizuki.

Here it is.

Take a seat.

Five days a week,

including weekends and holidays,

9 5 would be your working hours.

Any problem with that?

That'll be fine.

From your home,

it takes an hour and half.

It's kind of far.

If train connections go well,

it may just be an hour and 15 or 10.

Oh, okay.

Do you have any experience

in customer servicing?

Customer servicing?

Selling tickets comes under

customer servicing.

I have no experience in customer servicing.

Oh, okay.

What other part time jobs

have you had?

I've never had

any other part time jobs.

Is that right?

You're 23, aren't you?

The classified ad said

'no experience necessary.'

That's true, but...

oh, okay.

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