Chapter 5: Noon Train

Shinagawa was thirteen stations away from Yokosuka, it would roughly take me an hour to get there. My school, Keio University was roughly a kilometer away from Shinagawa, it took me a couple of weeks to figure out that I could switch trains to the Yamanote line and stop at Tamachi Station instead of a long walk from Shinagawa saving at least a half hour hike, The Tokyo Railway map was confusing at first, with different colored line intersecting at different points and asking for directions on a train at my age was social suicide. Even now months after University Started I rarely venture outside the Yokosuka Rapid service line, perhaps someday I'll ride all the way to Tokyo Station.

The platform was more crowded than usual, probably the shopping rush in December, the orderly line to board the train was sometimes broken by unwary tourists chatting loudly and taking pictures across the station as a Japanese Defense Ship Hyuga was pulling away from Yokosuka Naval base. It was a daily sight for me to see the Navy ships floating across the station.

My phone is ringing again, it was Himouro, I always wanted to make it a habit not to take calls on the train but Himouro would normally send a text than call, it was probably important.

"Yo, what's up?" I said to Himouro in an informal tone that was all the craze.

"You definitely need to come to tonight Itsuki, half the class is skipping the afternoon to celebrate the start of winter break meet us at Starbucks at Tamachi station." Himouro hung up before I could answer.

Himouro Takahashi was my only friend on a first-name basis at Keio, he was my link to the social circles of Tokyo. We shared most of our classes in Economics and Business and he mostly guided me in Keio, he was a genuine tokyoite.

The train to Shinagawa had pulled up so I hurriedly stepped in and planted myself in my favorite spot, staring out the window and cranking my headphones to full volume, my mind wandered to her again, I wondered if she would still be at the station tonight.

***Author's Note***

thanks for reading this far, I uploaded the train map again for your reference,

kem