Staircase Elegy
This is Tokyo, a certain large station. I am not familiar with it.
Eighty percent of a transfer is preparation. If you hesitate, you will be swept away by the crowd.
The battle begins before you even get off the train. After checking my smartphone, I quickly confirm the platform signs and pinpoint the direction I need to go. The stairs for this platform are on the left after getting off the train!
I boldly headed to the left and went down the stairs.
Or so I thought, but I was actually going up the same stairs.
I would like to say it like this, but,
I'll tell you what happened just now!
I thought I was going up the stairs in front of him, but before I knew it, I was going down.
You probably won't understand what I'm saying.
I didn't even know what had happened to me...
It wasn't quite like that; it's just that I realized my mistake once I had reached the bottom of the stairs.
My transfer was on the opposite platform. I didn't need to go down the stairs. The preconceived notion that it was a large station led me all the way to the bottom of the stairs.
Like someone who walks away as if nothing happened after the doors of the train they were about to board closed right in front of them, I briskly climbed the stairs.
There is drama on the stairs.
Today, these stairs gently embraced my mistake.
I make excuses to myself. It is good exercise.
The stairs do not speak. They equally permit both climbing and descending, and they continue to exist there today just as they always have.
I finished climbing the stairs, turned my back on them, and then I boarded the train.
