of the downtown area of Tokyo: A young transgendered woman with her baggy, pin-filled jacket and a sickly Hispanic woman in a sweat suit carrying a backpack decorated with anime pictures. The crowds of Japanese business people, groups of teenagers and twenty-somethings gathered to play AR games, western tourists, and shoppers grew thicker as we drew closer to the heart of Narita.

The rectilinear buildings of downtown slowly grew as we walked past the old Japanese architecture, the windows reflecting mid afternoon sunlight at us. Every flat surface flashed rapid, colorful advertisements like corporate synesthesia.

My legs burned with effort as my vision blurred with exhaustion. We stopped to wait for the signal to cross the street, engulfed in a growing crowd on the corner. I looked down at the pristine side...

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