The bed in Tokyo

The bed in Tokyo is an air mattress, not a bed. It is in a room that is a cupboard, not a room. I mean ‘cupboard’ metaphorically, you understand. My friend, M., spent many hours searching for a bed for me in Tokyo, the bed was needed for 3 nights, January first to fourth, 2017. The room, the bed in Tokyo was needed for me and my daughter, A. That is to say, two beds were needed.

My daughter A. is hard to pin down, she flies about like a bird, metaphorically speaking, you can catch her online every once in a while. You catch her on an app that is used exclusively in Asia by young people flying around on their wings, black and swift. I told my daughter—when I caught up with her on the app—to please find us a bed, I mean two beds, in Tokyo for 3 nights, January first to fourth, 2017. She said she would. But weeks went by, then many more weeks elapsed, with no beds, no room in Tokyo. This is because of the flying around as I’ve mentioned, and the pinning down aspect. And some carelessness is surely involved. So it became clear to me that A. would not find us a bed, I mean two beds, in Tokyo for 3 nights, January first to fourth, 2017.

This is where my friend, M., came in. M. said she would find me two beds in Tokyo for 3 nights, January first to fourth, 2017. M. is experienced in this kind of search, but M. believes that airbnb is not entirely satisfactory, for reasons unclear to me. So M. spent much time flying or perhaps sailing about on other websites searching for two beds in Tokyo. My daughter then, on Sunday night (this is the Sunday night just past), flew in on her app, swift and black, and told us that airbnb is what should be used, because airbnb is what people use in Tokyo, indeed, in Japan as a whole. Then she flew away again. I was, by now, annoyed. M. was annoyed too—can you blame her?

So I found the room myself, on airbnb, I mean the cupboard in Tokyo with two beds, one of which is an air mattress on the floor with blankets piled on top. I sent my visa number to a person with a Japanese name, Y., and I reserved the room and the beds. Y.’s name has the sound of a bird call, to my ears.

I know it is very busy and crowded in Tokyo, so probably an air mattress on the floor, blankets piled on top, in a cupboard-sized room, is suitable and appropriate for Tokyo—even emblematic. This (the emblematic part) makes it fine for me, although my husband has made several comments about it, about how it is unsatisfactory to sleep on an air mattress in Tokyo for three nights, January first to fourth, 2017. Being the beginning of the year; the first four days of the year. But I hadn’t thought of that aspect, and truthfully, that hasn’t bothered me at all.