Dreamed last night that Japan had been bombed, its mountains flattened, but I promised them revenge if I could have their national treasures, their precious {things}. The Japanese gave me their {things}. The kimonoed mother of the family I was staying with was astonished that I had these {things}, and her husband was prostrate with delight after having a taste of the {things}. The {things} were perfectly obvious to me when asleep but awake I couldn't think what they might be. I believe they were some kind of sea food.
Then I was back at Nichibei Kaiwa, my language school of twenty years ago. The oddity being that the area around Nichibei really was the area around Nichibei-- Yotsuya station, the view down Sotobori-doori to the National Guest House. My dream Tokyo is usually a Platonic Form of the place- all the feeling but none of the RL details. Dream Nichibei however was exactly that: a large gracious structure with wood panelling, possibly borrowed from University College here at UofT, full of children, not foreign students of Japanese. Stuff like this makes me think there might really be an archetypal Tokyo, the reality under the appearance, as there is an archetypal London; and then I think no, Tokyo doesn't have enough reality even in the waking world.
