Chapter 15West Shinjuku gleamed like a vain architect’s dream. Functional, systematic, efficient—it was a business conception of spatial order unlike the organic chaos of old Tokyo. On the sunny side of the skyscrapers, the banks of windows ricocheted splinters of sunlight back and forth between buildings rising dizzying stories into the air. Opposite the sun, the massive buildings threw shadows over the grid of straight roads and neat walkways below. Global hotel chains and offices for conglomerates bullied aside the standing bars and cheap eateries that once dotted the area, though a few noodle shops and discount stores hung on at the feet of the skyscrapers.
Michiko walked past the office workers returning in reluctant waves to their sky-world cubicles after lunch. Small clusters of wo
