A girl was standing on a large pedestrian bridge in front of Nakano Station

Nakano means Broadway. Broadway means Mandarake. My image of Nakano is strangely like this. I have only set foot in Nakano Broadway a handful of times, and, interestingly, I have never set foot inside a Mandarake store. It seems that Mandarake has left a strong impression on me.

In order not to ruin this precious impression, I am careful never to set foot in Mandarake in the future. Once I enter, the image that has been purely cultivated within me may be rewritten by reality, and I may end up feeling that Mandarake is not as great as I thought it was. It would be a waste of my time to think that Mandarake is great, even though I don't know what it is.

I used to be interested in the ruins of Persepolis in Iran, and even though I had never been there, I was imagining it. It was the ancient capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which had been destroyed by Alexander the Great, so the remains must have been spectacular. However, when I went to the site, all I was greeted with were some reliefs and recently reconstructed columns, which I had imagined. No, the ruins of Persepolis are not at all shabby; they are magnificent ruins that are registered as a World Heritage site. However, it was not easy for reality to overcome the purely cultured image in my mind.

To avoid making the same mistake, I vowed never to go to Mandarake in Nakano Broadway, so I avoided Broadway and headed for Nakano Station from Waseda Street through the cluttered alleys.

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