A mother with a young boy was walking through Ginza at dusk

Parent and child walking through Ginza — Parent and child waiting at a traffic light in Ginza

As I was wandering around, the sun was setting. Gradually the area was getting darker. Ginza must have its own robe of night, but it would be a long time before it came down. The buildings lining Ginza-dori were lit up brightly, and there were still a lot of people walking around on the streets. It was still too early for the town to be quiet. Even if the robe of night wanted to let the night fall early, it would be impossible to do so.

Even after the sun goes down, there are still lights in the city. If you go to the downtown area, there are lights in the stores, and the traffic lights are shining. If you go to a residential area, it may not be completely dark, but there are streetlights and light from houses leaking outside. It is hard to find a place where there is no artificial light at all.

I was born and raised in Tokyo, but it wasn't until I was older that I saw a real robe of night. It was in Luang Prabang, Laos. When I walked along the Mekong River after dark, it was literally pitch black, with no lights from cars, no lights from people's houses, and no moon or stars in the sky because it was cloudy. It was the first time in my life that I experienced the "robe of night". It was so dark that I couldn't even see people walking from the other side, and I remember thinking to myself, "This is the robe of night from the book?"

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