Yokohama Shopping Log - 2 - The Wind Was Blowing

I find myself capivated with the simplicity of Yokohama Shopping Log by Hitoshi Ashinano.

In my earlier anime days, I had an acquaintance who on the exterior was a bit gruff and un-anime fan looking: he had a handlebar mustache, listened to rockabilly, rode a motorcycle, but to all of us on the message boards, he loved those titles with cute girls doing cute things. The series he said he loved the most though was one that wasn't readily available outside of Japan (and wouldn't be for many years later), which was called Yokohama Shopping Log, a title about an android named Alpha who ran a coffee shop.

It wasn't until way later, that I learned it was exactly about that, but the setting happened to be after a catastrophic climate event that wiped out a lot of mankind. As a viewer, I love that the show throws you into a world where these events have occurred without actually ever telling you it occurred or how it occurred. Just that "here's what life is like in this world."

I was able to read the manga thanks to Seven Seas release and later decided to hunt for the OVAs on YouTube, which in this era of lost rights, out of production issues, and a growing amount of lost media around the corner, is helping preserve a number of shows. Within the second OVA, there is a segment titled "The Wind Was Blowing," which was as captivating to me as reading the manga had been.

The title has been considered one of the prime examples in Japanese media showing the concept of "the transience of things" and in this segment, it's Alpha spending an entire day making a single cup of coffee.

We can see the day begin with Alpha still asleep. Outside, the sun is up; a weathervane motionless. More sunlight appears in Alpha's room and she wakes up; the weathervane now spinning it's propellor slightly. Alpha, now awake, moves from the bed to the table, where she lies down, eyes open, and observing the the passing of the sun. She had started the kettle, and with the whistling that comes from the heat, her expression remains unchanged. The sun changes position more and she takes her time to stand up and head to the kitchen. Over the stove, she's roasting coffee beans, carefully shaking the basket, taking it off the heat, and then putting it back. The weatherfane shakes more dramatically and leaves are flying past it on-screen. The wound of the wind squeaks through the gaps in the wood framed windows; one of which begins to rattle. Alpha's gaze focused on the window, she comments "the screw's come loose." The smell of the coffee beans burning snaps her out of her trance. Alpha prepares the cup, brings it to the windowside table, and says that even though she burnt the beans, she still smells the familiar aroma.

She's telling us that some things still stay the same, even if the environment changes.

I think it's in that moment of awareness of the surroundings while performing your routine, which then broke, that you can become aware of not just the passing of time, but then how the passing of time has affected you, the individual. Have I thought about where I am now in life? Is it where I thought I would be? Have I set out to do the things I once told yourself you want to do? When you are aware of the unforgiving passing of time and it's affects on yourself, can you begin to make intentional changes.

The episode evoked in me this core memory I have growing up watching anime. I remember the peacefulness lying on the couch in my parents house, the foot of the couch facing our back door. The weather, cooling off, but not past the threshold in fall between summer and winter, so the main door was open, only separating the house from outside with a screen door and letting in the falling sunlight. It wasn't quite dusk, so the sun was receding, but we were left with a orange hued sky mixed through the clouds. I wrapped myself with a blanket to ward off any excess cold, watching episodes of Fushigi Yuugi or Rurouni Kenshin until it became dark enough to force someone to turn on a light. It was the feeling of "I have no other worries or things to concern about right now; I can spend my time anyway I like and if it's that acknowleding the weather and the show on TV, that's enough." When you can easily see the sun rolling across the sky and how shadows are cast on the floor. It's peaceful. It's getting caught up in your thoughts and realizing "wasn't I supposed to be doing something? Well, I can begin now that I'm aware of it," and slowly collect yourself to start, unconcerned with the concept of time. I like that.

In addition to this transience of life, it also exemplifies that sometimes, life just is the way it is and what will happen, will happen (a real 'So it goes.' vibe in mono-no-aware) We are presented a world that we know had this major population bottleneck issue without any explanation of how it happened or even confirmation THAT it happened; it's up to us to look at the world and think "OK, wow, well, something happened here." We know it has to do with the climate, because we can easily see how the sea level had risen leading up to the start of the series, based on the remaining cities underneath the current water level. We were obviously an advanced species in that we had learned how to create realistic androids like Alpha, but we still couldn't stop what (likely man-made) event had occurred. Time is short and we didn't anticipate the effects of how we let it pass.