Taisho Romance

Chiyoko,

How are you doing? I finally finished my final exams today. Now all I have to do is wait for the summer holiday.

You might be wondering what a final exam is. What does the summer holiday look like in your era? I'm sure you are very curious about it.

The final exam is a test to see how well you remember what you have learnt at school. The subject of the exam this time was about the Edo period, so from autumn, we'll be learning about your time.

The summer holidays are about a month long, and we have a lot of homework and club activities, so we're pretty busy. It's super fun to hang out with my friends though!

I mean, it's too late for you to know how to read my name, haha.

It's called "Tokito". It's an unusual name but I like it.

I'm preparing for my exams, so I have to study hard so that I can go to the high school of my choice, but the letters I write to you help me to relax. 

Thank you very much.

From Tokito

~

Summer, 2023.

For a few months now I have been exchanging letters with a girl who lives in the Taisho era.

I don't know the details of the delivery system, but I believe that she really lives in the Taisho era, and I keep writing to her in the hope that it will make my Japanese history studies a little easier. I'm not sure if she really lived in the Taisho era, but I believe she did.

I go to a boy-only school, and her letters are something really wonderful to me. The words she spins are beautiful and gentle. My first love was a girl from the Taisho era. It's very romantic. Is this what Taisho romance is all about? No, it's not.

I haven't told anyone about this because I don't think they would believe me. She seems to be the same.

It's a secret between us. This made me look forward to her letter even more.

~

Tokito,

Thank you for your letter.

I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to ask you how to read your name. It sounds really nice.

I'm glad that you know about my final exams, summer holidays and all the things I'm worried about.

Good luck with your studies during the summer holidays. I will try my best to do my housework and look after my brothers and sister and reply to your letter. 

I want to know more about this time period, which I will learn in autumn. I wish I could know more about this time period, but I don't think I would enjoy my life if I did. I'm going to enjoy imagining in my head what the future will be like and what it will be like with you.

Today, I dressed up and went to Ginza (a town) with my friends. There were many beautiful women with bright red lipstick and I decided that in a few years, I will be like them. I want to be beautiful and meet you!

From Chiyoko

~

I asked her what prompted her to write to me.

Apparently, she imagined the city and civilisation of Tokyo a hundred years from now, and she wrote it down on a piece of paper.

When she left to attend to her business, the paper had disappeared. She didn't think much of it and forgot all about it, thinking that someone had used it as a backing paper.

Until she received a reply from a hundred years in the future.

There was a piece of paper on my study desk with no address or sender written on it. When I opened it, I saw the title "One Hundred Years Later", and underneath it was a list of things I couldn't understand.

I wondered if my brother had put it there as a joke, but for a book about a hundred years from now, some of the things in the book already existed ("A machine that washes your clothes on its own" must have been a washing machine), so I really didn't understand it.

But what it said was interesting, so I wrote down on the back of the paper the things that existed now and the things that didn't, as if I were trying to match the answers.

And before I knew it, it had travelled back in time to the Taisho era.

~

Chiyoko,

You must be so beautiful when you grow up. We'll be adults in five years too.

You say you don't want to know what's going to happen in the future, but from my first letter to you, you already know what's going to be invented in the future haha!

I hope you live long enough to try a washing machine. I'm sure you'll be impressed.

Anyway, if you live a very long life, will you be able to see me when I was a little boy?

We live in Tokyo together, so it's not impossible, right?

I'd like to meet you, even only for a glance

From Tokito

~

I want to see you at least once. Because I like you.

I swallowed the last word without writing.

She sends me letters because she genuinely enjoys the timelessness of our correspondence, and I'm afraid she'll be put off if I suddenly tell her that.

My letters always reach her in exactly ten days after I write them. The same goes the other way round.

So no matter how quickly you write a reply, it will take time for it to reach her.

I wish you could send her a phone instead of a letter.

Then we could communicate with each other every day and hear each other's voices. We could even laugh at each other through the screen.

By the way, she was convinced of the invention of many machines, but she said she couldn't understand or imagine anything about a smartphone.

No wonder. Even I, who use it every day, have no idea how it works.

~

Tokito,

Thank you for your letter.

It's true that I know a lot of things now. I want to use a washing machine, and if I had an air conditioner, I would never leave my house. I want to tell everyone about all the things I'll be able to do in the future, but they'll never believe me, which is really frustrating.

I'm going to live long enough to see you. Promise.

There's something I wanted to tell you when I meet you, but I don't know if I can write it here now.

I love you, Tokito.

I miss you very, very much.

I want to walk around Tokyo with you holding my hand.

I'll go to any time of the year for that.

I'm sorry I'm saying this all of a sudden. I know it's weird. You can throw away this letter if you want. You don't have to write back to me. I just wanted to tell you.

From Chiyoko

~

It was on the last day of the summer holidays that I received such a letter from her and my mother was angry with me for screaming with joy.

It was the last day of the summer holidays and my mother was furious with me because I had screamed so loudly because my younger brother, who is always so noisy, was quiet thanks to his pile of homework. The sun was setting. Summer is over.

That evening, I finish my dinner and watch my father's news programme in a daze.

I was about to get up to go back to my room and get ready for tomorrow when I heard the announcer say something that made my mind go blank.

"Tomorrow will mark 100 years since the Great Kanto Earthquake.

The Great Kanto Earthquake. It's a disaster of unprecedented proportions that even my poor Japanese history background knows about.

I hurriedly took out my phone and searched for the Great Kanto Earthquake.

It occurred on September 1, 1923. About 105,000 people died, including 70,000 in Tokyo.

Don't worry, it's not a given that she'll be involved yet. The more I tried to believe that, the more I couldn't stop crying. I'm going to write her a letter now, telling her to run away somewhere far away. The answer to my confession didn't matter now. I hope that a miracle will happen and that this letter will reach her as soon as possible. It won't take more than 10 days to reach her. Please, God, I'll do anything.

~

Chiyoko.

I have a request. Go as far away as you can right now. Take your loved ones with you.

Tomorrow, an incredibly big earthquake will hit Tokyo.

Please write to me again when it calms down. 

I will be waiting for you.

From Tokito

~

Time has passed and the season has turned into winter.

I haven't heard anything from her since then.

I tried to write to her several times, but I couldn't send them to her anymore.

I look out of the window at the snow and solve my Japanese history problem book. The Great Kanto Earthquake was in 1923. I've never forgotten this year since that day. But it is no use to me anymore.

Why didn't I see it sooner?

I blamed myself again and again.

~

I graduated from junior high school and became a high school student.

One rainy day, just before the end of the rainy season, I went to visit a friend of mine who had become a good friend of mine in my class.

When I arrived at his house, I was greeted by a kind old man.

He said, "This is my friend Tokito. It means "to fly through time", isn't it cool?"

He introduced me to his friend and I bade him hello.

"Tokito... Welcome, have a good time."

He said with a slightly surprised look on his face.

On the way home, my grandpa handed me a piece of paper.

I couldn't wait to get home, so I opened it on the side of the road under my umbrella and saw the letters I had been waiting to see.

The sound of the rain fades away. My mind was instantly transported back to that summer.

Tokito,

Thank you for your letter. I miraculously survived the earthquake and now I am able to live a long life.

A few weeks after the earthquake, I went to the place where my house used to be and found a letter from you on the ground. Everything else had burned down. It might have arrived after the fire had gone out.

Thank you for trying to save me. When I read your letter, I couldn't stop crying.

I've been so selfish with my feelings.

I wrote a reply right away, but it seemed that it couldn't reach your time anymore. So I leave this letter to you, believing in the miracle that my son will meet Tokito.

By the way, I was able to see the washing machine and the air conditioner with my own eyes. I think I thought of the washing machine before anyone else, but I'm not sure. There are many other machines that Tokito mentioned that have enriched our lives.

I am going to leave this world soon because of illness. I will be 80 years old next month and I want to work hard until then.

Tokito, we will meet somewhere in the future, won't we? I'm looking forward to it.

From Chiyoko

~

A tear rolled down my cheek. They were not the same warm tears of that day.

She was alive. She had survived the disaster and become the beautiful woman she had always wanted to be. That was enough for me. And then, in her last moments, she remembered me and wrote me a letter.

It was the same as using a mobile phone, a correspondence that even they had no idea how it worked.

I wondered if, in the future, there will be machines that can connect people from different time periods, just as we can connect with people in different places using a smartphone.

I suddenly think about this, and like her, I try to imagine what the future will be like.

I'm going to live a long life too, and I'll have lots of stories to tell, so wait for me, Chiyoko.

I swear and she smiles at me.

When I looked up at the sky, the rain had stopped before I knew it.

It was the start of another summer.

I folded up my umbrella and took a big step forward.

The End