I have been sitting in this cafe for more than two hours. It was full of people but calm and clean. The cafe has an ambiance - sound and lights, that could make us sleepy. It is a study cafe where people come to quietly read or work on something. Each one of them focuses on what they are doing, people don’t talk much to each other here.
Most faces here are familiar, including the staff. When I came in, they greeted me with a friendly smile, they knew my face. I am a regular here, and I knew their faces too. Compared to other cafes in the neighborhood, I purposely tried not to befriend any of them. I wanted this cafe to be my Strangely Familiar place — a place that I am familiar with but I still remain a stranger.
Each person here feels like they came for the same reason as I did. It seems that they are looking for a place to escape from their reality. I will never know for sure why they came here — I have no plan to interact with them. I want us to be strangers, gathering only when life out there becomes too harsh on us. I want this place to be a safe haven where we can hide, calm down by reading and writing, and go home when we get sleepy.
I once saw a very kind girl here. She was with her elderly father, taking care of his food and drinks, treating him well before helping him with his winter coat and sending him off. I guess her father did not live in this neighborhood. Before I left, I wrote her a note in broken Japanese — ‘You are the kindest thing I have seen in a while’. I’m not sure whether she read the note, but today I saw her again — she has short hair now, and I’m glad that we looked at each other like strangers.
Around my friends, I sometimes joke too much about my life whenever things don’t go the way I want them to. Some of them think I could never be serious, even in critical situations. But that’s not true at all. At times, it’s just easier for me to joke about the bad things I’ve been dealing with — it helps lighten the burden I’ve been carrying all along. But when I get tired of joking about myself, I come to this cafe to gather with all my strangers. We calm down here for hours to forget, and then we go home when we get sleepy.