Window 1, 'the Lit City': No Repeat of the Light Procession Since the 7th — Inquiries Pile Up at the Window Café

The TDA's Dimensional Survey Division told this paper on the 10th that, after checking openings through the 9th, it found no repeat of the previously reported "light procession" (Oct. 7) across the three openings since. "Whether that night was simply an exception, or we just weren't watching at the right hour, we can't say yet," the division said. Window keepers' logs for the intervening nights describe an otherwise ordinary nightscape.

At "Toshimado-Sabo," the café beside the observation rig off Haneda, inquiries from visitors who say they read about the procession have piled up since the 9th. Owner Miyai, previously reported, said most ask whether the procession can be seen again. "All I can honestly say is that nobody knows," he said with a wry laugh. The café has been full both days.

Window 1's general viewing, run on a lottery basis for 80 slots a day with applications accepted in a batch at the start of each month, had already closed its October round before the procession was observed on the 7th. Any bump in applications from the renewed interest will not show up until, at the earliest, November's round. "We can feel the interest rising on the phone lines," a division official said, "but putting a number on the odds is still a ways off."

The division has not changed its longstanding position on Window 1 that there is no evidence the other side is aware of this one, maintaining that the October 5 revision of its view on Window 5 sits in a separate category. Where the procession began or ended, and what occasion it might mark, remain unknown, and the matter is still expected to be added to the agenda of the outside expert panel (chaired by Etsuko Kajiura) due to hold its first meeting in early November.

One window keeper coming off duty, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "That night was large enough that we gave up trying to count it, so honestly, nobody can guarantee whether something like it will be seen again. Being hoped for isn't a bad thing, but the window shows a different face every time. Whether you can find that interesting is, I think, what decides whether this job suits you."

A company employee, 31, waiting at the café said he had applied to November's lottery for the first time. "Until now I'd just been following the window stories out of curiosity, but reading about that procession made me want to see it with my own eyes, at least once." Nobody yet knows how much the odds will rise — but the line of applicants has, at the very least, grown by one.

As previously reported, Window 1 is also built into a social-studies school-trip course, but the division said its handling of group slots — kept separate from the general lottery — will not change. "Keeping the viewing fair matters more than anything," an official said. "Expanding slots just because something got attention would, if anything, make things less fair."

Rin Toda, the reporter following the story, said, "Whether that night was an exception, or something that will keep happening from time to time — it'll probably take a while before we have an answer." He added, "Still, I think the way people who didn't get to see it have left their interest on record like this is, in its own way, exactly the kind of record this beat is made of." The division says it plans to tally future opening records on a monthly basis and make a further announcement if any pattern emerges.