So I’m pretty shocked when the car drops us off at the Shinjuku Station, and Victor leads me toward the down escalator. There are hotels and even malls attached to many Tokyo’s stations, but that’s not where we’re headed. We walk through the automatic fare collectors toward the Keio Line.
Whoa, I haven’t been on public transportation since my days using the Pioneer Valley five-college bus system to go to frat parties at Amherst. I can’t see Mr. When I’m Not Driving My Audi I’m Flossing in the Back of My Bentley being all that comfortable with Japan’s subway system either.
But he leads me directly toward Platform 4 like he knows exactly where he’s going. And about a minute later, we’re holding on to a pole and zipping away on a Keio Express train to God only knows where.
Well, God and Victor.
I’m beginning to regret asking for our final destination to be a surprise. Now I'm dead curious about where he's taking me. And that little thrill of excitement upgrades to full-on anticipation.
I almost let go of the pole to ask him where we’re going in sign language. But then a voice inside my head warns, Dawn, you’re letting him suck you in again.
So instead, I clamp my lips and remind myself that he's the worst kind of monster. The kind that gives gifts.
I covertly check him out again as we rocket toward wherever we’re going. Specifically, the left hand wrapped around the pole between us. While my fake wedding ring is currently floating somewhere in the New Jersey sewer system, he’s still wearing his like our marriage was actually real.
But why?
It doesn’t matter, the know-better voice inside of me answers as the train comes to a stop at Keio Tama Center. It doesn’t matter why he’s still wearing a wedding ring, and it doesn’t matter where you’re going.
The voice is right, I decide as I get off the train. Wherever it is, it won't be enough to sway me. No place on earth would make me—wait a minute, are those signs for Sanrio Puroland?
“Oh, my God. Are we going to Hello Kitty Land?” I ask Victor, coming to a dead stop underneath a stained-glass ceiling display in the center of the station that wasn’t there the last time I came to Hello Kitty Land with my family.
It features Hello Kitty—or Kitty-chan as the locals call her in a cute Keio Railway uniform and other lesser-known but beloved Sanrio characters like Cinnamoroll, MyMelody, and Pompompurin. The entire station has gotten a total Hello Kitty overhaul. Hello Kittys are embedded in most of the signage, and there’s even a Kitty-chan character walking around and taking pictures with new arrivals.
Victor nods in answer to my question about our ultimate destination.
And forget about acting mad. I let out a happy shriek and jump up and down. I can’t believe we’re going to Hello Kitty Land! And I can’t even care that Victor’s smirking as if he predicted this is exactly how I’d react. I mean, IT’S HELLO KITTY LAND!!!
After walking up some stairs to daylight, crossing over a city bridge, and walking down a road lined with stores and multinational fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Subway, and Mister Donut, we finally reached the entrance where there’s a long line of people waiting to get in.
I’d tried to get my dad to buy fast passes the one and only time I convinced my family to come here for my first birthday in Japan. But he was like, “Girl, it’s bad enough you have me up in this damn Hello Kitty Land in the first place.”
Victor also didn’t spring for the passes. But that’s because a guide with a Nikon camera strapped around his neck meets us outside the front entrance to escort us into the indoor theme park.
He zips us past the long line of people waiting to enter, and I guess I haven’t completely lost my Japanese. I hear a few people in line wondering out loud if I’m famous as we pass by.
After a curry meal with a Hello Kitty-shaped head of rice in the super kawaii (cute) character café, our escort takes us down to the main floor for the kawaii Miracle Gift Parade.
Let me tell you, I ooh and aah along with the many kids surrounding us as dancers open the show with Cirque Du Soleil-like routines before some of my favorite Sanrio characters, like My Melody and Cinnamoroll, start arriving on colorful floats. And I just about lose my shit when Hello Kitty and her boyfriend Dear Daniel arrive from the Strawberry Kingdom.
Victor takes my hand. I think to tell me to be quiet. Japan is more of a clap politely kind of society, and there’s not nearly as much screaming and shouting as there would be at a similar American theme park. But even after I calm down, he continues to hold my hand in his.