A Shopping Mall is a Mini-Dungeon

Dear Diary,

Shinichi woke up at 2:30 a.m. It’s too early! He tidied up silently his room as usual, such as folding clothes and put in dishes on the shelf. He perfectly finished all the preparations for him at 4:00 a.m. Shinichi walked to Shin-Sapporo station for about by 20 minutes.

In Sapporo, people can wake up in the earliest morning sunrize at 3:30 a.m., approximately on June 21st (summer solstice). In April, it was still dark before dawn at 4:00 a.m. Shinichi walked around neighbouring areas in the early morning. He arrived at Shin-Sapporo Station at 4:30 a.m. As soon as he arrived at the station, he began to look for a place where people could avoid raining drops. He found the pathway that connects with the JR station, hotel, and convenience store. It doesn’t open all gates that connect with the subway station by 5:45 a.m. Shinichi looked around himself. He admired that this station connects with several shopping malls, hotels, and bus terminals. He thought that looks like a dungeon.

As somebody knows, there is an underground pathway network in Toronto (Canada), like a spider web. Likewise, some shopping malls connect with the subway or JR station in Sapporo. People can go shopping in a shopping mall, especially in winter.

The underground pathway in the central area (Sapporo, Odori, Susukino) may know well. But Shin-Sapporo Station also connects with three shopping malls (DUO1,2, Sunpiazza, QualitePrix). If the Shinjuku Station (Tokyo, Japan) is the hugest Japanese underground network, Sapporo Station is a labyrinth, and Shin-Sapporo Station looks like a mini-dungeon.

In his teenager, Shinichi used to lose his way in the department. He was good at searching his best route outside. But he sometimes needs to prepare the map in a dungeon in the building, which means the shopping mall.