During the long approach to the entrance of the Tokyo Belvedere Hotel, Lily pressed her cheek flat against the tinted glass and stared in utter awe of the grand building. During her travels, she'd stayed in many luxurious hotels throughout Europe and America, but they all paled in comparison to the sheer majesty of the Belvedere. Their driver brought them to a gentle halt outside of the lobby on the ground floor where the concierge was waiting. Without being asked, the driver - whose name Lily hadn't been awake enough to catch or remember - unloaded their bags onto a gilded trolley. A finely dressed porter with white gloves and a gold-buttoned jacket bowed his head to the driver politely. The young man chatted to Grace briefly in Japanese, handed her his card, and returned to the vehicle to make his exit. 

'Please,' the porter said, gesturing toward the glass doors. 'If you will come this way.'

The women followed him in revered silence, and Lily walked slowly past a long oak bench upon which stood a large vase containing a minimalistic floral arrangement. The lobby was bright and fresh, with light stone floors and floor-to-ceiling windows. A trio of low, black leather chairs were positioned around a circular coffee table which sat empty but for one, where a man with glasses and in suit was reading a paper. He didn't seem the sort to do so, but the seats would have provided anyone with a proclivity to people-watch an ideal view of the guests as they entered the building, each equally as awe-struck as the next. 

Past the elevators, large bi-folding doors led out to an enormous koi pond and garden. Sadly, the women had no time to explore it or the restaurant beside it where a live pianist played a serene melody for the diners, and cutlery clinked against porcelain plates. 

A second porter came to meet them, bowed, and led them into one of the waiting elevators. The first left with their luggage to take a service elevator, and as the doors closed before them, Lily watched their suitcases and the gilded trolley drift away into the unseen staff areas of the building. The elevator played a soothing, gentle tune which danced in the air around them. Lily and Grace shared a glance of stifled glee. Both women were accustomed to the finer things in life - Grace more so than Lily - but neither had lost that wonderment and joy that accompanied travel and pampering. They were barely into the building and already they were being treated like visiting royalty. Lily could only hope that everyone she met in Japan was as polite and accommodating.

When the doors parted, the women were guided out by the porter who seemed determined to escort them the entire way to the check-in desk. The lobby on the thirty-third floor was a phenomenal display of a small, square, rippling raised pond, zen gardens, and ikebana flower displays. Low chaises and sofas gave guests the chance to relax while waiting on cars and companions, or to simply close their eyes and let go of the burden of a long day in the city. The wide space was minimalistic, and yet Lily's gaze was drawn to the flourishes of traditional Japanese design, from the vases to the intricate black wooden panels adorning many of the internal dividing walls. Squat square lamps cast a reassuringly warm orange glow throughout the vast area. It felt oddly like walking into someone's home, if that someone happened to be a multi-billionaire.

Overhead, more light filtered down through a washi rice-paper ceiling. Lily stopped in her tracks and stared up into the void, her mouth hanging open and her breath caught at the back of her throat. As though in a dream, she wandered toward the raised, dark oak walkway and down over towards the enormous doors to the balcony. While she wasn't bold enough to step outside, Lily couldn't help but draw in a deep, shuddering breath as she took in the sight before her. The sprawling metropolis of Tokyo was a wonder to behold. And, for all the high-rises and digital signs which would, no doubt, illuminate the city at night, it wasn't lacking in green spaces. Pockets of parkland and glittering rivers reflecting the sunlight caught her eye. The people below milled around like busy ants, all hurrying through the bustling streets in their journey from point A to point B, never knowing that high above them a young woman was falling in love.

'Darling,' Grace said, peering through a display shelf lined with antique tea pots. 'Are you coming with us?'

'Yes,' Lily replied, her voice barely a breath and no more than a whisper. 'I was just -'

'Distracted?'

'Very.'

The haze of wonder and bewilderment hung around Lily like a cloud. Grace oozed charm and elegance as she flirted with the manager who'd arrived at the check-in desk purely for the purpose of bowing deeply to his new guest, and personally thanking her for choosing their hotel. Grace made no mention of the fact that they hadn't chosen the hotel, and that the decision had been left entirely in the hands of the production company, for fear of offending him.

Lily waited until the man released her great-aunt, offered them room keys, and they were left to follow the porter once more. 'They're seriously paying for this?' Lily asked in a whisper once they were in another elevator with only the attendant for company. 'A Japanese production company?'

'Well, they have American sponsors,' Grace said. 'And I might have hinted that I would write a favourable review of wherever we happened to stay, and of the production company for their generosity.'

'And an endorsement from Grace Sugiyama is worth more than gold and diamonds, am I right?' Lily teased.

'Darling, really,' Grace laughed.

She didn't deny it.

It was perfectly true.

Hotels and tourist spots which featured heavily in Grace's books saw their visitor numbers spike. Everyone wanted to recreate the moment the love interest's eyes met, or look out upon the view that their troubled male leads pondered while enduring the emotional anguish of some betrayal or another. If they could recreate a photograph from Grace's Instagram account or stay in the room she'd been inspired by, then they were immediately the envy of her terrifyingly large fan-base, and they were more than willing to pay the hotels more for the privilege of securing said prized room.

While not quite a penthouse suite, the luxurious hotel room was more than suitable for their needs. The women had their own private rooms off a central sitting area, in which there was also a low table with complementary local sweets, fruit, and a bouquet of flowers with a welcome note to Grace. They had their own ensuite bathrooms in a western style, with jacuzzi style baths and intimidatingly complex Japanese toilets with more buttons than Lily could count. She made a mental note to dabble with them at her own risk. They had a small private balcony with a terrace table and chairs for outdoor breakfasts, but Lily wasn't sure they'd spend much time out there. Had they been in the countryside, she'd have been eager to soak up the views and fresh air. When one was in the city, it was preferable to keep as much noise and air pollution out of the room as possible.

Grace thanked the porter for his service. He bowed and excused himself, leaving them with their luggage and some peace at long last.

'Don't look so surprised, my love,' Grace said to her niece. 'Surely when you attend your fashion shows you travel five star?'

'First-class travel but three-star accommodation,' Lily corrected. 'I like to keep a low profile.'

Until Julian, that is.

Lily enjoyed seeing the world as other people saw it. High class hotels were gorgeously decadent, but often weren't a true reflection of a country. Where was the heart? Where was the homely feel of family? Lily would take a small family owned business over a cookie-cutter chain building full of faceless businessmen any day of the week. When she stayed in such hotels, with all their comfortable, informal, communal dining, she was just another young woman out seeing the world. Sure, she had the money to pay for more, but what was the point? Why elevate herself above the people upon whose shoulders a country was built?

Then Julian tried to tell her how wrong she was to think in such a way.

How it was a privilege to have more money and therefore she ought to spend it rubbing shoulders with people who, like her, had been born to wealth and fame.

What was the point, he'd often asked, of being gifted an easy life if one didn't take the opportunity to enjoy it?

Lily found herself wondering with increasing frequency just what she'd seen in Julian in the first place.

'Take a shower and change into something comfortable. We're heading out to explore,' Grace instructed.

'But... sleep?' Lily asked. The bed was calling to her, with all its crisp sheets and bundles of pillows.

Hang Tokyo, she wanted to curl up and nap for the next week!

'If you go to sleep now then you'll never shake off the jet-lag,' Grace said. 'You know that as well as I do. Now, hurry up, or I'll choose your outfit for you.'

Lily groaned and trudged off into the bathroom. She hoped rather than believed the shower water would be hot enough to wash away the stress of the exceptionally long day.

It did have the desired effect of loosening up her muscles, cleansing her dark hair, and reducing the dryness she felt around her eyes. A little hydration could work miracles, she found, and when she emerged from the bathroom she felt far more human than she had for the past twelve hours.

The two women who stepped out of the hotel a little after eleven that morning in Tokyo were not a pair one would immediately suppose were related, or indeed even travelling together. Always immaculate in all she said and did, Grace was finely turned out in a pleated black floral midi skirt, and a white tie-neck blouse, all concealed under a black wool belted wrap coat. It was far warmer than London in late March, and yet Grace always seemed to feel the cold, and was never seen without a jacket or coat about her person just in case a chill caught her.

Her niece, on the other hand, hadn't given her choice of dress nearly as much thought. Her hair still damp from her shower, Lily had tied it back in a bedraggled pony-tail which left a round damp patch between her shoulder-blades on her black knit bardot jumper. Beneath it was a simple spaghetti strap top, and she'd tugged on a pair of faded black skinny jeans to round off the outfit. It all went rather well with her beaten boots, but she didn't quite cut the same beautiful, elegant figure her aunt did.

At least it matched her black handbag.

Tokyo Midtown was around the corner, and with it came the promise of fresh air and coffee; two things Lily was in desperate need of.

They didn't stand out in Tokyo. Well, Grace didn't. She looked at home in Japan, an elegant woman of a certain age who was happy to slow down and take in the world around her. Lily couldn't understand why she'd left a country so familiar to move to England in the first place, but that was Grace's story to tell one day, and not for her to guess at. Lily still looked like a foreigner. Her mixed features felt all the more obvious when she was surrounded by people with generations of purely Japanese blood in their veins. She supposed it was how her father must have felt when he lived in the city, being half and half, and not feeling as though he belonged in either the East or the West of the world.

Still, she supposed in a city as large and diverse as Tokyo she might be mistaken for a student or tourist, and that might make her less of an oddity to the locals. Indeed, there were a number of people far more outlandish and bemusing than her in the crowds; black, white, blonde, red-headed, some with vibrant pink hair and others dressed in Lolita fashion.

Lily was content to watch the people, but Grace's eyes were immediately drawn to the luxury brands on offer. She looped her arm through Lily's and herded her into the mall. Like a bloodhound to prey, Grace sniffed out the most expensive jewellery store in the place and dragged Lily inside. Normal women - that is, women who had some understanding of money and budgets - would have stood outside and stared through the glass longingly while they fought back the urge to waste bundles of cash on diamonds and emeralds. Grace was not a normal woman. She was a woman who thought a diamond bracelet was on par with a keychain when it came to holiday souvenirs, and she was happily greeted by a pristine sales attendant who spoke to her in rapid Japanese about their newest items and what they had to offer by way of their limited-edition pieces.

While Grace pored over these trinkets, Lily eyed the door, and wondered if she could sneak off to a café before her aunt noticed her absence.

'Lily, would you come here, please?' It might have sounded like a polite request, but Lily had no choice. Her aunt was all but ordering her to return to her side and take part in the exchange.
Lily shuffled over, aware of just how out of place she was in such an establishment when in such attire, despite knowing she could, if she wanted, buy herself five fancy tiaras without making a dent in her bank balance. It was safe to say that she'd never been entirely comfortable with the concept of wealth.

'What do you think?' Grace asked, displaying a beautifully cut sapphire, aquamarine, and diamond cluster necklace. It was so dazzling it made Lily's eyes water. 'Isn't it exquisite?'

'You mean expensive.'

'Oh, what's the point of money if you don't treat yourself now and again.'

'You sound like Julian,' Lily muttered.

'Well, I think I'll ask them to hold it for me. I'll pick it up another day.'

After more rapid Japanese that Lily could hardly keep up with, they departed, Grace's purse a little lighter, but her heart fuller with joy at her purchase.

Said purchase hadn't gone unnoticed. Surely, it wasn't every day that a strange woman dropped a few thousand pounds on a piece of jewellery first thing in the morning. A man who'd been staring through the window at them followed them both with his gaze when they left. He trailed behind them for a full twenty minutes while Grace browsed, taking pictures on his phone and, no doubt, sending messages about the two rich tourists he'd discovered to his friends.

So much for keeping a low profile, they were already going viral on local social media.
After what felt like hours of wandering and trying to rein in her affluent aunt, Lily finally had her hands around a mug of coffee. She breathed in the bitter aroma and let it warm her all the way to her heart. There were few things she adored in the world, but coffee was certainly one of those few.

'Honestly,' Grace said. 'There are some lovely restaurants here. This must be the cheapest café in the building.'

'And yet, it's still expensive,' Lily retorted.

'Well, if you're going to enter into a high-class shopping centre, you ought to expect -'

'Grace,' Lily interrupted, 'enough. I know what you're doing.'

'What's that, darling?' the woman asked. She sipped on her coffee, masking a guilty smile.

'Retail therapy.'

'Retail therapy?'

'It's not going to help,' Lily told her. 'Shopping never makes me feel better. Ever. I can't bury my problems under designer handbags.'

'They also sell shoes.'

Lily laughed softly. Perhaps it was the exhaustion, or maybe the persistent hangover, but she remembered in that moment just how much she loved her aunt. Sure, Grace hardly needed an excuse to go shopping at any given time, but all the walking around and the task of trying to curb her spending had taken her mind off Julian for a little while, and the caffeine was waking her up.

It wasn't the worst first day in the city.

At least, so she thought until someone passed their table.

They brushed awfully close when one considered the café wasn't particularly crowded. Their shoulder bumped Lily to such an extent that she spilled coffee on her hand. When she turned her head to snap at the stranger, she saw his hand reach for her handbag. In a flash, the man took off running, the bag in his hand, bouncing on the strap.

Grace and Lily were on their feet quickly. While Grace cried, 'Someone! Thief!' Lily took off after him. Her phone was in there, and her passport, as well as the visa to the one bank account Julian hadn't managed to worm his way into during the course of their relationship. There was no way she was going to let another man run off with it.

'Stay there!' she shouted back to Grace as she left the café with no thought to the fact she knew nothing of Tokyo and had no real way of stopping the man should she actually catch up to him.

The thief fled into Hinokicho Park, perhaps hoping to lose himself on the trails which wound their way through lawns and ponds surrounded by man made rock formations and towering trees which flourished with the promise of Spring. He shouted at ambling couples and tourists to scare them out of his way as he flew past, and Lily trailed in his wake, her lungs stinging with the effort to fill them with enough oxygen, but her furious determination driving her onwards. She was much too stubborn a woman to give up on something she'd begun, and she wasn't about to let the man out of her sight.

It was as he approached Resting House that she saw her chance. The man made to take the corner, slowing down as he did. Lily sprinted and barrelled into him, where they both tumbled to the ground. Bruised and no doubt bleeding, Lily and the man struggled for the bag.

'Enough! Let go!' she shouted at him.

He retorted just as furiously. Even though she couldn't understand, she assumed he was telling her the same thing.

There were many people nearby, but none seemed inclined to step in and help. This wasn't any reflection on the Japanese people, but rather, people in general. The phenomenon of bystanders filming incidents on their phones was a worldwide issue, and something Lily had seen many times in London during bag snatchings, fist fights, and car accidents. She hadn't expected anyone to come to her aid.

Which was why it was such a surprise to her when a man did step forwards. He was quick to overpower the thief, and to force him to relinquish his grip on his prize. He held the man's arms against his sides as two police officers approached and took over the task of restraining him. They were remarkably efficient, and had no doubt been summoned by one of the many members of the public with their phone to their ear.

The stranger reached out to Lily and spoke to her in Japanese again, and she wished she'd thought to pack a phrase book.

Not that she'd had time to pack anything herself in the first place, but still.

'Sorry,' she said. 'I - uh - I don't...'

'English?' the man asked. He was unforgivably handsome; dark eyes, black hair, fair skin, high cheekbones, and a jawline so sharply defined you could use it to cut through glass.

'Yes.'

He smiled. 'I see. The police are going to take him in. There were a lot of witnesses and you're a tourist, so I don't think you'll need to go with them. Do you want me to ask?'

Lily nodded mutely.

Their conversation was brief, and it confirmed the man's suspicions. The criminal was known to them and would be processed without her assistance. They only required her contact information in case it became necessary for her to provide her account of the events. Given how many people had seen them tearing their way through the park, it seemed unlikely they would require her side of the narrative, but they had to follow procedure.

'Thank you,' Lily said earnestly when the police departed with the would-be thief.

'No problem,' he said.

'You sound American,' she observed. The lilt of his accent was unmistakable, but only audible when he spoke in English, and not in his native Japanese. 'American university?'

'Yes. Good guess. Do you need me to walk you back somewhere?' he asked.

'Ah,' Lily looked back over her shoulder and realised then that she'd not kept track of the route she'd taken in her pursuit of the man. 'Would you mind? I'm lost.'

He laughed softly, and Lily felt her knees weaken a little.

'Oh no,' she thought to herself. 'Not again.'