---
title: "Tokyo"

meaning: "Exist Elsewhere 413 opener: off to Tokyo, love in my heart: Kokoro on the past that made me, told without falsehood; keep answerability live, not posthumous."

year: 2013
release: "413"
releaseType: "EP"

artist: "Exist Elsewhere"
artistId: "#existelsewhere"

coWriters: ["Brandon Michael Woodward"]
credits: "Written by Luke Francis Walton and Brandon Michael Woodward (Exist Elsewhere). Mixed and mastered by Frank Rosato."

spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/47ORPqoD0omGkbQR2koyW8"
apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/413-ep/681835750"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7wUKeN1Odo"

themes: ["Exist Elsewhere", "413", "Japan", "2013", "Kokoro", "authorship", "escape"]

isrc: USHM81320565
isrcSource: spotify
lyrics: |
  You asked if we could go
  Away to Tokyo
  And through the gardens run
  To the Osaka sun

  You asked if we could stay
  Beneath the trees all day
  A peaceful harmony
  Between the stars and sea

  Off to Japan
  I know we can
  A far land we will roam
  Woah

  Oh we could find a little place 
  Out in a new country
  Lose our every day
  Never thought I'd see
  This love in my heart
  Love in my heart
  Love in my heart

  Oh we could go to all the places
  That we didn't know
  See all that the world
  Would never show
  We'll be off to Tokyo
  Off to Tokyo
  Off to Tokyo

  Ay oh
  Ay oh
  Ay oh
  Ay oh

  You asked if we could be
  Married in Rikugien
  I promised you
  That neon sky
  Of luminescent butterflies

  We'll be off to the East
  Babe, I believe
  This far off land
  Could be our home
  Woah

  Oh we could find a little place 
  Out in a new country
  Lose our every day
  Never thought I'd see
  This love in my heart
  Love in my heart
  Love in my heart

  Oh we could go to all the places
  That we didn't know
  See all that the world
  Would never show
  We'll be off to Tokyo
  Off to Tokyo
  Off to Tokyo

  Ay oh
  Ay oh
  Ay oh
  Ay oh

  私は酔興に書くのではありません。
  私を生んだ私の過去は、人間の経験の一部分として、私より外に誰も語り得るものはないのですから、それを偽りなく書き残して置く私の努力は、人間を知る上において、あなたにとっても、外の人にとっても、徒労ではなかろうと思います。
  渡辺華山は邯鄲という画を描くために、死期を一週間繰り延べたという話をつい先達って聞きました。

  Through the rain and snow
  Ooo
  Our eyes may overflow
  Ooo
  But someday soon I know
  We'll wake up in Tokyo
  Ooo

draft: false
---

Track one on [*413*](/albums/413/) (**August 2, 2013**), the opener before [*Can't Fall*](/songs/cant-fall/), [*Unwhole*](/songs/unwhole/), and [*Genesis*](/songs/genesis/). **Exist Elsewhere** was Walton and Woodward's first band together at USC Thornton, with **Noah Benardout** (lead vocals, guitar, keys) and **Nick Petrou** (bass, vocals), **[Frank Rosato](/with/frank-rosato/)** on mix and master. The [Kinect-shot music video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7wUKeN1Odo), directed by [**Andrew Gant**](https://andrewgant.com/EXIST-ELSEWHERE), was the EP's public face and Gant's entry into volumetric capture ([full credits](https://andrewgant.com/EXIST-ELSEWHERE); [behind the scenes](https://vimeo.com/73163837); [live on The Artie Lange Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eLAJll9PsQ)).

On the surface it's a pop travelogue: lover as travel agent, Tokyo gardens, the Osaka sun, *beneath the trees all day*. Verse two turns to vows: *married in Rikugien*, a *neon sky of luminescent butterflies*, this far-off land as home. Escape as romance, *off to Tokyo* as the destination.

Then the bridge drops the travel brochure. Walton sets a passage from [**Kokoro**](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/773_14560.html) (*Heart*), Natsume Sōseki's 1914 novel and one of his favorite books, in the original Japanese:

> 私は酔興に書くのではありません。  
> 私を生んだ私の過去は、人間の経験の一部分として、私より外に誰も語り得るものはないのですから、それを偽りなく書き残して置く私の努力は、人間を知る上において、あなたにとっても、外の人にとっても、徒労ではなかろうと思います。  
> 渡辺華山は邯鄲という画を描くために、死期を一週間繰り延べたという話をつい先達って聞きました。

Roughly: *I am not writing out of whim. The past that made me what I am is one part of human experience, and since no one but I can tell it, I do not think my effort to leave it written down without falsehood will be wasted: for you, or for others, in coming to know human beings. I only recently heard the story that Watanabe Kazan postponed his death by a week to finish his painting Handan.*

In Sōseki, Sensei isn't asking to be forgiven. He's leaving a true account of the past that made him (*私を生んだ私の過去*, "the past that gave birth to me") because no one else can tell it. But his letter arrives only after his death: honest, and too late to be answered. Walton keeps the channel open instead, tell it while you can still be asked. The outro holds both the confession and the trip: *through the rain and snow / our eyes may overflow / but someday soon I know / we'll wake up in Tokyo*.

That thread runs forward into [*What Makes You You*](/songs/what-makes-you-you/) and the essays [The Bent Stick](/writing/the-bent-stick/) and [The Decision No One Authored](/writing/the-decision-no-one-authored/).

Japan as longing in 2013 becomes lived geography later, on [*Gonna Go to Japan*](/songs/gonna-go-to-japan/) and [*Only the Beginning*](/songs/only-the-beginning/).

See: [413 EP](/albums/413/) · [The Decision No One Authored](/writing/the-decision-no-one-authored/) · [The Bent Stick](/writing/the-bent-stick/) · [Exist Elsewhere on /music/](/music/#existelsewhere) · [Catalog](/catalog/)

---