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A holiday does not exist to rest the body.

It is not for resting the mind.

It’s not the body or the mind that relaxes…but the entire “state” of everyday repetition.

That is what I wrote at the beginning.

But there is something you must not forget.

On the morning that you tell yourself to drink deeply of the extraordinary on your holiday, so that you might return to the ordinary in a refreshed state—do not forget that the usual repetition may not return.

What did I tell you? The city does not distinguish between ordinary and extraordinary, work and rest.

It always comes down to people to see and judge these things.

Human beings.

So there’s no guarantee that the new day the city provides for you after a holiday will be the same as what you had before.

There is always change and evolution within the typical day—but I do not speak of such small matters.

This would be akin to eating healthy every day, then enjoying the occasional steak on the weekend. Except that rather than returning to healthy food, you are suddenly served a full-course poison mushroom meal.

If you do not receive the ordinary life you expected and instead must swallow a bizarre set of circumstances you never wanted…

I suggest you pray.

And trust that your stomachs are at least as strong as the city’s.

—Excerpt from the afterword of Shinichi Tsukumoya, author of Media Wax’s Ikebukuro travel guide, Ikebukuro Strikes Back 3