After Dark

After Dark describes a night in Tokyo, but I can hardly remember the plot. The focus is less on the narrative, but more on the setting and the mood, on how an entirely different world exists when the sun is out. I wonder how Murakami would have written this had he been in Manila instead.

In Manila, the world after dark is brimming with life and energy. Not just from the usual centers of night life such as red light districts, but almost every concentration of tall buildings has probably more people working at night than during the day. After all, Manila is now the number one outsourcing destination for voice services. With most of the BPO companies still operating out of Manila, most of the half a million people working for this industry make Manila after dark vastly different from Tokyo or any other city after dark.

Here, workers who hardly see the sun start their day after sunset. Usually waking with a nasty headache, they usually head to Starbucks before reporting for work at 9pm. They then answer calls and emails and process transactions for the next nine hours or so. They usually spend their breaks drinking more coffee and smoking outside the lobbies. On a Friday or on any weekday they feel like it, they start happy hour at 7am and will drink until late morning.

I was once a call center agent myself. I am now in a senior manager role and start work in the afternoon, but it is exactly midnight as I write this. This is Manila after dark.