Dream Diary, 2025-10-09

I had a dream.

I only remember the last part, after a few other dreams.

I’d gone on a trip somewhere. I was enjoying sightseeing in an old town, but I had to get somewhere fast. Maybe I had something scheduled next.

While I was running, I found an absurdly beautiful, vivid row of cherry trees. There were cherry trees on both sides of the road, and the full-bloom blossoms made it look like a tunnel.

I got curious, so I decided to go through it. Then people started filing in after me, one after another.

After running for a while, I came out into something like a plaza. There was a stage-like thing, and people were doing either radio calisthenics (a Japanese group exercise routine) or something like an idol concert. Maybe it was a local fad in this area. Ignoring it, I turned left across the plaza and headed into the tunnel on the opposite side. This one was made of wisteria trellises.

Not wanting the people behind me to catch up, I picked up the pace even more and reached the exit. There, an attendant(?) stopped me. I was coughing, so they flagged me down on suspicion that I had a cold.

The scene changed, and I was going to a psychiatric hospital. I checked in at the front desk, and a nurse led me down a hallway. The room she pointed me to with “this way” had a sign that read “Laboratory of ◯◯ (a person’s name)”. Seeing that, I thought, “Is this a university?” and “I really don’t want to end up a guinea pig.”

Inside, it really was a room like a professor’s office. Bookshelves lined the walls, and there was a table with four chairs in the middle. Next to it was a whiteboard, and an elderly man was standing there. He seemed to be the professor(?) who would do my counseling. He didn’t seem like a bad person.

I was told to sit and asked to explain how I’d ended up there. I struggled with how to put it, but I told him.

The scene changed, and there were several people in a big room. Apparently I was going to receive treatment from that professor, and we’d be living here together as a group for a while. As the newcomer, I talked with the people in the room. Everyone was kind. We got closer by doing things like eating meals together. It was comfortable.

The scene changed, probably a few days later. One by one, people were called out of the room by a guard(?). Then it was my turn. My hands were cuffed behind my back and I left the room. As I walked down the hallway, it was explained to me. Within 15 minutes, I had to ride the elevator down alone, vote for one of the members, and come back. The vote was a negative one: after several voting sessions, whoever got the most votes would be eliminated.

I reached the boundary with the outside world. Inside a cramped cage, the cuffs were removed and replaced with cuffs with a bomb attached. A 15-minute timer started. I headed for the voting place.

The elevator worked in a strange way. Instead of setting a floor and arriving there automatically, you had to control the speed of ascent/descent yourself. I fumbled with the controls and burned through a huge chunk of time. Finally I reached the right floor and headed to the voting desk. When I spoke to the person at the desk, a voting UI opened.

The faces of the room’s members were lined up, with the remaining time displayed in the upper right. Only about 5 minutes were left. Among the members were Lumine and Xiangling from Genshin Impact. I voted for Xiangling.

When I finished voting, the timer stopped. After that, I was told my own vote count. Apparently I had 10 votes so far, but I couldn’t really tell whether that was a lot or a little. Time to go back to the room.

The scene changed, and the content of the dream was completely different. I was at a party venue. Maybe I was also waiting for my turn to present something.

A middle-aged politician took the stage. He gave a speech that brought up an old classical anecdote. Then he declared that although he had never drunk alcohol before, he would drink to show his resolve or loyalty (to what?). There was about a fifth of an issho bottle (1.8 liters) of sake, and he chugged it all on stage. He apparently couldn’t hold his liquor: his face went red at once, and he swayed unsteadily. I worried whether he’d be okay.

That’s where I woke up.