NANA by Ai Yazawa, VOL 2: 707 & Strawberries glasses.

Everything started on a train bound for Tokyo, and everything continued in apartment 707, without anything being able to prevent Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu from all the events that they were going to experience together, inside that nostalgic apartment.

With a suitcase full of dreams, once in Tokyo Station, both separate their ways, directly to their destiny. As soon as Nana Komatsu gets off the train, runs into the arms of her boyfriend, who has been waiting for her at the train station. Meanwhile, Nana Osaki takes the opposite direction and disappears into the crowd (this scene really feels like a premonition that Ai Yazawa left us).

Nana Osaki

Nana Komatsu, who has been saving money for an entire year to chase her goal of establishing herself independently in Tokyo, with her own home and job, initially stays at her boyfriend’s apartment, who immediately reminds her of her personal goal, reaffirming the fact that he is only a help on his way to chase her dreams.  

One of the main characteristics of Tokyo, Japan’s capital, besides being the great metropolis where almost any dreams can come true if you work on them, is the high cost of rent. This is the reason why at first, it is difficult for Nana Komatsu to find a home that suits her needs, finally finding one where she doesn’t need to pay a deposit. The trick? The apartment is on the seventh floor, without an elevator, and its number is 707 (777).

Apartment 707

Once inside the apartment, she finds another person with a real estate agent, interested in renting the apartment: Nana Osaki. After discussing who should rent the house, the real estate agent proposes that they share the apartment, sharing at the same time all the expenses related to it, facilitating the path to their personal goal in Tokyo, making both come to their senses to accept the proposal. 

Once all the housing-related issues were resolved, the only thing left was to purchase everyday basic utensils for the new apartment, deciding to go shopping, after showing the apartment to their close friends. At that moment, at the home store, Nana Komatsu decides to buy two glasses with strawberry drawings as decoration, in that moment, Nana Osaki affectionately nicknames Nana Komatsu Hachiko, since it reminds her of an adorable and whimsical puppy.

Strawberry glasses.

Those two unique and identical strawberry glasses hold an entire deep meaning, as deep as the friendships both Nana develop through time: two girls, with the same name and destination, with a suitcase full of dreams and goals to fulfill at the great metropolis, ending up living at the same apartment.