subject: Narita, Japan Land of the Rising Sun [print this page] I have traveled through much of Asia, across the US several times, Hawaii, and sadly nowhere else. I only say sadly because travel truly changed my life and indeed, I think it can become a way of life (I believe the term is wanderlust) and I don't believe you have to be well off or privileged to do it. You just simply have to want to go somewhere badly enough.
That first place for me was Japan, and as a one-year stint as an exchange student, it was a pretty long journey (I'm well into my 21st year as an expat in Japan, but that's another long story. When I landed at Narita airport I had no idea that within six months I would also be making my first trip into Southeast Asia. All I remember, when breaking cloud cover on landing, were the rice fields of Chiba below us. Yes, this was different! I shook my friend's arm. It's Japan! It's Japan! was all I could think of to say.
And everything was different. The milk was different, most of everything I ate I felt I had eaten for the first time. We marveled at Japanese grapes and tangerines, and as young men, we found our female Japanese counterparts absolutely fascinating (that shouldn't be taken the wrong way- we were suddenly immersed in a completely different culture, it seemed a different planet at the time).
Tokyo was not a pretty place back then. I guess drab and crowded would describe it best. Except for those lights in Shinjuku at night. Times change though. Much of Tokyo has been refurbished. A good part of it has been razed to make way for ultra-modern and impressive skyscrapers. Economic times have worsened, but on the surface at least Tokyo appears more affluent than ever. And as I get older, as an expat I realize that I will never get Japan. Not as most Japanese do anyway.
