First thoughts after touch down in Japan.
I arrived in Tokyo on the 1st of August 2016, after an 11 hour flight from Amsterdam, 5 hours after leaving Edinburgh. I left Scotland at 9:00 on Saturday morning and arrived in Japan at midday the following Sunday. I hadn’t slept at all on the plane. To date it was the longest flight I have ever taken.
The first thing that hit me, almost literally, was the heat. Scotland was 15c when I left, the height of Scottish summer, it was over 30c in Tokyo. I had travelled with a small group of my co-workers from Edinburgh. Arrivals was reasonably quiet when we arrived, after a small hiccup with our visas, we were eventually allowed to past through customs (only a quick glance at my suit case, and a slight grunt from the customs officer) and into our awaiting bus.
Many others have noted how the long drive from Narita airport to central Tokyo isn’t particularly inspiring, and it isn’t largely. Rice fields, small houses and an occasional love hotel dot the (at the time) mostly empty road. The trip from Narita to Shinjuku felt like an extended loading screen. Square, blocky shapes in the distance slowly becoming clearer as the textures popped into view.
We were staying at a hotel in the centre of Shinjuku, very close to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. We were the first group of 2016 ALT’s to arrive, and after a short speech we were allowed free rein of Tokyo for a few hours before we had to return and check into our rooms. So we left the hotel to go exploring, knackered and hungry.
It’s difficult to describe my initial reaction to Tokyo, I’d recommend if you have never visited, going to Tokyo Sky Tree or the Metropolitan Building top floor for the views (below). Tokyo is huge, and for me, a boy who grew up in a small village in rural UK, it was overwhelming, but at the same time exciting. I wish I had more time in the capital. My first few days, before flying to Fukuoka was taken up with extensive business meetings and courses. Me, and two friends took a whirlwind trip to Harajuku, Akihabara and Shibuya (pictured top). I had my first bowl of Japanese ramen in Akihabara, a bit of a dive bar, but exciting and authentic nonetheless. We visited a few retro videogame stores and took in the lights and excitement. In my head I hadn’t realised that this was my new home, no sensation of the sort ever hit me, and still hasn’t. I half expect to wake up in my bed in Dundee, or at my family home. Time flies when you’re stuck in ten hours of meetings a day.
Those first few days felt like toes in the water rather than a jump in the ocean. So far Japan has felt like lying on a beach as the tide comes in, water rising with every wave. Right now I feel as though the water is floating around my ears. I saw a few of the things many of travellers have talked about, the clean trains, the robot toilets, but all of it felt, expected. Hours of YouTube and television had prepared me well I thought for the wonders of Japan. But then I saw a group of buskers dressed in denim dungarees singing covers of Queen in Japanese. True, this isn’t the most shocking or unusual of things you can see on the streets of Japan. But it was my first taste of true otherworldliness. The strange absurdity of it all seemed to flick a switch. This isn’t home. This is somewhere far away. I was far, far away.
The World is Quiet 