JAPAN (REMIX VERSION)

Hello from Japan once again. It is freaking hot here. Not really hot, but humid as only Japan can be. Since I left in December the office has acquired a high tech Casio wall clock (I want one and will try to get one). It has a typical wall clock appearance but with an additional digital LCD window where temperature and humidity is displayed. Today in the office with air con it was 28C (82.4F) and 55% humidity!!!! On the most humid recent day in Atlanta it only got close to 50% and that was OUTSIDE!!! So you can maybe imagine. I was determined to go in today looking good and refreshed and after 10+ hours of sleep I thought it was possible. I showered, made up - I looked positively cute when I left my apartment for the 7 minute walk to the Hatchobori station. By the time I got on the train I was dripping sweat and every facial pore I have had opened fully and swallowed every bit of makeup. Don't get me started about how I looked by 10 am. By 6 pm when I left the office I was caked with sweat and salt and pollution and had a 7 hour case of drag rot on top of bloodshot, jet-lagged eyes. Hard to deal with when you are standing in the station cue with a bunch of cute gorgeous Japanese women.

We (Rasmus and I) arrived at Narita airport at about 1:35 pm yesterday local time which was 12:35 am body time (previous day). I got up at 4 am (body and real time) to get to the airport for my flight from Atlanta to Chicago. We went through immigration, picked up luggage, went through customs, went outside for a cigarette, went back up to pick up our apartment keys, exchanged currency, purchased bus transport tickets into Tokyo, and arrived at the apartment at about 5 pm which was 4 am body time once again so needless to say after 9 months of not dealing with this I am a bit messed up. I went to bed at 8 pm (local time - SIGH) and woke up at 2 am, then back to bed at 3 until I got up at 7:30 am (local time - SIGH).

Tokyo is still as great as it was 9 months ago - people on the street walking and riding bikes at all hours. A city alive. My city. Cashiers at the convenience stores who bow to you after you have made a $3.00 purchase. When my plane took off from Atlanta and then landed at Chicago we flew right beside both skylines and despite the fact that these are major cities they looked so small to me. And here I am in a city of 30 million people and the streets are narrow and quaint and modern and safe and I feel so good and so at home again. Japan, has its problems for sure but it still feels right to me.

I wish I could stay. I wish I had never left. I wish I were home with the cats. I wish I could be here forever. A city of eternal wishes.

There will be photos but not until I return because I couldn't find the thingy that hooks my camera up to the laptop.

The gagaijin.