Journey To Japan

After a quick stretch for the exceedingly long trip and the requisite bout with customs, we made our way to the bus that would take us to Haneda Airport and was able to “officially enter Japan”. Once we loaded our things we jumped on the bus and took off. One of the first things I noticed on the bus ride is that everything is structurally a mirror image of how transportation functions in America. We drive on the left side, they drive on the right. Even the flow of traffic is flipped. While small, this difference seemed to be emblematic of the way American culture and language functions vis-à-vis Japan’s as a whole. During the ride, I noticed a sea of compact, box-shaped cars whizzing alongside us through the various tunnels and up the hills that make up the utilitarian, grey landscape of greater Tokyo.

View from my seat on the flight over to Japan.

Midway to Haneda Airport, we happened upon the Tokyo skyline which inspired as much awe as it did confusion. There is no approximate American equivalent to rival the sheer scale of and sprawl of Tokyo—which contains 23 city-like “wards” and has the visceral impact of witnessing the vomited remains from a giant that eats cities. Like Los Angeles and Manhattan had a pretentious, yet impossibly efficient kid. Imagine a metropolis with no visible nucleus, gobbling up the skyline in each direction, for as far as the eye can see. THAT’S Tokyo.