Kaleidoscopic Tokyo
Staggering off the airplane at Narita Airport, smelling like stale body odour, and with next to no sleep during the last 11 hours, I was somewhat less enthused about arriving in Tokyo, Japan.
According to the 'views' I had out of my train window, during the trip from the airport, it was already dark, thanks to the winter's sunlight curfew. I rested my face against the glass and tried to zone out the family behind me jibber jabbering in Japanese.
Soon, it wasn’t just there idle chatter that was keeping me awake.
Flashes of light were spotting the backs of my eyelids, and, after
raising one droopy eye to find the cause behind it, I grabbed my bag and got off at the next stop – Shibuya
Itwas like looking through a kaleidoscope. The skyscrapers that towered above the swarming streets were ablaze with a confectionery of colours. The city was alive and vibrant, and it instantly rid me of my jet-lag and filled me with overwhelming excitement. I was spellbound.
For the rest of the night I fumbled along the Yamagote line, or 山手線 as I fondly came to know it as. Using the city trains was fairly manageable. But it was hard not to get befuddled in the labyrinth of stairs and exits.
Passing by Harajuku, Yoyogi park and Shinjuku station, it seemed the more into the night it got, the busier and more animated the streets became.
For all of its mass of people, Tokyo is remarkably clean, on top of which most of the people wear masks, which appealed greatly to my OCD-like tendencies. But it wasn’t just the locals aversions to germs that made Tokyo so likeable.
I found it uniquely liberating, to be rendered totally illiterate by
the Japanese characters. Also, being so blatantly a tourist made my life a whole lot easier. Nobody expected me to speak Japanese, and were all the more understanding for it. It also made it easier to spot other fellow tourists.
During one of my 'very elegant' self taken photographs an American voice behind me chuckled:
'Would you like me to take your photo?'
'How'd you know i wasn't Japanese?' I playfully retorted.
''Lucky guess'' she smiled, before heading off on her way.
In a surprising contrast as the sun rose the city started to quieten.
And a more serious tone took to the streets in the form of suits and briefcases.
I finally made it to my hotel, my head still buzzing. I might be living nocturnally for the next few days I reckon!
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