As I write this, the white Shinkansen, with a ribbon of blue and brown has pulled into Tokyo Station, marking the end of my 4 day excursion to Saitama, and Japan’s sprawling capital.
I’ve taken a lot of notes over the past 4 days in one of those God awful flip notebooks- no matter how hard one tries to write chronologically, any assemblance of order becomes mysteriously scattered overnight…That, and the fact that it’s going to take an age to decode my scrawl.
As friends were visiting, we typically spent a day strolling around a different quarter, namely: Shibuya, Ueno and Akihabara, and Odaiba- each with their own flavour.Like any capital, I think Tokyo reflects the best, and the absolute worst of the country’s contemporary culture; it’s easy to be awed, and then disgusted, within minutes of one another.
I’ll write up a series of pieces on places, that, I haven’t covered before in my now four year old posts:
Kawagoe
Odaiba and TeamLabs
A piece of ‘free writing’ on observations of a commuter train
Even though Japan has more than a dozen public holidays, it’s been fantastic to get a break for routine.
Moreover, the chance to revisit my host family, Yoko and Aki, featured in this blog’s initial iteration, has been a particular highlight for me.
How four and half years can just disappear with the wind…
Japan and Me 