Recently I posted a journal I had written over the course of my two week visit to Japan. "Glimpses of a Familiar Japan" was quite fun to recount and explore. It is hard to imagine myself traveling to Japan now, strange as it may sound. It was strange and surreal being there. I wanted to go down every darkened street, see all the lights, taste the food, explore Tokyo.
To explore every facet of Tokyo would take a lifetime, several lifetimes, and the city is constantly changing. It is very much like a butterfly in that effect, constantly metamorphosing into something even more strange and strangely beautiful. There are people who have lived in Tokyo all their lives as natives and still haven't experienced all there is to offer.
Let us not forget that there is a country beyond Tokyo itself. There was Nikko, Nara, Kyoto. I never got to see Osaka or Sapporo, never ventured to Kamakura or Hiroshima.
People who read my journal will notice the obvious lack of one of the most obvious stops on every tour itinerary people take when they go to Japan. For now, this next part of the journal is me going back and exploring smaller details of each day. Things I observed, places I saw, general ideas and thoughts about Japanese culture. I will also draw these experiences back to my book, Kitsune Matsuri, after all this entire trip was partially for my research.
I find it strange that it took me until writing Kitsune Matsuri to go to Japan. I had wanted to go all my life, and yet I'd never taken the opportunity. It was always too far, too hard. There was the language, the crowds, the simple fact I wasn't sure where to go or what to do. There are people who could drop everything in an instant and go there, and I wish I was one. If I had the money, the time and opportunity I would. I would drop all I had and did and go there to write, to blog about my experiences, and hone my craft.
Alas, life is not quite there yet for me. For now I can resolve to do this retrospective.
