Tokyo, Japan

Forgive me if I sound like a curmudgeon, but god do the weeks leading up to New Year's Eve suck. All the that pressure to do something great, (it's official, I'm a geek -- I'm so excited about my new sparkly font!) on top of the guilt for the things you haven't done, fixed, or stopped in the passing year; and add to this soul degenerating equation, unrealistic expectations for the following year. It's horrible, preposterous really. It makes me want to move to Mars.

Speaking of Mars, is anyone else surprised how our species hasn't colonized it by now, or the moon at the very least? What happened to the future of The Jetsons or the one in Back to the Future II? It's almost 2014 people, we should have shit like Amazon drones by now! (Okay, using 'drones' in our current political climate wasn't the best PR move, still, it's pretty cool.)

Given all that you've heard or read about Tokyo, it's clear where I'm going with the preceding blather. That future, the one in The Jetsons and Back to the Future, the one where I couldn't wait to 'grow-up' just so I could be in The Future, is almost here in Tokyo. The button to the far right will mask any hint of your business in a public restroom. As someone who shamefully wastes water as a houseguest/we're friends but not that close/it's only our third date, you're not my boyfriend -- pressing that button was music to my ears.

And like most public restrooms in a semi-drunken state, I had an epiphany. An entire culture was well, somewhat like me. From then on I didn't care what Tokyo looked like because I understood such a core facet of their culture. To be frank, the city itself isn't outwardly gorgeous like San Francisco or Istanbul, it's dense with a mishmash of buildings and neons signs galore, but the people make the city mind-bogglingly fascinating.

Why the preoccupation with repetition? Why so much neon? Why the need to outfit my puny souvenir three times (a tissue, a box, and a bag to hold the box)? How can an entire city be so efficient when they're hyper-focused on details? I wish I knew the language. Then I could also ask about their reverence and reserve for the past, yet their obsession with the new. Or how a work-obsessed culture can find the time to shut down the subway at midnight every night -- unimaginable in Tokyo's sister city New York City.

Well, midnight came and it was the perfect time for my inebriated self to make its way home. Holy shit, I thought. And thus began my second epiphany in that other confine of enlightenment in an altered state, the subway. Somehow the city and its people live by the old ideal "a time and place for everything", and within that time and place, their focus is undivided. It's why even amid the frenetic pace, minute details aren't blurred, nothing is overlooked. The results are exceptional and why service is the golden rule: the first day you know without a doubt that the croissant you had for breakfast will be the best you've ever had; the second day you feel guilty for shopping at 7-Eleven because everyone is so damn nice to you; by the third day you'll accept that this is how otherworldly life is in Tokyo. Close, but thankfully not in another galaxy.

Length of Stay

One week

Docking Index

      

Seven anchors, alas Tokyo has its faults. My friend cautioned that if I move here I may entertain celibacy. Men here aren't too fond of American women, and the American expatriate men prefer Asian women. If my current pattern continues in 2014, I'll take that vow of celibacy in Tokyo. Should primal needs arise, I'll simmer it down with a croissant. One whisper thin layer at a time. Ah butter, how you comfort me.