Tadaima, Tokyo

Narita airport greeted me exactly how a best friend would after a long-haul flight: with cameras poking in my face, keen to capture the red-eye and frazzled expressions. As soon as I came out of security, there was a Japanese TV crew waiting to capture the faces of backpackers who had come to Japan to find some adventure. Not so keen to have my dazed, exhausted, and pallid face on TV, I tried my best to melt away into the background.

Another fellow passenger (who had also come from the UK) did not share this wish of avoiding them. Dressed in the style of a Harajuku girl, with three or four grey roses in her hair, blonde locks, white tights and a cream dress, she soon attracted the attention of the film crew. I watched with amusement whilst sipping my CC lemon from a vending machine in the waiting area as one of the members of crew spotted her and rallied his colleagues. The whole crew sprinted over to her in what I can only describe as a very Japanese-like fashion. In the UK people try so hard to make it onto the silver-screen of daytime TV; in Japan it really is no hard task. I made a mental note to dress in a more eye-catching costume the next time I touched down.

One of my favourite feelings in the world is the comfort of coming home after time away. I am blessed to have two cultures, so travelling between them means that I get to experience this a lot.

I love planes, as you may have gathered from my previous post on “How to Win Against Jet Lag” (which featured lots of pretty cloud pictures. I’ve put more here too; I couldn’t help myself!). I never fail to feel a burst of childish excitement when I step on board a plane.

I flew from Birmingham, UK, and changed flights in Zurich, Switzerland. Unfortunately there was a long delay which meant that I had to run through the airport to make it onto my next flight to Tokyo! There was no snow to be seen in Zurich; however, there was heavy fog.

So here I am, writing from Tokyo. Sadly it is coming to the end of my winter holidays, but I’ve had a great time here catching up on some Japanese food that I’ve missed, seeing family, and hosting a friend who was visiting Tokyo; all of which was in between (quite a lot of) studying for my exams when I get back and the term ahead at Oxford.

But I’ve got lots more to tell you, so you can hear about what I’ve been up to in Thinking Japlish blog posts to come.

またね、

Naomi