So many different things were running through my mind, and my body was so ready to shut down the second I stepped off of the plane, that the whole day feels like a complete blur to me when I try to recall it. But I shall try. Starting from the said moment when I stepped off of the plane.
Japan was a place which meant a lot to me on my first visit and continues to hold a place in my heart. Stepping off of the plane and walking through the airport towards customs filled me with a feeling of contentment at returning; keeping that promise to myself I'd made back in 2008 that I would return one day. Relief that that I managed to snag an exit seat on the flight there and that I would've have needed to have a leg amputated had I not done. Happiness, because I was somewhere where despite feeling like a 6 foot 4 black oddball amongst 5'5 gold skinned people, I felt like I was somewhere I belonged. Even if for a short while.
Aside from all of these thoughts which took a fair while to materialize, I didn't really have a chance to process anything. My flight landed in Tokyo at 6:20am, at which point I was running around the airport frantic trying to find a plug socket to charge my dead phone. Wondering how I was going to get to the hotel. Preparing myself for the slog through station after station with my suitcase. And the eventual realization that for the next 2 weeks I will have to endure stares every time I get on a train and that nobody will ever sit next to me.
Tadaima!
ただいま!
Japan was a place which meant a lot to me on my first visit and continues to hold a place in my heart. Stepping off of the plane and walking through the airport towards customs filled me with a feeling of contentment at returning; keeping that promise to myself I'd made back in 2008 that I would return one day. Relief that that I managed to snag an exit seat on the flight there and that I would've have needed to have a leg amputated had I not done. Happiness, because I was somewhere where despite feeling like a 6 foot 4 black oddball amongst 5'5 gold skinned people, I felt like I was somewhere I belonged. Even if for a short while.
Aside from all of these thoughts which took a fair while to materialize, I didn't really have a chance to process anything. My flight landed in Tokyo at 6:20am, at which point I was running around the airport frantic trying to find a plug socket to charge my dead phone. Wondering how I was going to get to the hotel. Preparing myself for the slog through station after station with my suitcase. And the eventual realization that for the next 2 weeks I will have to endure stares every time I get on a train and that nobody will ever sit next to me.
Tadaima!
ただいま!