Ten years since Japan

It's been 10½ years since I was in Japan and I somehow can't believe it. I really believed that I'd find my way back there before a decade had passed. But life got in the way and here we are ten years later and I've been nowhere near Asia in that time. 

Going to Japan was my big coming-of-age adventure. I was 19 years old and I left for Tokyo in the last days of February 2010. 

The first day of March was my first day of class and the first half of March was spent just getting the hang of things and getting to know the classmates and going on adventures with them. I still remember the first morning I squeezed myself onto one of the metro trains in rush hour traffic. I've never experienced another rush hour like the one in Tokyo anywhere ever again. The sheer amount of people was daunting, almost terrifying, but unlike other places there was as little pushing and discomfort as possible because people subconsciously knew how to take up as little room as possible and how to stay out of each other's way as much as possible. The Tokyo rush hour is a great machinery working very smoothly. No other country can compare. 

March was when we went on several afternoon adventures and weekend day-trips. I especially remember when we took a trip to Kawagoe. It was also when two of us went on a weekend trip to Kyoto via Shinkansen. And it was the time for hanami. So much hanami. 

April was the time of Tokyo Tower, Odaiba, FujiQ and Disneyland. There was always something going on. Somewhere to go, something to see. Food to experience. Karaoke and purikura and Sweets Paradise and melon soda. 

I started off May in Seoul. During Japan's Golden Week when we had time off school I took a little sidetrip to Seoul, just three days. I figured that Korea and Japan would be similar enough. Kind of like Sweden and Germany or something like that. But Korea was like a whole 'nother world. I took the time to visit an aquarium, some historical sights, and I also took a trip up to Namsan, the mountain close-by the city.

May and June was when the activity tapered out. We still did things together, but it was less sightseeing and more hanging out in familiar spots. One highlight of May was the wedding of our host family's daughter. And I also really loved the exploration of Meiji Jingu Shrine that I did on my own one weekend, which coincided with the first time I dared to traverese the shockingly crowded Takeshita Doori on my own. 

I was only in Japan for two weeks of June. June was mostly a lot of dinners with friends I had made during my almost four months in Tokyo. But it was also the month when we discovered Shakey's pizza and had a great laugh about it. 

For months after I returned to Sweden I missed Japan. I would dream about Tokyo every night and the stillness of my hometown was seemingly driving me insane. Imagine going from one of the biggest bustling cities in the world to living on the edge of a village with farmland across the road? The silence was deafening, the stillness crushing. Going back to uni definitely helped me adjust back to life in smalltown Sweden, but I've never stopped missing Japan. Which is why this guy is great: