It is 5 am, I’m jet-lagged, and I can’t fall back asleep. I’ve just returned from a 25-day trip to Japan: it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. There is so much to tell you about my travels, I have no idea where to begin. Perhaps what I will do is split up my posts into themes, or pehaps days, or maybe even random thoughts as they pop into my head. Either way, 25 days is a long time so it will take me a while…

As for initial thoughts? Japan is a beautiful country and so incredibly full of contradiction. In one instance, so diverse in terms of the old and ultra-new. In another, so homogenous in its people and core set of values. In some cases, Japan’s acceptance of Western culture makes traveling there a smooth transition (subway signs in Tokyo are also written in English), in some cases it’s non-existent (there is definitely a sentiment of keeping the treasures of Japan to itself), and sometimes it’s plain overbearing (teenagers dressed in complete Mickey Mouse attire in Harajuku). It’s a hard thing to explain, but I definitely felt like an outsider (what they kindly refer to as a gaijin).

Japan also has some of the most dense city jungle that I have ever seen (case-in-point: Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo) as well as some of the most beautiful rural country-side: the 5 mile hike between Edo period post towns Magome and Tsumago was breath-taking (and so was many vistas of age-old temples and shrines in Kyoto). For a small archipelago of islands off the coast of much larger China, Japan has a bounty of sites to see: 25 days is a good amount of time to get a feel for the culture, but still not enough to completely soak in all that there is to see.

More soon. Happy Thanksgiving!