travelmuffin

Upon exiting the JAL plane and walking toward passport control, I have my first encounter with Japanese signs in form of a signboard featuring the word “Okaerinasai” (Welcome home) at the entrance hall. Although I had plenty of time on the plane to accustom myself to the idea of spending three weeks in Japan with a cultural exchange organization, I still could not realize that I had finally made it to Tokyo. As we only had a few hours of sleep left until the start of the next day’s program at eight sharp, most of us made their way to their shoebox-sized rooms to get some well-deserved sleep. Unfortunately sleep wasn’t in for me, since, against my mother’s advice, I did not carefully pack my shampoo in a plastic bag and so I was bound to wash off shampoo from most of my clothes. In addition, we experienced our very first Japanese earthquake, which however, at a mere magnitude of four, only gently shook our building.The next day, although sporting a tiny shampoo blotch on my skirt and dark circles around my eyes, I was thrilled to visit the German Embassy of Tokyo in Hiro-o. We also received a guided tour of the Meiji Shrine. While the tour was interesting, my most lasting memory of it features the tour guide, who was a Shinto priest wearing traditional clothing, fishing out an iPhone out of his pants. But maybe this gesture only represents one of many examples how smoothly tradition and modernity go hand in hand in Japan. It was during my flight back home, while gulping down the very last can of ‘Pocari Sweat,’ that I recalled my initial fear of ending up hating Tokyo. Although a stay of three weeks is certainly never enough to give a complete view on a city and its inhabitants, I knew that I could never hate Tokyo. This city bursts of a phenomenal liveliness that it is almost too much to handle. A city which never sleeps, Tokyo offers a niche for nearly anyone. It will never fail to surprise me.