Favorite Places: Tokyo

         There’s just something cool about being within the most populous metropolitan area in the world.  Sure all big cities have their own unique vibe, but Tokyo has more than a vibe –it has a heartbeat.  The city itself is big, really, really big, but it isn’t dirty.  The city is quite clean, even with alcohol vending machines on the streets.  Few, if any, Western metropolises can equal that feat.  That’s just one of the ways that you can feel Tokyo’s pulse.

         Speeding into the heart of the Japanese capital on a bullet train, I could sense the heartbeat drawing closer.  Unlike the faint pulse one feels on the periphery of postmodern society, the pulse inside Tokyo is strong.  Stepping off the train into the crowded maze of the city, I knew that I had arrived in more ways than one.  I was in Tokyo, and I had become part of the heartbeat, part of Japanese society, and part of the 23 special wards.

         Exploring the pulsing city, I got to know Tokyo quite well.  From Sensō-ji to a riverboat ride on the Sumida River to looking out at the city from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, I came to know the city if only for a brief moment in time.  Like all moments in time, though, my Tokyo adventure eventually drew to a close.

         Before I knew it, I was at Narita International Airport waiting to board a plane back home.  Time flies fast, even faster in big cities, and it pulses by at an exponential rate in Tokyo.  Still yearning to see more, I boarded a Boeing jet airliner bound for the West Coast of the United States.

         Jetting across the enormous expanse of the Pacific, I finally felt Tokyo’s pulse grow faint.  The pulse has yet to subside, though.  I can still feel its distant beat within my own veins.  I may have left Tokyo long ago, but it has yet to leave me.