on tokyo time

'travel is for people who don't know how to be happy,' nandani said, but we ignored her. – nell freudenberger

i travel a lot. i hate having my life disrupted by routine. – caskie stinnett

someone once told me – maybe more than one, maybe more than once – that i'm never happy where i am. no one's said it to me lately, and even at the time i didn't think it was an accurate statement, but there's some truth to it. nowadays i like to think i could be happy almost anywhere.

it's still more exciting, though, to be preparing for a trip, or in transit, in immersion, imbalanced, in love with a new place. the trick is to learn how to experience all that in the present, wherever you happen to be. this is a challenge for me to learn and appreciate, but i'm learning slowly.

i was thinking about mindfulness in the moment while riding the train from narita into tokyo. outside the window i saw a jumbo jet in suspension over a village and adjacent bright-green rice paddy. then midafternoon light bouncing off of the shiny blue roof tiles of suburban homes crammed closely together. then a hairdresser's shop with a sign bearing the name 'BIG BOOTY SALON' with a graphic of an afro pick. welcome to tokyo.