I got the style, but not the grace. I got the clothes, but not the face.

So, my mystery destination - such a well kept secret - was in fact wonderful Japan. A few weeks of fingers-to-the-bone work and short gaps of spare time wedged with wide-eyed tourism and sight-seeing. And there's a lot to see in Japan. Everywhere you look there's something new and different, or something strikingly familiar done in a beautiful, exotic and/or fascinating way. I like to think of myself as relatively well travelled for a layman, but I have never been anywhere like Japan before.* You could spend years there and still learn something new everyday.

The intensity of the Japanese work ethic is famed, and no word of a lie. Office hours are long, but there was such a bright enthusiasm and perkiness to the people that they passed quite quickly. Once let out onto the streets the low office buzz and chimes from the intercom are replaced with a heavy but well-ordered bustle. Once you find the right district, a blindingly simple task, evening entertainment is wall-to-wall. Skipping the delights (?) of Pachinko and Karaoke and sticking to restaurants and bars proved very satisfying. Hospitality is the word - more than once my colleagues and I were treated by the proprietors like we'd actually travelled 6000 km just for a bite to eat and a couple of beers in their gaff. As fascinating that the landscape and history are, the real gem at the heart of the country is it's people. Everywhere we went people were kind and welcoming, attentive and happy to share their time with you, and frequently not the sort to let a little thing like the language barrier get in the way.

Without regurgitating a whole itinerary... Japan is the juxtaposition of ancient and modern (yeh, not an original thought I know), familiar and alien. For the former pairing, one of the interesting things is the way they sit together but don't really overlap. Modern Japan is pure forward thinking and front-line technology, but the preservation of history is equally pure*. While you can stand in the quiet tranquility of a temple or garden and see the sky-scrapers towering only a short distance away, it's all kept outside. Your immediate surroundings are a different world. Our timing was also near perfect, having hit Cherry Blossom season. The natives, and those others who have seen it, bang on about Cherry Blossom season no end. I did wonder a little, 'cos, y'know, I know what blossom looks like and I plan to have better things to do than look at the trees. I have to say though, that it lives up to it's billing. It's probably because there's just so much of it. When the blossom is out it transforms the landscape completely and is really quite breathtaking. You can stand in the sunshine between the canopies of trees and for a moment its like gentle snowfall as the wind swirls the flurries of falling petals through the air around you. It's really amazing.

Tokyo is quite astonishing. It's a critical mass. Technically it's a city of 12.something million souls, but practically it's become much bigger as it swallowed up it's surroundings. I was reminded of William Gibson's Neuromancer, and it's descriptions of the Chiba sprawl. That's really what it is. You can stare at the panorama from the 50-odd story high windows, and the concrete and clay stretches as far as you can see. You could never find the edge. It's easy to let numbers go - I don't think anyone can comprehend what 12 million people is. If I live to be a hundred I will never meet 12 million people. I'll never see 12 million faces. But in the middle of a crowd that size there's an inevitable buzz. Sure, it's not for everyone, but I like it.

With a world like this, a taste is never enough. I want to go back, I hope to go back and I'm pretty damn sure I will go back. One day...

Ho hum, back to life...

--
* Well, maybe not always, 'cos the history of a lot of temples seems to run along the lines of: Founded in 12xx by famous Buddhist Monk/Lord/Pilgrim. 13xx: Destroyed by fire; 14xx: Rebuilt; 15xx: Ransacked and destroyed by the baddies; 16xx Rebuilt; 17xx: Earthquake and fire strike again; 18xx Rebuilt. etc... etc... But they're always faithful to the original, as far as anyone can remember. Whatever, it's all very beautiful.