Slightly lost in translation

It feels like a dream... lost in space for a while... a pocket of 48 hours that seem totally surreal... images that have marked me... emotions that are hard to process... I have just been to Tokyo and back for the weekend!

Totally crazy, I know, but when your hubby proposes to accompany him on a business trip to Tokyo - let alone flying in business class - the voyage itself becomes an adventure.

And so it was, that Friday night, I stepped onto the Air France plane and sat in my 180° reclinable business class seat as excited as a kid before Christmas looking forward to a ten hour flight to Japan.

Not knowing what to expect all I knew was that my friends who had lived in Tokyo had come to love it... always a good sign!

Arriving at dusk, I jumped into the taxi and could not shake the eerie feeling of a futuristic world built of skyscrapers, intersecting highways wrapped in a cloud of dark skies. Where were all the neon lights, where were all the people? No traffic and not a tree in sight as we proceeded through the wood of high risers to reach our hotel with the lobby on the 38th floor!

The view from my hotel room was like a scene from Lost in Translation and many a moment reminded me of that film, however, there is so much more to Tokyo.

The sensation of peace and quite never left me, I felt safe wherever I went. People smiled and greeted us, we took pictures with city information guides dressed in blue&white checkered shirts, with sushi chefs wearing their white working garb with their names monographed onto their chest pocket and with young girls in their traditional Kimonos.

Everyone was welcoming and ready to help us, we used Google translate in drugstores and perused strange-looking maritime creatures at the fish market, stood to the left when using the escalators and did not eat or drink on the streets. We burnt incense at temples and shrines, rested at designated seating areas with red lampions hanging over our heads for lighting.

We soaked up the atmosphere on the busy streets, admired the many neon lights and the fake food displays proposing their menu for locals and tourist alike.

We did not dare to climb the steep staircases to the minuscule upper-floor spaces and sip cocktails and I could not convince my husband to enter a karaoke bar... that will be for next time... for I have totally fallen in love with this city. I am fascinated by the mix of its traditional heritage and its futuristic modernity and will be back for more...

... as I need to return to the traditional Japanese fan shop that was closed on Monday due to the "Respect of the Aged Day", a National holiday to celebrate and respect the elders in the community.