August 15, 2011

Bridge to reality

Aaaaand, it's back to the grind. Up at 6 a.m. to shower, empty the dishwasher, do my hair, eat breakfast, pick up the house, and race out the door to go to work. The jetlag is a wee bit better today than yesterday. Then again, we're not recovering from a wedding and driving 4 hours home today either, so who can tell.

Today, everyone is naturally asking, "So how was it?" How can I answer that? How do I start to describe the gentle nature of the Japanese? How do I explain how efficiency reigns over all and it's why there are so many rules so strictly adhered to in a quiet, deffering manner? How do I describe the beautiful temples and shrines, the amazing buildings, the beautiful shoes, the meals prepared with care, the 7-course kaiseiki dinner where the chef came out with a seed catalog to explain what was in each dish? How do I talk about the so many funny little moments we experienced? How do I describe how everyone bows with respect, even if you aren't looking, because you just might be looking and how would you feel if you did and they weren't bowing as they should be? How do I talk about the rubber food in all the restaurant windows? How do I talk about the train attendants efficient, yet friendly manner? How do I describe the markets and the streets and the sheer number of people? How do I talk about the yellow armbanded people in the train station whose job is to literally push more people on to the trains? How do I describe the chaos in the Shinjuku train station - the world's busiest - and its 2 million daily passengers? How do I talk about the beautifully sculpted gardens? The meticulously clean everything?

The answer? I don't. Instead, I respond, "Fabulous." Because, well, it pretty much was. But it does make coming back to reality just that much harder.

1 comment:

Snowcatcher said...

So glad it was a good trip for you. So wonderful you got to go and experience all that, especially the good stuff! They do have a way of making our version of "crowded" just a little less traumatic, don't they?