Tokyo Adrift

So I was asked to pen an article about my first impressions re: Tokyo.
I was having a brain fart for the most part. You can tell from my first couple of posts on my own blog how scatterbrained I’ve been. I can’t even really put into words what my first impression or even 7th impression is.
Maybe that’s the thing though, this city makes me think so many things at once. I think it’s also best to keep everything in perspective since I have been here for less than a month.
Anyway, feel free to catch my lil article over at Crud Magazine.  Excerpt below. Thanks to Carlo for the opportunity (but not so much for choosing that crazy pic of me!).

Tokyo Adrift

In a dark room the size of a galley kitchen, my feet hung off the end of the bed and my head rested on a pillow which was better suited to an airplane than to a restful night’s sleep. The room was so small, I could reach the television dial without fully stretching my arm but it was pretty useless since there was only one free channel and it was completely in Japanese. Alone in the dark, I wondered out loud, “What am I doing in Japan?” That is how I spent my first night in Tokyo…

First dance

So remember how I was all womp womp about not being able to be in DC with all of you for the inauguration? Well, I’m still womp womp. Even more so after I had to go to bed last night knowing everyone stateside was just gearing up to watch everything (from the frigid Mall or gathered around their TV sets).

I woke up around 8:30am (6:30pm est) and watched a replay of the President’s oath and speech on MSNBC. I caught up on reactions via Twitter. I flipped through blogs and I skimmed photos. While I was glad for the Obamas and proud of the historical moment we are living through, I was kind of pissed because, well, it just didn’t feel like much. Folks on Twitter were talking about their tears and the shivers up their spine. They were all on and on about the electicity in the air, even while their toes froze off of their feet.

Womp womp.

Granted, I’m not much of a crier unless I’m going through my ever-3-months breakdown and I’m still like two months away from my next due date.

Then I got back on Google Reader and saw some more blogs. I came across Barack and Michelle’s first dance as President and First Lady, boppin’ to the beat of Etta James’ classic “At Last,” sang by a more restrained than usual (but still fabulous) Beyonce.

I might just be sitting in the study room on campus in Tokyo, JPN with my earbuds in, volume turned down low, but I was cheesing the whole way through. Right at the end, when Michelle threw her arms around her husband’s neck, I got that tingly, stingy feeling in my eyes like MAYBE I could have dropped a tear. I’ll take it.