Diary Entry Wednesday 27th July 2005 part 3 (rtw2005)
This trip was a journey about us, (about me from a personal perspective) but in the greater context in how we place ourselves on the planet, within the complex melds of rules, regulation, and a world with borders. To see new land, new people, new cultures, that’s what spurred us on. It harks back to the fundamental question of humans wanting to explore the unknown, tripping the light fantastic; I truly like to think deep in my heart that every person has this desire. In looking back at what we did and in the greater sphere of things, people are always told where to go, what places to visit, what to do, but do people who travel really question why?. I mean it is easy to go on holiday and enjoy, but why do we do it? As we all dream to travel to exotic places and get away from the style of long work hours. We've all experienced it, you’re at work and people say…I need a holiday…or you hear people on the train complaining of the long hours they work. The need to ‘get away’. Is it to get away from the pressures of work, so they don’t have to think about it, or because it’s still going to be there when they get back! Or is it a means to better themselves emotionally and mentally, to enrich their lives and focus away the pressures that society bestows upon them. Whatever reason it is, for me it was about finding myself and feeding my mind with knowledge.
We knew from the outset of our goals, and deep down had our own aspirations and personal ambitions to realise. But to achieve them, it was going to be a collective effort on our part. We would need to spur each other on to fulfil these.
I watched closed at the back of the headset screen, the plane icon was over Tokyo and about 30mins, the wheels would touch down. As the cabin crew were readying the plane for touchdown, the plane made slight manoeuvres, adjusting itself every now and then and aligning itself with the runway. Then the seat belt lights came on. Everyone started to buckle their seatbelts; you could hear the odd clicks hear and there as people were clasping them on. The pilot instructed the cabin crew to be seated. It still hadn’t hit me that I was going to land in Japan, in Tokyo…fuck!. A country synonymous with all things new, always years ahead in terms of technology. My vision of Japan was from shows like Ghost in the Shell, Akira. Very futuristic, very high tech, yet the flip side to this vision was the Japan of the old, the temples, the history, culture, and the samurai. Also books and TV documentaries about Japan, showing masses of people crossing the road, the bright neon lights at night, the funky clothes people wore. You couldn’t get two more contrasting atmospheres in one country. The old mixed in with the new. I really didn’t know how the two coped, how they are placed in Japanese society. But I would get the chance to find out for myself.
As much fun as it is getting on a plane, trying to get off once is had landed can just as be fun yet fraught with frustration. Once the light for the belt buckle comes off…a sea of sounds of the belt being unbuckled resonates through the plane. People then quickly get up, to get their bags from the overhead lockers. But you get some people who are still in their seats, they are the ones who are wise, why rush and try and be the first. Most people were standing and the engines had been turned off, winding down. From the windows you could see the catering companies and luggage trolley being manoeuvred into place to get everyone’s suitcases, bags and rucksacks out of the plane holdall. After a few minutes wait, the slow walk to exit the plane started. It was like being in school again, walking in single file. As you walked past the plane sections, walking through economy, then premium economy and business class, you sense what level of service one would have got if they paid that bit extra. As you walking past you see the cabin crew all lined up along the floor of the plane, all neat and tidy with a smile on their faces.
It’s still hard to contextualise and realise that I was in Japan, even when waiting for my luggage on the carousal. I would notice the airport signs, they were in Japanese. I saw the airport staff, talking in Japanese, and on hand to help people. It was a strange feeling.
Thing about Japan is that people have this sense that there’s flying cars and everything about Japan is just out of this world. This sense of vision is very strong... Just thinking about Japan invokes thoughts of the fantastical, Japan having cool gadgets, always years ahead of the rest of the world. This ideal was first witnessed when we went through passport control. It was a straight forward process, hand your passport over, it would get scanned and then a sticker with relevant visa restrictions and barcode would be printed and stuck in the passport. That is just genius, very simple, easy and effective and to think there are countries still using a stamp to stamp your passport, at times with low ink, or with too much ink that the stamp actually smudges. But not in Japan, it’s clean, easy, and very pleasant. Once the formalities of going through airport passport control and being accepted as visiting tourists, we made our way to the exit. As we had book a tour in Japan, we were on the lookout for someone from the tour company, who would assist us. After a few minutes of walking, we noticed a woman with the tour company name on it. She welcomed us to Japan and gave us a travel voucher to get the bus to our hotel.
