A Charmed Life: Life's a Play!

So what do I love about the place? Surely, not the crowd, not the cold stares from the "sararimen", and not the crazy hustle-bustle of the metropolitan (I`m a laid-back).

My boyfriend swears he hates the crowd, the fast-paced life, the stressful commuting (if you are working). The Bf concluded he dislikes Tokyo.

For many people, especially the gaijin in Tokyo, the city is cold. I agree it has its coldness, but it`s just like any other metropolitan where people are faceless and where rules are fossilized in stones.

I love Tokyo for several reasons:

The very efficient and convenient transportation system.

The green suburbs (back then, don`t know now, I didn`t have time to visit my old suburban paradise)

The nature parks and forests within the concrete cities (still exist, just went there).

The walk, the anonymous walk in the city where you can walk impersonating your favorite manga character, or your own eclectic style of fashion... And I do love Tokyo fashion, it's highly entertaining, it's amusing, it's an art.

Most of all, I love Tokyo because of the good old friends. Some are still around.

We meet up and go around the old spots where we used to hang out in. I was also continuously being introduced to new interesting people and places.

And, the memories, oh the memories of the past just don`t fade away. I always feel nostalgic when in Tokyo, especially when I`m around the south-western suburbs of Musashino. It's incredible that even the sounds of the crow and the robotic recorded voice in the bus and trains (which would just turn-off many) and the smell of the breeze brings me back in time. That magical time, my first foreign trip which was full of very strange but pleasant memories. It was here where I experienced a different reality. A different reality of warmth, ease, nature, technology, culture, abundance, long-lasting friendships, international dating :-), getting lost, breaking rules (that the Japs would not dare break), Nihongo (undecipherable, I quited after 2 terms), baby sitting and English teaching part-time jobs, hiking, ice-skating, my first snowfall, cycling, home-staying, drinking, partying, lazing on school grass till dark, cutting-classes, picnicking, digging for ancient potteries buried right under the school grounds, language-exchanging, blind-dating, crying, laughing... It was a good life, a moment in time that changed my way of thinking, forever.

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