Last week, (February 15th) marked the passing
of 4 years since the day I landed in Tokyo.
There are two things that I remember most clearly
about those early days - one was that it was cold.
I flew in straight from Chennai, India, a city known
for it's winter-less, almost year-round hot-wet
climate. It turns out that mid-February is the coldest
time in Tokyo. The other thing was this sense
of realization, this feeling of the gravity of
the situation I'd put myself into; this big,
yet ignored, "WHAT HAVE I DONE!"
ringing loud in my subconsciousness.
I'd traded in a well-paying job, a life
of comfort and familiarity, in the name of adventure.
Not that there is anything remotely adventurous
really, about spending your days in long meetings,
not understanding a word being said around you,
and having to work insane hours everyday. But
in the beginning, all that was different. It
really was an adventure, as anyone who decides
to hit the ground running will attest to.
Every time I felt cold enough or hungry
enough to ask myself why on earth I was roughing
it out like the way I was, the only answer
was that I did not want to let myself get
further ensconced in the familiarity of the
same old streets I'd known for a quarter of
a century. Now put it like that, and you
convince yourself that that's enough contempt
bred to warrant an escape - And I had life
so good back then in Chennai, in a way that
one simply cannot appreciate, out of utter
boredom.
But an adventure it was; in all the good
senses of the word. I loved Japanese food, (and
still do. Who doesn't?) revelled in observing the
needless automation around me, the over-engineering,
the attention to detail, the sheer number of
things to see. One gets bored, or course, but
my eyes were biased to technology, to details,
constantly imagining how all those servo motors
and hydraulics keep themselves hidden. I
would write these massive, long emails
about everything I was seeing and doing in
Tokyo, cheesy writings that I am probably
ashamed of right now, in the way that people
who've lived in Japan for a few years mock
newly-arrived, suitably bewildered Gaijins.
I haven't written any of these mails now,
ever since, in the fear that they might get
discovered and laughed at.
