Big in Tokyo!

After finishing my degree in Cologne, it was finally time for my great adventure. I moved my last few belongings to my family in southern Germany. Packed my trusty Deuter backpack plus a Boston bag filled with sweets and other nice gifts. Fortunately, my plane had not been cancelled, unlike most others, due to the then emerging virus outbreak. After meeting one last friend at Frankfurt airport, it was time for check-in and board the plane.
Once the plane took off, it finally hit me: “I’m actually doing it! The thing that I talked about for years. The plane that I imagined leaving Germany for Japan! Here I was, sitting inside of it!” Naturally, I drank some sake, some Asahi beer and ate my special Hindu meal (I’m vegetarian, but Hindu simply tastes best) accompanied by JAL’s J-Pop classics playlist – simply amazing.

On march 15th, the day after at around noon, I had new soil under my feet – Japanese soil. Enough for me to tear up a little. The security checks were easily cleared and, as I got my residence card (在留カード), a sigh of relief escaped me. The last month had seemed like a tunnel to me,  much like a restless voyage through hyperspace bound towards the land of the rising sun. As I arrived at Narita airport the pace of this tiring flow state seemed to slow down and a bright nostalgic landscape hit me.
Yet, I still had a couple of draining hours right in front of me, as my Airbnb in Saitama was still far away, on the other side of Tokyo. After getting lost, asking several people for directions, and with no way to contact my host, I eventually reached my destination in a moonlit neighborhood. My host, Maki-san, was very welcoming and quickly showed me around the house (pictures follow in the next post). Once in my room, I unpacked what little luggage I brought with me and fell into the comforting western style bed… Zzz