I step foot in Tokyo on a cold winter evening in 2004. My plane was not connected to an aerobridge and as I walked down the stairs , a chilling breeze blew in occasionally and I , having forgotten a real winter, shivered.
The sky was dark and I walked out of the airport into the subway I felt a sense of Deja vu. The subway, inexplicably, seemed similar to the Mumbai local trains I had experienced a few years ago. The reason I say inexplicably is that one reflection they are very different in every way.
I negotiated the change of trains, carrying heavy suitcases and once finally reaching my destination was made to wait for another hour, my colleague who was supposed to receive me, was late.
That evening as I walked out to a convenience store to buy milk, faint snowflakes started to fall, it was my first experience of a snowfall.
I moved to Japan later that year but it took me another 3 years before I set up a home in Tokyo. The initial few months were difficult, commuting to work in crowded trains, the long travel times in navigating the complex metropolis, the high costs of living. But there was a large city waiting to be explored, the eating options were greater and it was a city one could never get bored of.
The city has plodded on, a major earthquake in 2011 and the pandemic were blips, which temporarily slowed down the city but did not stop it. A subdued Olympics later as the city goes into another cycle of restrictions, another slowdown later the city still goes on. The confused government policies has not slowed down the discipline and that is the fuel which drives the city forward.