Breaking the seal

And so it begins...

Stepping into the roiling streets of Tokyo, the air was dense with heat and humidity, like being hit in the face with a sweaty pillow.  The evening was setting in, the sidewalks still bustling, and my senses were awash with all manner of sight, sound, and smell all vaguely familiar yet distinctly foreign.  Wow, I thought in a surreal mixture of confused awe and disbelief, I'm actually here! Wait, what?  I'm here?  Really here... in the flesh?  No joke?  Huh... wow!

It felt good to move my legs again after such a joint-stiffening flight trans-Pacific.  Even the awkwardly bulky duffle bag and its less-than-adequately supportive shoulder strap were a welcome change of pace as I hobbled my way down the sidewalk with a wrinkled Google Maps printout clutched tentatively in my hand.  I'd never wandered alone in Japan before, but with each passing landmark I felt surer of myself and placed each step with greater confidence and determination.  Down the street, up the big hill, around the bend, left at the shrine...  and then there it was, next to the Hotel Mari just as my parchment's scribbled notations had promised: Nathan and Asami's apartment.

I rang the bell and was quickly welcomed into their home, fed grapes and cold tea to refresh my wearied constitution.  After a wonderfully prepared meal that nourished both body and soul, and after some enthusiastic deliberation of sites to be seen, monuments to be visited, and experiences to be had, my eyes had grown itchy and tangled in sleep.  Then dragging my beleaguered body bedward, I sank upon a futon, and groaning a sigh of venerable conclusion I withdrew from waking and slumbered deeply.

What awaits me?  That I cannot answer with any worthwhile assurance.  I've only a temporal template upon which providence shall cast its maker's mark.  But whatever may come to pass, I know it will be purposeful, life-affirming, and profoundly beautiful.  And that will make it all worthwhile.