I’ve often been to places and have thought to myself that what I’m seeing is so contradictory and perplexing, but after my time in Japan I think I’m willing to say that nowhere have I set foot in this world that this contradiction is so strikingly apparent. And this is precisely what I have loved about my time here. Every interaction and experience piques my curiosity and has me attempting to rationalize why things are they way they are, at least to eyes that were raised in the Western world. All at once, at least on the surface, Japan is modern and traditional, familiar and foreign, logical and incomprehensible, orderly and chaotic, flashy and subtle, flamboyant and reserved, friendly and distant, superficial and inward.

modern and traditional Tokyo

I can’t wait until I get back to Osaka in February and continue, likely without much success, to figure it all out…