www.nickhodge.com

Dear Japan

I think I really like you as a friend, but I am no longer in love.

It’s not you, it’s me. The love of the new, the unknown, the for­bid­den is gone.

It is not the great pub­lic trans­port, the very friendly and cour­teous people. The wall-to-wall shopping.

I am sure we can still be friends.

My third trip to Japan, even with the earth­quake and typhoon, was pleas­ant enough. I think how­ever that to know you bet­ter, I would have to move in with you and learn your lan­guage. At this stage in my life, it’s a com­mit­ment I can­not make. I am just too tired and grumpy for that.

My genes are call­ing me to fol­low my DNA back in time. Ger­many and Scot­land call.

This begs the ques­tion of why I trav­elled to Japan in the first place. Good ques­tion. I think I should have had a hol­i­day while I was not working.

You have shown me the future: it’s ver­tical and it’s mobile. Even the geek (otaku) side of Japan was inter­est­ing — but not enga­ging enough unless you like manga, gun­dam uni­verse and other slices of cul­ture I can­not explain.

Yours

Nick