Here I am in Tokyo: a fairly high-end hotel in the Ikebukuro area, because I like my first night in a completely new place to be utterly convenient. I'll get adventurous after I get my bearings.
The flight was without incident. There was an unpleasant man on the airport bus from Narita into the City. He complained I was hitting the back of his seat. He said, in a loud, rude, tone, "Don't touch my seat." Then, after a minute or two, he scrawled on the back of an envelope the words "You should follow the rule" and held it up so I could see. I hadn't even been touching his seat after that first complaint.
Hmm… welcome to Japan. And… which rule is that, anyway? And… I only had hit the back of his seat twice, on accident, as I was looking for my hotel reservation papers in my bag on my lap. Well, whatever. The contrast: on a Korean airport bus, chances are, everyone would have been bonking everyone's seat, as energetically as possible, and only getting offended if someone became annoyed at that. So. But I'm trying to be recovered from that.
There was a friendly woman who was returning from a first visit to Seoul to her home in Tokyo. I chatted with her for a while. I asked if she liked Seoul. She said, "oh, it's like a small Tokyo."
Indeed. From that tiny, provincial megalopolis of only around 15 million, I get to visit the real deal, with double the population. Cool. What's it with me and big cities?
OK, I'm tired. I will sleep, now.