A little while ago I spent the weekend in Tokyo, Japan. What a city! You can’t get much more fast-paced and technological than Tokyo. 20 million people, all vying for position, a 15m2 apartment and a 90 hour week. Hey, it’s normal.

Tokyo had a profound effect on my life. It is a city of dramatic contrasts: modern yet traditional; friendly but impersonal and inhospitable; captivating but intimidating; emotionally draining as well as energetically electrifying; and most of all, a city that challenges you to be the best you can be and will break you the moment you stop.

The Tokyo way is that you walk in, do what you have to do, and walk out again. There’s no time to be noticed and no one else has any time to notice you. Tokyo sweeps its inhabitants up in a gigantic Tokyo-rip, impossible to resist and even more impossible to understand.

I arrived in Tokyo on the 7:35 Bullet Train from Osaka and from the moment I arrived I was entangled in the Tokyo phenomenon. It is a strange and bizarre experience that has somehow made me curious for more, and bewilderment to why is the most intriguing part.

First and foremost in my memory of Tokyo is that I found myself getting lost. Getting lost in all the busyness. Getting lost in the crowd. Though everyone I met made me feel welcome the city made me feel alone. I was lost for words – Japanese evaded me and inadequacy with the language somehow intensified the “lost-ness”. I was lost because even though I may have been part of the crowd, going with them, moving with them – I wasn’t. I was still gaigin. I more than typified the Japanese word for “foreigner” being ever so clumsy, stupid and awkward. And most importantly, I was lost. Where did I fit in the hugeness of this city? It seemed I was just another face swallowed up by the big blue crush.

Probably the strangest thing about the whole lost-ness sensation was that I also felt as though had no right to be found. My life should go in and out of the train station, in and out of work, in and out of the supermarket as if I had never been there at all. I wasn’t to leave a mark on a coffee cup let alone society. And this sensation was coupled with the desire not to notice anyone else. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t reach out and touch. Don’t even apologize when you bump someone on the train. It happens, we’re both going somewhere, let’s just keep on our merry way.

Three days in Tokyo overwhelmed me. I have friends who live in this fast paced city for a living. So what is it like for them?

Normal.

It’s normal to feel lost. It’s normal to feel unnoticed. Impersonal, unfriendly and harsh – all normal. That’s Tokyo. One friend admitted that his first 3 years in Tokyo were the worst of his life. Another friend – a Starbucks manager in Hanajuku – proclaimed he can’t remember the last time he had a day off. A young lawyer and Tokyo newcomer (who I also discovered was exactly 1 year older than me to the day!!), confessed that had already put in a midnighter. Insane!!

This is the price of living in Tokyo. It’s normal.

A very different kind of normal.

So if you ever find yourself in Tokyo, don’t expect a holiday. Expect to be swept away, unnoticed and lost. Expect to feel out of place, bewildered and intrigued. Just remember: You’re now part of Tokyo-normal…don’t mess it up!!

Ecclesiastes 2:11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

Sarah is an author, youth pastor and teacher from Australia. Her first book titled Single Christian Female is funny, inspirational and very real. You can find Sarah on www.christianfemale.com

sarah carter may be contacted at http://www.christianfemale.com or sarah@christianfemale.com