Escape Route

So... this crowd-hating introvert has fallen head over heels in love with Tokyo. And brought back over 2k photos of all sorts of interesting things, plus goodies and enough weirdly flavoured kitkats to send hubby's colleagues into a sugar frenzy. If it weren't for the seriously tedious twelve-hour flights (and the annoying price tag of said flights) I'd be back and forth a few times a year. With such hindrances... well, let's say it will be a little while before I'll see the rainbow dipped river again. And isn't that a shame!

This holiday wasn't just a holiday - and there'll be pictures to prove it. It was part "work". Decisions were reached on the locations of Tempest's apartment, his favourite club, the kidnap site and the place where Jack (or maybe Min) end up on the roof with a sniper rifle. I know which hospitals are close, and roughly how long it takes to reach them when you drive like Max Young. I know where Tempest's fancafe can be found and where he goes when he wants to get drunk in public without being mobbed. And Max Young acquired a house in the Nagano Alps. Just because...

I've a bunch of short story ideas rattling around in the back of my head along with location notes. (And why were women not allowed to leave Edo?) To top it off I managed to find me some TVXQ merch.... and Shin-Okubo was fun. Of the gaping, I-don't-believe-this, it's properly bizarre variety. Life-size Changmin banners and Junsu body pillows, anyone?

We didn't manage to get tickets for Se7en's concert... missed the SWWN truck haunting Shibuya and Shinjuku... but I extended my Rain collection (only two albums missing now!) and a very nice sales lady added lots of pictures to my bag when I confessed that I had a thing for Changmin. Her cash register was plastered with Min pics, so we clearly had something in common... ;-)

Now I'm back home, at my desk as usual and with cat sleeping at my feet and Tokyo seems a world away. Having to put Tiger in a cattery was the one negative aspect of the trip, but he's fine and very cuddly and that's all that matters. There'll be Tokyo stories for weeks while I work through everything we've seen.. but boy do I want to go back.. and that alone is a strange thought coming from someone who can look for escape routes while shopping for groceries. Tokyo magic, I suppose.

Now on with the dayjob... which includes approving the cover design for Ghosts... release day is getting closer. And House Hunt has started production... no time to pine over an amazing city or turning emoshinki over cruel barber's jobs...

... to admit to the huge grin on my face when I read this article.

Yes, we're in Tokyo that week. Yes, Yokohama is just down the road. But that's sort of the end of it.
I can't possibly be grinning because I'm in the same country, can I?
But then again... sometimes I think the crazy is contagious, so what do I know?