Landed!

So, here I am, back in Toronto. A very mixed bag of emotions for me right now. I'd been in Tokyo for nearly four years, so it really did feel like my home. I loved getting up every day and dealing with the sheer insanity of it --the mass of humanity, the kanji, Shinjuku Station at five o'clock. As much as I complained about things, I never lost my sense of wonder and excitement for that awesome meat-grinder of a city.

In my head, I was trying to prepare myself for reverse culture shock when I got back, but as others who have come back before me have pointed out, you can never be really prepared. Toronto's three million people compared to Tokyo's 20 is seeming a little provincial at the moment. Well, if worse comes to worse, and I don't think I can hack it in Toronto, I can always execute my contingency plan, which is to decamp to Paris on a working holiday visa. Oh là là !

It hasn't even been 24 hours yet, so I am going to give it some time. Here are some things that I've realised in my short time back:
1. People aren't as fat as I was expecting them to be
2. The city is quite dirty (Uh, hello, it's called a broom people!)
3. Everyone and their dog has a tattoo —I feel like I'm at a yakuza convention.