Narita scribblings

Am busy packing my life into Taiwan Post cardboxes for my return to Old Europe. This is proving to be a lengthy process - as my nature demands that every item be carefully scrutinised and categorised before entering a box! As I flicked through my Lonely Planet guide to Tokyo, I came across some rather pseudy scribblings in the notes section at the back. This is what I wrote as I walked down the snaking corridor between the airship and Narita firm ground:

June 15th 2005, Wednesday

As the wheels touched down, jets sending up plumes of water, the slick black mac and endless expanse of grey skies with replenishing trucks ferrying between the gunboats on the runways, majestic in their stillness, nothing seemed to distinguish the place from any other airport. Yet here we were, it seemed to be crying out to us louder than a scream - TOKYO.

As I queued for customs I seemed to feel a hum of excitement. A Cheshire grin spread across my face as I imagined a polyglot making his way through this infinite community - Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, English all within my reach.

Ungrammatical and unedited though it be, I feel it would be a pity to leave the passage languishing in the recesses of a guide book that I might never again have reason to open.