Back from Tokyo yesterday afternoon, after a whirlwind 4 day stay in Japan. Why? Because it was days off, that’s why. It was a fantastic trip overall, reminding me of how much I love Japan — but I do think, in all honesty, that four days is about all I can take of Tokyo. I remember last time I was there I felt this mixed sense of relief at leaving; Tokyo, for all of its charms and its advantages as a city, remains the biggest city on the planet with almost as many people in it as live in my entire country, and so it’s probably not surprising that (a) you are almost always swimming against a current of people moving in the opposite direction and (b) the only time you can really feel alone is at 4:00 when you’re up with jet lag.

A more complete description of the trip — sumo, sushi breakfast, Jodo Shinshu services entirely in Japanese — will come later. Meanwhile, this is a placeholder and pointer to the quick and dirty Flickr photo set I’ve thrown up with my favorite pictures from the trip.

Also:

This was the craziest sumo matchup I’ve seen in a long time.