Having said that, I'll touch on just a few of the texts basics in reverse order first. When I left, I was pontificating on topics I'm no expert in from my unqualified position of armchair critic on what works and what doesn't work - a thread I want to briefly continue.
Ohhh Canada. Ohhh Vancover. I've just come back from a city of 12 million that is part of a continuous metropolitan area of 35 million people. Japanese are masters of many things, including seafood, electronically sophisticated toilet seats, and people movement. People movement falls into many categories such as the 5 story deep hive that is Tokyo Station right near our hotel serving as the nexus for the subway system, to bicycles everywhere, to the most varied assortment of cars I've ever seen, each of which will be elaborated on with a few photos.
First on the list though are airports. Narita airport had me excited the second I got off the plane. I felt instantly welcome and instantly in awe of cleanliness, design, foreign language functionality and technology layered into every inanimate object people interact with. I haven't had the opportunity to make it to other ultra-advanced airports like Beijing's recent mega project/improvements, but Narita airport struck me as the [first step of a trip] that is the closest I can comprehend to visiting the future. The mass of people that find their way anywhere and everywhere efficiently and serenely in the sea of movement is undeniably impressive. Customs, baggage, trains from the airport, ticketing, food and shopping are just amped up so many notches. I didn't stop to wait in a line for more than 60 seconds anywhere between deplaning and checking into the Four Seasons Maranouchi.
Something like four and a half days later, I deplane in Vancouver, walk a hallway, and stand for 45 minutes in a customs lineup. It just feels wrong. The layout doesn't fit the space very well. A family a few spots ahead of me in line is talking to a silver haired airport host guy on the subject of this being "surprisingly long". "Sir, this is to be expected - we've just had two large planes land, one from Tokyo and one from Seoul right now."
Fair enough. But this is the international terminal that's a few months away from "hosting the world" with the Olympics. And my recent frame of reference is that facilities such as airports can be built to take a "large airplane from Seoul/Singapore/Bankok/Beijing/Shanghai/London/Los Angeles/Sydney/Vancouver etc. basically all simultaneously if need be. At least the carpet colors the taxpayers bought are relatively nice.
Good luck to all international visitors arriving for the winter Olympics - bring your serenity with you.
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