Flying into Tokyo Narita Airport, which was a first for me, you really see how Japan could be overwhelmed by gigantic waves. The land just seems to start. A brilliantly cloudless sky caused Japan just to appear, suddenly, in my field of vision. One moment it wasn't there. The next, there was a hyperobject, stretching under the crystal blue sky as far as your eyes could see. Landing there was more seamless than at Denver DIA, which is really saying something, since DIA is a huge airport and that part of Colorado is mighty flat.
The international transit place was one of those airport spaces that make you think almost religious thoughts: very high ceiling, very quiet, very spacious—with the presence of incredible noodles, which for me are a religious experience.
While I was there a large earthquake hit and it was felt in Tokyo though I didn't feel anything, perhaps because when you've bee flying for that long, everything sways anyway.
We all got scanned for radiation when we arrived at Taipei, and found out that the Fukishima disaster had been upgraded to 7, “Chernobyl,” by the IAEA. I'm pretty sure alpha particles can't penetrate through aircraft walls or airport glass but my own safety isn't as much on my mind as sadness for the people who once again have been spoken to less than honestly by a government concerning radiation dangers.
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