Karl Taro Greenfeld, author of the sublime SPEED TRIBES, returns to Japan and stalks the shadows of his past:

"That is the challenge of any return. One only knows how to seek out old experiences. I had never been a truly responsible adult in Tokyo. In Hong Kong, where I now live, I have a steady job, a wife, children. In Tokyo, where I had my first good times, I only know how to be a young man, and I find that role increasingly awkward to play with each return.

If you are truthful to yourself, you will admit there was a time when you felt most honestly and authentically yourself. A week or a month or, perhaps if you are lucky, a year or two when the swirling circles representing your character, personality, style and appearance swam into perfect congruence and you were precisely whom you aspired to be. Whenever I return to Tokyo, I am reminded of that state of equilibrium. I may now have a steady job, children, a wife, prospects, but one trip back and I am reminded of all the things I am no longer."

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Found by Han, thanks.