Oh yes, Tokyo. Well, now I'm back in Saigon, but let's cast my mind back to that faraway time and place for a moment...

Tokyo surprised me. It didn't surprise me in terms of what I found there. The place really hasn't changed much from when I was there 10 years ago. Sure, maybe the occasional shop or two, but I went to a lot of shops that are still there from way back then, which was nice in a way. And on the trains, with their happy yet melancholy jingles announcing the arrivals of trains and the closings of doors, it was like stepping into another time zone.

If anything, the most significant change that I noticed in the city was that the cellphone shops all look like perfume shops now, with their silver walls and all the metallic, pastel products. But I can't say that's a huge difference.

No, there were no changes to surprise me here. What did surprise me was the fact that I don't seem to be finished with the place yet.

And for many years, I was sure I had. A strange thing happened when I was living in Tokyo 10 years ago. I'd went there full of confidence, all ready to learn all I could about the language and culture. And then gradually, as I was there, I realised I was more interested in Chinese culture. Whether it was guilt at the fact that I hadn't learned enough from my own background (in Hong Kong, that is), or something else, I don't know, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time, and caused a strange internal conflict in me... so in the end I left, and never really went back.

But this time I did go back, by chance really. I had a holiday at this time, and my dad was going, so I went. Might not have been back for another ten years otherwise.

But I began to take joy again in all the little things around me again, like the aforementioned trains, the shops, the roads. Even the slightly chilly, drizzly Tokyo weather. But what really did it for me was the language. Because despite abandoning it, I once did speak the language reasonably well, and it all started coming back to me again. For the first time in years, I really enjoyed understanding and being able to read (and think, to a degree) in that other language. And I realised I didn't want to abandon it forever.

I haven't changed any of my plans just yet - stay here at least until the end of 2008 and see how I feel, stay another year after that if I'm still happy where I am - but I'm definitely looking at Japan now as one of my options for moving on once I've finished here... and then finish there what I once started.