Japan, in Depth
How to visit a country you have already been to.
The second visit to Japan is always more interesting than the first. The third is the one that changes something. By the third visit, you have stopped looking for the things you were told to look for. You have given up on the temples you do not actually like, the restaurants recommended in the same three articles, the taxi to the same viewing platform. You are, for the first time, paying attention.
Depth requires repetition. The first visit acquaints you with a place. The second shows you what you missed. The third begins to reveal what the place actually is.
Depth requires repetition. The first visit acquaints you with a place. The second shows you what you missed. The third begins to reveal what the place actually is — its rhythms, its contradictions, its private registers, the things that do not appear in any guide because they are not visible to a visitor who has been there once.
