Excerpt: Sakura, Sakura

I was catapulted out of the cool air-conditioning of the bus into a swirling chaos of noise and heat. We had left the airport several hours before,and at first I was thrilled at the sight of rice-paddies and bamboo groves - the first I had ever seen. It had only been a very short time, however, before the fields and farms gave way to a concrete suburban sprawl which reminded me of the worst bits of Britain's new towns all huddled together in a seemingly endless grey drear. Where are the trees? I asked myself. What have they done with the trees?