The time difference between Tokyo and New York is 14 hours. We were on the plane for 14 hours, left at 11am on Sunday morning and arrived at 4pm Monday afternoon. Where did those 14 hours go? My brain still can’t quite get a handle on it. The time difference is large enough that I’m not constantly wondering what time it is back in NY. I think it makes jet lag easier – there’s no anchor to hold onto and therefore there’s no choice but to let go and given into being completely adrift. When I woke in the night unable to sleep, I thought a lot about how much in our daily lives we are tied to time. We look at our watches to figure out when to eat, when to sleep, instead of listening to our bodies. When traveling though our bodies are torn from the daily rhythms and routines we are used to and we have to reconstruct them according to a new set of parameters. It’s a process that is strangely humbling and also adds to the sense of being somewhere else, and even on a different day from those in our home lives.