Suspended 15 meters above the ground from a launch point just below the 482-meter summit of Mount Jyubuichi in Yamagata Prefecture, I am standing huddled in a basket beneath the bright geometric patterns of a hot air balloon.
Small towns, rice fields and the last vestiges of autumn foliage blanket the Earth below. Even on an overcast and chilly morning such as this, it¡¯s a refreshing sight. With little melded metal and glass jutting out into the sky, I¡¯ll admit this is not the scenery I¡¯ve come to associate with Japan. Despite having lived in Ibaraki Prefecture for six years before moving to Tokyo, the longer I live in the latter, the more it begins to feel like the center of the world (don¡¯t tell any New Yorkers that).
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