Japan

I rang in the new year in Tokyo, counting down at a concert as the timer on the screen dropped from 14 minutes to zero and fireworks went off. Then I spent the next week wandering the city in winter: trees wrapped in white lights, neon billboards over crowds that never bump into you, the Tokyo Dome with its roller coaster next door, and Akasaka Palace closed for the holidays, which I only found out once I got there.

The food is the reason I want to go back. Counter sushi with tuna, eel, sea urchin and salmon roe. Tonkotsu ramen with a soft egg at midnight. Convenience store snacks that are better than most restaurants back home. The trains run to the second, and the silence on board is so complete that I once sneezed too loud and felt like I'd broken a law. Tokyo is order turned into a whole culture.