To many, this experience would be a hellish torture on par with any of the dastardly tactics devised by the interrogators at Guantánamo Bay. Yet, for me, the whirlwind journey I made from London to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Shenzhen and back to Tokyo was strangely empowering. I’ve always found that there’s a sort of freedom and clarity that comes from not being attached to anyplace, from knowing that, six hours from now, I’ll be in another city in another country speaking another language and the present will be like a distant, faded memory…. When I’m in such a constant state of motion, it’s as though my flight has never landed, and I’m still floating ten thousand meters above the earth, even if my feet are firmly planted on the ground.

At one point, with a few hours to spare before my return flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo, I found the time to head to Ocean Park, a local HK version of Sea World or Disneyland. And it was while riding 越矿飞车 (Yuè kuàng fēi chē), staring out at the beautiful landscape of the South China Sea, that I realised the best way to describe the way I felt: it’s like that brief calm at the crest of the hill on a roller coaster, where everything seems clear for a single, brilliant, dreamlike moment. But you know that it can’t last. In an instant, you’ll be in free-fall, and reality will be rushing up to meet you.