The Wandering Monkey

My flight from the US connected through Tokyo on its way to Beijing.  I postponed my connection flight by four days and stayed in Tokyo.  This is what I found:

 

I have known for a long time Beijing is not the city for me.  It was probably 6 years now.  I never liked Beijing from the first time I visited it.  Still don't.

 

Tokyo, by comparison, is civilized.  People are (ultra) polite, and every technology, ethnic food, personal care product, or obscure cultural phenomenon can be found here.  The girls are also incredibly cute, and flirting has worked very well this weekend, even though I speak next to zero Japanese.

 

The streets are clean.  People in the subways take the escalator, and if they are standing they stay to the left.  If the intend to walk up the escalator, the entire right side is open for them.  When the subway doors open, those waiting outside take no action until those exiting have left.

 

The rules are the basis of societal engineering, and they work very well.  The criticism (which will always exist in some sort) is that there are too many rules, and the letter of the rule is followed rather than the spirit.  But, in Shijumen (the most-commonly filmed area of Tokyo), 200 people will sit calmly waiting for the light to turn green.  When it does, 200 people will simultaneously cross the street from the five different intersections.  Like schools of fish, they will all thrust forward in a planned trajectory, and no one will bump, and no one will have to stop and turn around.  200 peopel will all flow towards the intersection center, then on to their destination, all without issues.  I have video.

 

I identify with this city.  I have tried learning some Japanese.  It is easier than Chinese.  I can visualize myself  being here one year from now.  Its 9/1/2008.  Let's look again in 9/1/2009 for results on this.

-J