What can I tell you about Tokyo and Japan? Well I don't think three/four days was enough. My trip was to pick up my telescope and naturally I wanted to play with my repaired toy and as you know my primary focus is birds. So you'll need to head to botab if you want to see the results and learn more about Tokyo's birds.
As a younger traveller I wanted to meet people and talk. In my late teens and early twenties France was the place as I was virtually fluent in the language. In Japan in my fifties I have no Japanese and in truth I am not really looking to solve the world's problems with bar-room bull or to impress people with my ideas and patter! So my contact with people was very functional and very limited. But let me just say life is quite different here or should I qualify that and say its outward vestiges are different?
Tokyo must be largest conurbation in the world. As many as 23 million people live in the greater Tokyo area depending on what criteria you use to limit that area. I didn't get a sense of “seething masses huddled together” or of a pressure cooker. I liked the gentle pace of life. Tokyo must be unique among cities in that it is not dominated by road traffic. There are plenty of cars, buses, trucks, lorries, and motorbikes. But I could hear myself think in Tokyo and could even hear the birds singing during the day, including the croaking of crows. Life is not dominated by the sound of straining engines, breaks, horns, sirens or the smell and smoke of engines and queues of traffic clogging up the roads. I don't believe London's congestion charge has managed to create a similar state of affairs. I think a lot of motorists there have decided to pay the charge and get on with it.
Fortunately you are unlikely to be struck by a car in Tokyo. However you may be struck by a cyclist! Pavements and cycleways are often adjacent to each other and some cyclists appear to have little regard for us walkers. In fairness though there are very few walkers. Most people appear to cycle short distances. So you cycle from home to the station where there are huge bike parks. It appears you don't have to worry about your bike being stolen as very few bikes appear to be secured in any way. Pushbikes appear to be very much the order of the day for short trips.
In general the streets are clean, virtually litter and graffiti free. There is next to no street crime in Japan so not only can you leave your bike unlocked you can wander around anywhere without a care in the world. There are vending machines everywhere selling all manner of goods: another benefit of crime free streets.
Finally the public transportation system is awe inspiring. You can get around on the railway and metro lines without too much difficulty: it is ruthlessly efficient, fast, punctual and well maintained and clean. I noticed something quite unusual on one line: on weekdays between 07:30 and 09:00h the final carriage is exclusively for the use of women. I am sure there is a reason why, perhaps because of groping which I understand is quite a problem, but I am wondering about how they could ever introduce something like this on the London underground.
Let me digress! One late afternoon while visiting The Meiji Shrine in Tokyo I had to answer the call of nature and I needed to find a WC - not a real problem as toilets are abundant and like everything else they are clean and usable. The shrine is in a huge park. It was very cold to say the least and I was fearful about catching the cold from waving my bum about. It was my good fortune to find a WC which had the ultimate luxury: a heated seat. I sat there for 20 minutes of joy! O luxury of luxuries: how utterly thoughtful!Back on topic. Now Tokyo is not Singapore or a a gated community. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. As I head home the question that is foremost in my mind is: how have the Japanese managed to achieve this happy state of affairs?
I am mightily relieved to be back home in Thailand with Luna & Beneedict.
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