Japanorama

The weather cleared today and we had our first proper tour of Tokyo. A quick bus ride downtown took us by the Parliament Building, and then we exited the bus at the park surrounding the Imperial Palace. Our guide, Yuki, was fantastic. Her English was impeccable and her commentary was superb. I had wondered whether we should have endeavored to visit downtown Tokyo yesterday on the train, but a couple of passengers on our bus today revealed that though they had come into town on their own, they had no idea where they were or what their locations meant. We were wise to wait.

Today I asked Yuki about the location of the ancient fishing village of Edo. She told me that at that moment we were in the bounds of ancient Edo. I would never have known it from all of the beautiful modern skyscrapers around us. I also asked her about the Japanese name for Tokyo. The two Chinese characters signifying “eastern capital” are also the Japanese kanji characters for Tokyo. I asked her if the two identical Japanese characters had the same meaning. She said they did, though the Japanese pronunciation is different from Chinese. We toured the exquisite park around the Imperial Palace, and I fell in love with their black pine trees. They are similar to our pine trees, but noticeably distinctive and absolutely beautiful. The general population gets to go beyond these gates twice each year, once on January 2 to wish the Emperor a happy new year and again on February 23 for his official birthday.

Not since we arrived in Tokyo have we seen a scrap of litter nor a letter of graffiti. One absence I found shocking. Downtown, in one of the largest cities in the world, I did not hear a siren. Not one. For four days. This omission strikes one as impossible in a city this size. I did not see a homeless person. We did not hear an automobile horn honk. When asked about this quietness in a bustling downtown metropolis, Yuki said, “We Japanese are quiet. We do not like to disturb our neighbors.” She told us that from the first grade, pupils spend 20 minutes after lunch cleaning up from their meal, sweeping the floor of their classroom, polishing the windows and cleaning the chalkboard. There is virtually no crime here. If you leave your wallet on the seat of your unlocked car, it will remain there. If you accidentally leave your cell phone on a park bench, you can go back five hours later, and it will still be where you left it.

The Japanese people are astounding.Read more