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Published: September 6th 2007
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The contrast between Tokyo and New Delhi is complete. You are aware of the differences from the moment you arrive, and when you live in New Delhi and are just visiting Tokyo, as were we, this awareness never leaves you during a 9 day visit. Everything is clean in Tokyo. The buildings, the cars, the glass, the bathrooms, the subway; even the sidewalks are mostly clean. The taxi drivers wear white gloves and their gloves stay white. There are no dead animals or beggars in the streets. There are no missing limbed homeless people tapping on your car window at intersections. We saw only three homeless people in Tokyo. One was sleeping neatly on a cardboard box and even had an alarm clock set for the next morning’s business. We did not see many garbage cans in Tokyo which is also true in New Delhi, but there was absolutely no litter anywhere in Tokyo. Many streets in New Delhi have piles of litter along the road. The sidewalks are paved and tiled in Tokyo and there is no standing water anywhere. The streets and sidewalks of Delhi are often a mixture of dirt and concrete water and mudd, with hungry people
wandering about with despair on their faces. You watch your step carefully in Delhi because it is not unusual to see missing stairs, broken curbs or even a manhole without a cover; never a warning. We even saw bob-wire across a sidewalk in New Delhi; apparently the landowner decided he no longer wanted pedestrians walking on the sidewalk in front of his property. This is a blog about Tokyo, but the contrast must be mentioned.
The silence is everywhere in Tokyo. The subway is an incredible integrated system of railcars that are well marked in both English and other languages. It is safe and efficient. Yet walking amongst thousands of people as you traverse your way under Tokyo, you are struck by the silence. In New Delhi (or New York), you hear people talking all around you; whereas in Tokyo you hear only the sound of trains and the gentle walk of people. I counted for 37 seconds once, the absence of human voices, as I walked the white tiled corridors surrounded by hundreds of people; no voices. Whereas in New Delhi you may wake every morning to the sound of street vendors yelling at your home from the
street, what fruits and vegrtables they have to offer that day.
The queue is politely followed in Tokyo. There is no crowding, no pushing, no cutting in line, and no spitting. The people of Tokyo are very friendly. And, in the subway or on the street, whenever we pulled out a map, people would stop and offer us directions. We once had a young woman walk us a quarter of a mile to show us where we could put our bags in a locker while we went site seeing in Nara. We felt guilty and asked her merely to point in the direction, but she insisted and walked us the entire way. Then she smiled and walked away asking nothing in return.
We saw no purpose for the police other than helping people with directions. We never heard any sirens on police cars, nor ambulances. People don’t speed in Tokyo and they drive between the lines in the road. People don’t honk at you in Tokyo. They quietly wait until you get out of the way.
You can find noise in Tokyo when the mood strikes you. We went into two dance clubs while in Tokyo. The
first was Gaspanic in Roppongi which played all American music, but it was top forty and included pop-rock (Bon Jovi), so we were out of there quick. The second was Club 99, which was just around the corner and also played all American music, but it was hip-hop, so we stayed the evening there. We can’t find much decent hip-hop in New Delhi so it was a treat to hear a string of 30-40 songs that were all danceable. The hip-hop scene had the same clothes and feeling as the USA, but without the anger; which was nice. We weren’t looking for American music, but that was all we found, and we were happy since Delhi is all electronic music.
We enjoyed our visits to the Imperial Palace East Garden, the Meiji Shinto Shrine, the Asakusa Kannon Temple, the Tokyo Tower, and the Ginza Shopping District. We also visited Shibuya, where all the large screen TV monitors are on the sides of buildings, and Akihabara, which is the electronics area of Tokyo. We stayed at the Park Hotel, which we loved.
Our favorite people watching place in Tokyo is Harajuku. It is a shopping district full of individually
owned fashion boutiques and designer shops. Make sure you walk all the way to the dead-end and turn right. That was our favorite part. Don’t expect to find great vegetarian sushi like you can find on the west coast of the US. We went to the best Sushi house in Tokyo, and the vegetarian creativity was beyond boring—rice and seaweed.
We have so many pictures of Japan, that we will be posting separate blogs for Kyoto, Nara, and Hakone. We are going to Australia in October.
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