Pleasant surprises
Tokyo below ground is a worthwhile detour. Take an escalator or stairway down from ground level of cavernous Tokyo Station. It's like opening the door to what you thought would be a broom closet — only to find the Houston Astrodome filled with flowing throngs of chic shoppers and determined commuters.
Our escapees from the tour bus descend stairways from street-level expecting only trains and platforms of queued commuters. Instead, they find endless shops filled with exotic goodies. Avenues below ground are as extensive and pulsing with activity as the jammed streets and stores above.
Fair-haired foreigners sometimes feel swamped and buffeted by the black-haired rivers of Japanese pedestrians. The human current during morning and evening rush hours forces some tourists to hold hands, lest they be separated by the two-legged undertow. One sees adventurous newcomers standing wide-eyed, pressed against the thick pillars that support the streets overhead. They scan their maps for reference points amid second thoughts about having gotten off the tour bus.
They need not fear for their safety, their wallets, or getting back to their hotel. News reports of Japan's low crime rates and the Confucian ethics of its citizens are legion in the West. Most foreign residents of Japan can recite personal anecdotes of how some lost article was returned to them without fanfare or expectation of a reward by individual Japanese. Or by the institutions of the society itself, which make tipping a no-no in Japan.
Nice place to be lost
Tokyo may seem disorienting and enormously confusing to newcomers. Yet, it remains one of the safest cities in which to be lost. Citizens are duty-bound by obligation as host to help visitors. Like the natives of any land, they want guests to see the good side of their society. Unlike comparable cities in the West or Asia, however, Tokyo is safe enough for unescorted women and children to be out after dark.
One sees schoolchildren as young as seven riding subways and trains alone to and from school daily. Vehicles of the public transportation system are free of graffiti and the need for security guards. Its citizens are surprised to read that such is not the case in the major cities of other lands. Long-term resident aliens get so accustomed to this soothing Confucian order that gradually their annual trips home become tainted by the need for increased caution in the land of their birth.
Tokyo's inescapable crowds are most threatening to visitors from the West. Americans experience such multitudes only if they attend a World Series game or the NFL's annual Super Bowl. In Tokyo, one learns to take daily swims in seas of polite humanity when going to and from work, shopping, school, or any other activity likely to attract the city's 12 million residents.
Over the centuries, the pressures of demographics have conditioned the Japanese to bring order to their dense populations. Westerners are surprised to hear that many Japanese find much value in teeming multitudes. Even long-term resident aliens listen with amazement as Japanese who've lived abroad describe how they actually "missed" the push and pull of a Tokyo crowd.
