Surfing to work

"Crowded" by North American eyes is "sparse" by Tokyo standards. Riding the rails during morning or evening rush hours requires agility. Also over-the-horizon radar for reading Chinese hieroglyphics on far-off signs before the crowd in which you are trapped carries you past your exit.

Newcomers must become surfers. They must learn to ride the crest of Tokyo's human waves while anticipating the safe points of entry and exit along daily commuting routes. This pedestrian skill is akin to that required of drivers in Los Angeles who hope to master its infamous freeways.

To cope with the undertow, new residents soon learn to take shelter in jammed train and subway stations behind a pillar, a kiosk, a vending machine, or any other immovable object large enough to divert flow. This breather — as white water surges by on both sides — is necessary to get one's bearings, and to draw a bead on the target: a stairway to street level.

The secret is to go for it during the lull between the disgorging of one packed train and the arrival of the next. Because Tokyo's clockwork subways arrive every two minutes during rush hours, the lull may last for mere seconds. Eyes squinted with zeal, the newcomer bolts for the stairs as the next subway comes to a rail-squealing halt and vents its riders. The mad dash resembles Harrison Ford fleeing the rolling boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The relief one feels at bursting from the packed station onto the sidewalk is comparable to spiking a touchdown football in an end zone. Alas, reality puts a quick end to the victory jig as navigating through Tokyo's street crowds is no less of a challenge.

But the adventurer learns to cope, and for those who endure, the lessons of contrast become the curriculum of the expatriate.

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