Tokyo has surprised me to no end. There are more than 12 million people living in the tokyo city area, and a vastly larger number commute to the city to work.

with so many people concentrated in one place, and crowding the subways, I would expect there to be a great mess of garbage and an abundance of delinquency and crime. when the subway cars are jam-packed with commuters during rush hour you are so close to everyone else that it might be difficult to detect a pickpocket drawing your wallet from its perch in your back pocket. It is almost unheard of, though, which draws attention to the nature of Japanese society... very respectful and law abiding. the subways are clean, and aside from a cigarette butt or a small gum wrapper, there is no garbage to speak of. And if you can believe it, all the garbage bins have been removed from the subway lines since the gas attack in 1995. there are no garbage bins anywhere! well, tehre are in some places, but they are absurdly rare!
I have not used my money belt once, and if I would ahve i`m sure I would have drawn peculiar stares from the locals.

There are very few homeles people to speak of, and the few that I have seen are incredibly respectful old men wearing, if you can believe it, clean suits. most are well groomed and one might not recognise him as being a burden upon society. They do not beg, they do not bother, they simply want to be left alone and live in their cardboard house (which they dismantle every morning so as not to bother the shop owners).

I am curious about the underground culture here. while i have only visited the underground areas in and aroudn teh subway stations, it seems that there is a vast infrastructure located below the city streets. in some stations, while it may not seem that subterranian, I am sure taht you are in fact many many stories underground. many shops and restaurants are located at teh bottom of narrow tightly winding staircases descending into the ground. tehre are doorways covered by posters and such in these small underground abodes... where do they lead? can one hop the tracks on the lowest railway line in teh deepest of teh subway stations and find a hidden society of underground dwellers?

I`m almost certain I won`t find out during this trip...