Tune in Tokyo
The greater Tokyo metropolitan area is home to over 35 million people- making it the most populous metropolitan area in the world.
Based on this fact alone, we expected Tokyo to be extremely crowded, noisy, and dirty. We discovered the exact opposite.
In four days, we heard exactly one car horn. Traffic is non-existent thanks to the excellent subway system, and since there’s no traffic, there’s also no pollution. Unlike every other country we’ve visited in Asia, no one litters. Trash cans force citizens to toss plastic with plastic and paper with paper. No one cuts in line, no one stares, no one blows their nose in public, and no one chats on their cell phone on the subway. This is urban paradise- and the closest thing to societal utopia I’ve ever experienced.
Fashion rules in Tokyo- and rules don’t exist. Most American women wouldn’t think of wearing black boots with a brown purse, but the women of Tokyo don’t give a rip. Everyone is strutting around as if they just left a Vogue fashion shoot…which is especialy noticable when you’re walking around in jeans, flip-flops and a fleece jacket. I may as well carry a flag around that says “American Nerd”. This predicament in other fashion capitals, Rome for example, would be met with a snide stare down to further damage my ego. Not here. The women of Tokyo just aren’t judgemental- they don’t raise they’re eyebrows at innappropriately short skirts, they don’t snicker at 250-lb foriegn tourists, and they didn’t give me any snide looks for my backpack-attire.
Probably because there were so many other weirdos walking around. Tokyo made me want to get purple highlights and wear lime green denim. Kind of.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95156302@N00/
Tags: Japan, Tokyo, Travel
brooke.pearson8
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