10 Impressions from the City of Tokyo

I always imagined Tokyo as crowded, noisy, fast paced and expensive – the urban city life that we look to run away from.  However, the 3 days that I spent in Tokyo changed that perception of mine.

Tokyo - The Capital of Japan

Although 3 days are never enough to outline the complete character of a city nor check out all the coolest things to do and day trips from Tokyo (there are SO many!) and yet they can sometimes leave you with impressions that are more than enough to delight your travel bone and tease you for more. So then, here go my impressions for the city of Tokyo -

1. Zebra crossing

As a child, I was always taught the importance of zebra crossing. But having grown up on the reckless traffic scenes of Mumbai, I never quite understood what it meant till I made it to my first international destination - Japan defined it for me.

People never cross the roads before the signal turns green

even in the absence of any vehicle coming

I turned right and I turned left, no vehicle in sight. Generally I wouldn't care of the color of the signal and simply cross. But not when I was in Tokyo. Traffic Signals are given their due respect and adhered to, both by the vehicles as well as the people.

2. Love for Nature

Pedestrian pathways lined with lovely flowers

Nature was ingrained in the very lanes and by lanes of Japan. The pedestrian pathways were lined with beautiful flowers that made me feel as if I was walking in some garden and not on the roads.

3. Dearth of space

I don’t know if my analysis holds any good ground but I did apply my own logic to figure out the reason behind Japan's 'Lack of Space'. It's because people here do not encroach upon the space of nature and remain satisfied with their share, even if that means creating a shortage of space for their own houses and homes.

Otherwise, tell me - how can one come across beautiful and spacious gardens and well laid out pedestrian pathways like these in a space crunched city like Tokyo?

4. Good English speaking skills

Contrary to their image of poor English speaking skills, Japanese (in general) can speak and understand English very well. Just that we need to be slow and give them their time to take our words in. And then, what do I say of their zeal to help? It is such that it can surpass any language barrier!

5. Fashion conscious youngsters

I found people here to be very fashion conscious especially the young generation.

6. High civic sense woven in the culture

This kind station officer came running to me outside

to return my camera which I had forgotten at his place

There is a great sense of civic duty and they are not thinking of ways to pounce on each another. Hence, people go out of their way to help, your things never get lost as they are quickly returned back to you and people generally don’t interfere in other's business.

7. Cellphones: Handy toy

People cannot live without their cellphones, if I can say so.

I saw the Japanese constantly sticking out with their phones while my stay in Tokyo and was often left wondering, what exactly they were doing - chatting, reading anime, texting or playing a game?

8. Supermarkets: One of the best places to shop

A bigger sized mineral water bottle in a supermarket store is a lot cheaper than a mini water bottle that you get in a vending machine. We were very happy to discover this bit by ourselves, as it did save us quite a lot of bucks at the end of our trip!

9. Lack of pure vegetarian eating options

Pure vegetarian restaurants are hard to spot in the city. But there is a lot of variety in fruits that you get in the supermarket stores all over the city.

Delicious fruits at the supermarket store

Apart from Govinda’s in the ISKCON temple, someone told us of one pure vegetarian restaurant standing in the Ginza district but unfortunately, we could never make it there.

10. Silent subway trains

One amusing thing that I noticed during my subway train rides were that the trains were generally eerily silent at most of the times.

But there was less of oral communication and people preferred sticking to their mobile phones, reading a book or a newspaper. It looked a bit weird at first but gradually I found it charming.

Tokyo, being a cosmopolitan city, had it all – tall sky scrapers, big offices, blitzy malls - yet for me, the city was different. Tokyo was about many things that I never imagined it to be. The city had many faces to it and it gave me the liberty to choose my own window of vision. I chose mine and all I can say is that I have come back only longing for more!