PostBlog: Taking in Tokyo

The biggest metropolitan area in the world at 40 million people is amazing and exhausting. I can't write anything coherent today, so I'm resorting to some random observations in no particular order.

• Tokyo is huge. Huge. No kidding. This is a big city.
• There is no "Tokyo skyline." There are several of them. They are scattered all over the endless 360 degree horizon. Tokyo is sprawling.
• This is an old city. It was not built on a grid. There is no logic to the way the streets are organized. If you were given an address, I don't know how you'd find it.
• Subways: there are at least two separate but overlapping subway systems and never do the two meet. When I tried to use a ticket for one on the other one, I was quickly corrected by a very helpful transit official.
• I was nervous about the language barrier. Unlike other places I've visited, I can't even sound out the words on signs. I needn't have worried. Without understanding a word, a lady who saw us undecided which train to take pointed out the nearby tourist information center. Without saying anything but the place we wanted to go, a police officer showed us on a map how to get there. The officious subway official smiled as he took the correct amount of money out of my hand when I struggled with a mess of unfamiliar currency. An older woman on a crowded subway car pointed with concern at my foot. I looked down and my shoestring was untied. A younger woman traded seats with me so I could sit by Clyde on the crowded train. What language barrier?
• You think Londoners like lining up? They have nothing on the Japanese. Everywhere else in the world, boarding a subway is a free for all. In Tokyo, hundreds of people line up single file, even at rush hour, and wait their turn.
• No one jaywalks here. It doesn't matter if there is any traffic. You do not cross the street until the signal indicates that you may do so. 
• There are very few fat people in Tokyo. 
• Most people talk quietly here. For a huge city, it's a very quiet place. The loudest people in Tokyo are either American or Australian. You can tell the second they open their stupid mouths. 
• Back to the subway - we spent a lot of time on the subway. No one talks on the subway, and if they do, they do it quietly. It is considered very rude to talk on your phone in public, especially on the subway. Everyone, however, is using their phones for other things like texting or playing games. Quietly.
• Lest you think I'm idealizing Tokyo, let me share another observation. I watched a "salary man" eat his lunch today. We were also eating lunch so it wasn't too weird. He looked like he was in his 20s, wore a business suit like millions of others, and he looked absolutely exhausted. There are hundreds and hundreds of these men. They are everywhere. They all wear the same suit. I like the quiet, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the conformity. I hear that these men often work from 8:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, miss the last train home, and start all over the next day.  How many of those guys are miserable their whole lives? And yes, it's men. Japanese women have other problems. 

Tomorrow we leave the city to see another part of Japan. Tune in next time for another PostBlog from Asia.