Run Around

I just can't understand why Tokyo has the image of being a fast paced city. Maybe it's because of some American country bumpkins who have never been anywhere where the people out number the horses or cattle. It is very crowded here but everything seems to run in slow motion. The Japanese dawdle along without a care about what's happening around them, they are always getting in the way or under your feet, especially when you are in a hurry, a bit like Italian tourists on the Underground at Piccadilly Circus. It's not just the people even the automated doors here are on a go-slow. They open so slowly that if you walk up to them too quickly (here quick is my normal walking speed back home), you run the risk of smashing straight into them. So you end up having to wait for them to open like a real lemon and wasting another few seconds. Literally, every door in Tokyo is automated so I must loose minutes every day. It really winds me up.


Even the escalators seem to run at a reduced speed, which produces traffic jams of people around the tops and bottoms. Tokyo has been a major business centre, with a huge population for centuries, so you would have thought that the Japanese would be used to living in a crowded bustling city, but that seems to be far from the truth.