日本、愛しています
I was in the midst of a 30-minute walk through the streets of Tokyo to start my first day at my company’s global headquarters in the city’s Nihonbashi commercial district when I started thinking about what I would write in my first “postcards'“ post. What struck me was the cultural norms that surround me in Japan: order, respect, kindness. Norms that I can’t help but worry have dangerously eroded among some people in my home country of the United States where the “we” in “We the People” seems increasingly abstract.
For a city of 14 million people, the morning commutes are quiet and precise: no constantly blaring horns on the streets, no loud music or talking on the subway, people respecting others’ personal space and queuing up politely. I enjoyed taking in the rhythm of the city, seeing “salarymen” standing at counters eating warm bowls of udon, the bustling morning business at the 7-Eleven and Lawson, and city workers swiftly and meticulously picking up the rare scrap of paper or litter from the street with something reminiscent of oversized tweezers.
I crossed the Nihonbashi bridge on my way to work — the bridge the district is named after — which has been the kilometer zero marker for Japan’s national highway network since the early Edo Period (early 1600s). Japan’s first department store, Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, started in the early 1900s and is still thriving in this district. And the Fukutoku-Jinjya Shrine (from the ninth century) offers a serene contrast to the massive commercial buildings surrounding it in this district.
Nihonbashi, on foot.
