A Meaningful Life

Order, compliance, respect sum up my Tokyo experience of the last few days. My work colleague described it as “Humanity in your face”, a very good description. I don’t think I have ever seen such long railway platforms, as many heads crossing a road at once or such orderly marriage ceremony as seen at Majii Shrine.

You do feel very small not only as a person but also as part of Australia a much smaller country. Given there are 20 million people in Tokyo you really can’t see the edge of the city, and it really is a city not really suburbia that we have.

Our DB Tokyo office is a great office. The team is extremely good. I learnt a lot, had very good meetings with clients and internals. A good business trip in all. I got a bit of time on Sunday before our week started, to look around. Otherwise it was back to back appointments with a few email and Bloomberg replies interlaced.

The people really do respect their space (what they have of it) Most houses are small two story self-standing home. Otherwise you are pretty much in a 2000 unit apartment building that makes Meriton buildings look like lego houses. They have small courtyards with immaculately groomed plants and trees. I had thought Bonzai was a hobby but it seems that everything gets pruned to control its growth. Every tree along the side of the road is clipped neatly.

Everyone is very respectful and courteous. You find yourself changing you behavior to repay in kind. Public servants live up to their name unlike Australia where is a large wooden chip worn as a lapel on their shoulder. People take pride in their work. I observed the routine of a station master. He was very neatly dressed in pristine uniform and wore white gloves. He used a variety of hand signals to indicate arrival and departure of trains that were in themselves like a martial arts karta. When there was no train at the station he walked around checking cleanliness, adjusting each fire hydrant by hand and checking all the plastic labels across locked doors were present. It was a perfectionists routine that ensured nothing was missed for the benefit of safety and quality of service. I was impressed and inspired.

Well off to catch a plane home. Can’t wait to see my wife and kids, even one day away is hard.