Initial Musings

Simply put, Tokyo is an amazing city, seemingly endless and reasonably busy at all times. However, I am most impressed with its citizens who have greeted me with the highest degree of civility and cordiality.

I typically spend the better part of my mornings at a local Starbuck's that shares an entrance with the neighboring office building. Thus, at any point in time there is an almost constant flow of either customers or businesspeople through the door, all of whom the Starbuck's employees will duly and indiscriminately greet with either an “irasshaimase!” (“welcome, please come in!”) or an “ohayou gozaimasu!” (“good morning!”) upon arrival and an “arigatou gozaimasu!” (“thank you very much!”) upon departure. Every employee to every entrant. Remarkably, the energy with which the exclamations are dealt is the same at 2PM as it is at 8AM.

Politeness seems to represent big business in, at least, Tokyo, if not Japan at large. The government and local businesses employ armies of people to do seemingly menial tasks, the magnificence of which eludes most Americans, particularly senior executives who have downsized similar jobs in the U.S. decades ago. A local department store that I frequent has not only a store greeter but also floor greeters who do precisely that and nothing else. Eleven floors, each with a greeter. Make no mistake; these are not the half-assed greetings that you might receive at, say, Wal-Mart. It is not uncommon to take two steps off of the escalator and be greeted promptly and emphatically by an adorable little Japanese woman who is immeasurably happy that you have decided to visit the third floor.

Perhaps the most illustrative anecdote that I can provide occurred last Friday, when I was trying to find the post office to mail my JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) application (on the deadline, of course). I gathered what I thought was the correct address for the post office from Google the night before. After walking around what I thought was the correct address for about 20 minutes, I stopped a police officer to get better directions. He promptly took me up the block to his office to get his map, detailed the necessary directions for me, and even employed the help of a passerby to assure that his directions were, in fact, correct. I did as instructed (his directions were correct), only to walk into, I think, a culinary school. I somewhat rhetorically asked the woman behind the counter if it was a post office. She assured me that it was not and proceeded to give me the necessary directions. When it was evident that I did not understand (streets in Tokyo are quite confusing), she got up from her seat, put her shoes on, and escorted me the three blocks to the post office's front door.

I am taking it in while I have it because I will miss it when I am gone.