Anyways, this usually results in me piddling around in my Kia Rio most days in order to get where I need to. And let me tell you, it is hard enough to convince my brothers to walk across the street to the Chinese restaurant instead of driving there. It is just not a part of our whole ssssystem in SE Michigan to walk anywhere unless it is for EXERCISE. In which case we jog for miles.
Flash forward to now, and my visit to Tokyo, Japan. I have probably walked more in the last couple of weeks than I have since November. On my best days I walk 5+ miles from Shinjuku (apartment) to Shibuya (school) and back. On my worst days (i.e. since I've figured out the train system) I walk upwards of two miles.
Three things that are nice about this:
1) Working that cellulite!
2) Seeing the people, dog-walkers, posh ladeez, slinky street cats, advertisements written in really questionable English, tall buildings, art galleries, Italian restaurants, Chiaki-senpai lookalikes, spot-the-Gaijin contests, workers trying to hand you fliers or tissues, and having funny conversations with elementary school kids in their uniforms (i.e. they run up to you and shout HELLOHOWAREYOU!?!?! and want to take pictures with you).
3) Having somewhere to walk to. It is so nice to be in the city and have a destination. And along the way, you often discover little shops or restaurants that you didn't know were there previously. We are lacking this in our strip mall-choked suburbia.
So that is my (brief) account of walking in the Tokyo-city, which has almost 13 million people and would take several years and volumes to describe the experience more articulately. You'll just have to be happy with this (for now).
0 comments:
Post a Comment