Tokyo doesn’t need you to like it
Comments: 6
Reading Tim Bray tonight after coming home very late, a piece called Jini and the Tokyo Subway (it was the “Tokyo Subway” bit that got me: I saw an older chap collapse onto the tracks tonight, trains halting as he was hauled to safety and a waiting stretcher). Followed a link therein to his musings on Tokyo subway maps, at the end of which is this potentially life-altering line:
Tokyo doesn’t need you to like it.
It struck me that this is something a lot of people struggle with — I’ve struggled myself and, the gods know, still do on occasion. But it seems to me a lot of frustrations melt away if you take this sentiment to heart: being here becomes a privilege again rather than a chore. Freeing the city from the burden of pleasing you frees you from the burden of pleasing it, and in this detente the friendship and nutty, disorienting enchantment can begin again.
I think I’ve found a new mantra.
As a somewhat-south-of-Tokyo bonus, he also has some killer views of Fuji.
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Posted to General Rants • 2005.04.01 (Fri) • 00:29
Comments
Posted by Tim Bray 2005.04.01, 02:00
For a slight varation, see the last para of http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2002/11/28/Tokyo
Posted by Manish 2005.04.02, 13:23
I can see the logic in that statement but with an extension that it applies not only to Tokyo as in particular but to any metropolitian city in the world.
Posted by Marie 2005.04.04, 15:37
Yes, I had a similar Eureka moment in my final year in Tokyo and felt the same sense of relief… however, it did make leaving it all the more difficult. Also realised that it is the same wherever you are… although I have to say I’m struggling with maintain my mantra in my current location (Qatar).
Posted by jh 2005.04.05, 21:23
Marie — Qatar, from what I hear from a friend working there, does need you to like it. ;-)
Posted by Robert 2005.04.12, 23:56
Couldn’t agree more. When I moved to Buenos Aires, it took me forever to “get” the city. Once I stopped trying to compare it with every other place I’ve lived, charm began to ooze from every street corner. Accept it for what it is & it will love you back.
Posted by Just one more day 2005.04.25, 22:51
I’ve recently just arrived here and still struggling to stay sane above it all, its refreshing to read posts that dont rant and rave about yet another hanami, and how cute and lovable everything it. I’m hoping to get my moment of zen but for now, I’m just happy to make it through another day w/o wanting to smack the kawaii waitress just for being so goddamm nice.
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