Growing in Tokyo - Day Two

Vitality Stories

Growing in Tokyo – Day Two

Wake and walk

Steps taken: 20,865

The time difference between Seattle, Washington, and Tokyo, Japan, is 16 to 17 hours depending on daylight savings. Exercise seems to help us with jet lag, so after a good night’s rest, Ted and I strolled westward. Our destination was the world famous and busiest intersection in Tokyo—Shibuya Crossing.

Multiple subway lines and trains intersect underground and there is an endless flow of people onto the streets. Shibuya Crossing is also known as Shibuya Scramble. When the pedestrian light turns green, an average of 1,000 people swarm the intersection, scrambling and weaving towards one of the four corners. After forty-six seconds, most everyone has cooperated and reached their destination. And just like that, the traffic zooms by once more and by the time the walk sign flashes green again, there is another 1,000 people waiting to cross.

Shibuya is also known for flashing neon lights so we returned Saturday night. Check out this video:

Friends don’t let friends text & walk

After only two days, we realized we could count on one hand the number of people walking and staring down at a smartphone. We noticed because Text Zombies have overtaken Seattle. Back at the hotel we asked Sir Google, Why don’t Japanese people use smartphones in public?

As is typical with the internet, we had to sort through answers ranging from social etiquette; to data claiming only 50% of the Japanese population owned smartphones; to the government being concerned about an increase in pedestrian accidents. Hoping to show that smartphone use was not a detriment to a pedestrian’s health, the major provider, Docomo, used Shibuya Scramble to simulate texting & walking:

“The result of the simulation was that there were 446 collisions leading to 103 cases of falling and 21 dropped phones. Only 547 pedestrians crossed without incident.”

Only 547 people out of 1,500 would traverse without incident in Shibuya Crossing if everyone was texting & walking?? I expect Docomo was disappointed by the results.

Unaware

Texting Zombies are horrible in Seattle. One will, literally, stop right in front of you while walking, smack dab center in the sidewalk like he/she is the only person in the world and the email or text about what he/she will eat for lunch is a matter of life or death. Once, I plowed into the back of a woman after she suddenly stopped in front of me to respond to a text or email. She had the nerve to mumble, “Excuse you,” because in Seattle, I am the anomaly—the person who is taking a walk and being aware of her surroundings. Texting Zombies are so prevalent, check out this sidewalk art in Seattle and yes, it was pointedly painted in the middle of the sidewalk:

Seattle Texting or Smartphone Zombie

If I could write code, I’d create an App that would alert Texting Zombies another person is within 3 feet of them. A really annoying vibration or a ‘Waa, Waa, Waa” seems fair and it would appease me, but alas, the zombies either wouldn’t get the App, or they’d habituate and learn to tune the warning out.

But back to Tokyo… I saw people taking pictures with phones, and I saw people looking at their smart phones while seated on the subway, but not once over the course of ten days did I have to change my course to avoid colliding with a pedestrian looking at a smartphone.

Tokyo Suway, Ginza Line

Smartphone ownership is increasing in Japan and I hope texting & walking won’t increase, but thanks to Japan’s culture, I’m optimistic.

Mindfulness

The indigenous rituals, teachings, and spirituality—and some say ‘The Japanese way of living’—of Japan, is SHINTO.

The Japanese culture of mindfulness and the individual’s way of life to do the best he/she is capable of doing doesn’t really support texting & walking because you can’t do both at the same time and perform either one to the best of your capability. If you’re being mindful about walking or reaching a destination, you’re mindful about walking. And if you’re being mindful about communicating via text, then you’re doing just that.

What I learned

It was only day two and just as it happened with day one, I recognized an area for improvement in my life—I want to practice mindfulness in my daily life. If I want to be more aware about my life and less bothered about zombies and other peoples’ choices, practicing mindfulness is the place to start.

Now I’m reading How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness by Jan Chozen Bays. The first exercise is to practice mindfulness while I brush my teeth. I haven’t been mindful from beginning to end, yet.

The exercise is harder to do than I imagined. Mindfulness takes practice, a lot of practice. Try brushing your teeth and see how long you actually stay in the moment. My mind wanders to things I need to accomplish that day, or what I’m doing next, and sometimes, completely random thoughts. My teeth end up clean but I don’t remember brushing them.

As always, thank you for joining me on my first impressions of Tokyo. If you have any comments about Tokyo or mindfulness, or even if you’d like to give me feedback on what you are liking or disliking about Vitality Stories Newsletters, I’d love to hear from you.

If I want to be more aware about my life and less concerned about zombies and other peoples’ choices, practicing mindfulness is the place to start.

My heart goes out to the people of Paris and anyone who has lost someone or something they love.