This is a picture of Tokyo.

jackiback

Add this to my list of biggest fears. I didn't realize I had a fear of enormously huge cities until I saw this picture. I'm claustrophobic just looking at it. *shudder* 

MrsJenE

And I look at that and think, "The energy must be exhilarating!"

I'd bet my husband would feel like you though.  I tell him all the time that I could easily live in NYC and he looks at me like I'm crazy.  He loved LA though because things were more spread out.

booneybear

Looking at that doesn't bother me, but my inner self would be a big mess of anxiety driving or navigating my way around.

Joyce was trying to tell me that I needed to more to Miami and when I told her that big cities scare the bejesus out of me and the the biggest city in NH had a population of 110,000 she agreed that I probably wouldn't make it in Miami seeing the population is more like 400,000

jackiback

I feel like I could get so lost that I'd never be found again. It's like a human-size impossible maze. 

Edited to add: I looked it up and Toyko has 5 MILLION more people than NYC. It clocks in at over 13 million people. I really and truly can't imagine. 

booneybear

Besides with 13 million people around 12,999,999 of them are bound to piss me off.  

MrsJenE

I'll tell you one thing...

I'd never use their public transportation system:

jackiback

annnnd, cue panic attack

cnthrdlywt2bwZ

Oh my god. My eyes just got huge at the sight of their train system.

I don't care about things being close together, and being around all the big buildings- I love that stuff. I just find the thought of being near all those people intolerable.

jackiback

But not taking public transport won't get you away from the crowds. I googled "Tokyo crosswalk" and got a million results that look like this: 

julie37619

Ugh.  All I see is a giant roach city filled with a bazillion roach people.  No, no, no.

sfgiantsjo

I get ragey in crowds. I would possibly turn into a serial killer in Tokyo. 

Maybe not really, I don't like getting messy, so blood is out of the question. But I would definitely go berserk. 

Jen748

My brain just shut down looking at these photos.

j*&p*

I get claustrophobic if there are too many people in the aisles in the grocery store. I would lose my shit in that crowd at the subway. 

Skeezon

No. Just, no.

SusieBW

Nope.  To all of this.  Just nope.

Lauren620

MH goes to Japan for work and tells me all the time that I couldn't handle public transportation there.  They pack as many people on the subway/trains as possible.  If there is any space at all the workers will push more people in through the doors.  He also said they are extremely apologetic if it is late AT ALL, even if it's only like a minute or two behind.  Eventually I want to go to Japan with him, but only for a trip that spends one or two nights in Tokyo and somewhere much, much smaller for the duration.

CeeCeeSugaPie

I would go totally nuts. We live in the country already and I still feel like our only neighbor is too close. DH would be even worse.

GilliC

I spent a summer in Japan that involved commuting by train during rush hour. Everything they say is true. Including the part about men who grope women on the train. Nothing like having a creepy guy stick his hand on your crotch when your arms are pinned down by the crowd and you can't move. There's actually a Japanese word for train molesters, and you're supposed to call him out and public shame him, but meek little 14-year-old me couldn't bring myself to do it. I just got off at the next stop and started gravitating towards crowds of women or businessmen after that.

Another time, out of curiosity I once tried lifting both my feet off the ground at the same time to see if the pressure of the people around me would hold me up. It did.

RevJen

No. 

84Lauren

GilliC said:

I spent a summer in Japan that involved commuting by train during rush hour. Everything they say is true. Including the part about men who grope women on the train. Nothing like having a creepy guy stick his hand on your crotch when your arms are pinned down by the crowd and you can't move. There's actually a Japanese word for train molesters, and you're supposed to call him out and public shame him, but meek little 14-year-old me couldn't bring myself to do it. I just got off at the next stop and started gravitating towards crowds of women or businessmen after that.

Another time, out of curiosity I once tried lifting both my feet off the ground at the same time to see if the pressure of the people around me would hold me up. It did.

:-O

God Bless the USA.

pinkybooklover09

I love the energy of big cities. Going to NYC was one of the best times of my life and I could totally see myself living there if I wasn't sure I'd be broke and forced to live in a tenement. 

But this is a whole different animal. I'm uncomfortable just looking at all of those people scrunched up together. That just seems ungodly. If I lived in Tokyo I'd be a hermit.

sfgiantsjo

84Lauren said:

GilliC said:

I spent a summer in Japan that involved commuting by train during rush hour. Everything they say is true. Including the part about men who grope women on the train. Nothing like having a creepy guy stick his hand on your crotch when your arms are pinned down by the crowd and you can't move. There's actually a Japanese word for train molesters, and you're supposed to call him out and public shame him, but meek little 14-year-old me couldn't bring myself to do it. I just got off at the next stop and started gravitating towards crowds of women or businessmen after that.

Another time, out of curiosity I once tried lifting both my feet off the ground at the same time to see if the pressure of the people around me would hold me up. It did.

:-O

God Bless the USA.

I'm traumatized just reading this. 

jackiback

GilliC said:

I spent a summer in Japan that involved commuting by train during rush hour. Everything they say is true. Including the part about men who grope women on the train. Nothing like having a creepy guy stick his hand on your crotch when your arms are pinned down by the crowd and you can't move. There's actually a Japanese word for train molesters, and you're supposed to call him out and public shame him, but meek little 14-year-old me couldn't bring myself to do it. I just got off at the next stop and started gravitating towards crowds of women or businessmen after that.

Another time, out of curiosity I once tried lifting both my feet off the ground at the same time to see if the pressure of the people around me would hold me up. It did.

Pretty sure you just described my worst nightmare. 

MrsJenE

How do people get off the train at their stop when they're squished on it?  How do they push through all those people?

MrsC7

MrsJenE said:

How do people get off the train at their stop when they're squished on it?  How do they push through all those people?

I had the same question. If you're squished in the middle, how do you get out?

aggiebug

That is insane. No way would I like to live there but visiting a big city is fun. The thing that would overwhelm me in Tokyo is the language barrier. It is so completely different than ours that reading signs for directions would be so hard. At least with French/ Spanish/German etc , I may not know what it means but the letters are the same that I can navigate quite easily.

dmlk413

Nope, I wouldn't last two seconds there.

GilliC

MrsC7 said:

How do people get off the train at their stop when they're squished on it?  How do they push through all those people?

I had the same question. If you're squished in the middle, how do you get out?

So many people get off at each stop that there's always a lot of people getting off, so people move out of the way or step outside to make room. And they're all very polite about it.

Honestly, aside from rush hour, I definitely prefer public transit in Japan to most places I've lived. It's a lot cleaner than the US or France, and it's extremely punctual. Also, it's polite and organized to the extreme. Even more than London. No one would dream of standing on the walking-side of an escalator, and when someone does, people don't get angry, because they're just so astonished that someone is doing it wrong.

moroccojade

There is only one thing I didn't like about living in Japan....



Leaving.

I adore that country.  This post makes me so sad!

I only spent a week in Tokyo, a week in Kyoto, and then several months up north in the southern part of Hokkaido...  but I absolutely fell in love.  With everything. 

Yeah, the train pervs suck.  ("Chikan")  But as far as violent crimes, theft and other bad stuff -- it is almost nil.  You can walk around with the equivalent of several thousand dollars in your purse and not even have to think about that for a second. 

Beyond that...   the sights, the culture, the food, the shopping, the generosity of the people.  All marvelous.  I cannot wait to take my daughter(s) there.  Yes, you need to know a little Japanese.  But don't we appreciate when tourists learn a bit of English to visit our countries?

Anyway, I can understand feeling a bit nervous about visiting a chaotic city like Dehli or Shanghai....   But Tokyo (and the other cities of Japan) are beyond awesome.   

booknerd226

That is making me so nervous to look at. I hate crowds so much. I don't even go to the store when I know it'll be busy because I get too anxious around all the people. This is my worst nightmare.