Allergic to Tokyo

I must be allergic to Tokyo. I sneezed so much today I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out. Can't take any more days like this one!

The end of the day

Trains and subways form a massive web in and around Tokyo, creating the most utilized mass transportation system in the city, if not the entire world. Millions of train trips per day move the people of Tokyo to home, work and play.

This evening, while riding the train for about 15 minutes during rush hour, notices kept popping up inside the compartments, above the train doors. In several languages including English, the alert gave the name of a particular station, information that the station was closed in both directions, and the reason why: passenger injury. 

It was explained to me that "passenger injury," specifically, means suicides.

Suicide by jumping in front of a speeding train as it enters the station is a preferred way to end it all for the shamed or depressed in the world's largest city.

It happened three times, at three different train stations, during our 15-minute train ride. For three sets of family and friends, life will never be the same again.

Tokyo

I'm in Tokyo now! I got here this afternoon and ran into my friend on the train. What luck that we ended up on the same train!

Japan is a very interesting place with an unfortunate history. My dad is not fond of Japan, having lived here a year, in 1954-55, as a draftee of the U.S. army. 

My Chinese friends are not fond of Japan (to put it mildly), due to Japan's WWII atrocities and occupation of China. Nanjing alone saw the slaughter of 300,000 of its citizens within six weeks (starting December 13, 1937) at the hands of Japanese troops. I tell my Chinese friends that the ones who did the atrocities are probably no longer with us, but they still don't like Japan. They say Japanese are taught to hate Chinese and look down up on them. I try to encourage a positive view of Japan and throw around words like "forgiveness," but the wounds are very deep and I cannot change their minds. 

Therefore, I have no one excited that I am in Japan but me!

I like Japan's environment, because it is quiet and clean. When it rains, it doesn't create mud, it just looks cleaner. Unbelievable. 

Tokyo is modern, efficient, and interesting. Seems so odd to me that it is one of the least evangelized nations in the world. 

UPDATE:

Here's what my dad has to say about his time in Japan --

"In your blog, you mentioned that I was not fond of Japan. I really did not see much of it. I had one 3-day pass while I was stationed there at Misawa, and three other guys and I went by train to Aomori and Hirosaki (two towns near the northern end of the island Honshu, the same island you are on). We had planned to spend all our time in Aomori, but a blizzard was blowing there and we never saw anything of the town except for the train station. We decided to try Hirosaki, which was south and west of Aomori.  It took a long time to communicate with the Hirosaki station master that we needed a taxi to take us to a hotel, but we finally got to a hotel and holed up, because the same blizzard was still blowing. So, we didn't see much of either city. My main memories of Japan are snow and ice and hard cold winds and living in a tent. And earthquakes, frequent earthquakes."