I guess in a densely populated island country, consideration for others is as much a matter of survival as that of civility. Commuter trains packed with workers are silent for the most part, the press of humanity seems strange without the accompanying tension of loud voices on phones, people talking annimatedly, or music blasting the eardrums of nonchalant teens.

Tokyo rush-hour

not even the sound

of a car horn

©️Sbwright2023

My second school trip to Fuji and my colleague had managed to find a 3 star hotel with 5 star views of the mountain across Lake Kawaguchi. We arrived in the evening, Fujisan a deep blackness against the sky.

rising early

five star views

of fog

Nothing really prepares you for the immensity of a city the holds 30 million people. On the fifth floor of a YMCA building in central Tokyo, I gaze out the window, straining to find a feature beyond the mass of concrete and glass.

Tokyo skyline

as far as the eye can see

buildings on buildings

©️sbwright2023

The trick, I told myself, was to laugh at those embarassing memories of my teenage years that always seemed to ambush me unawares. Laughing at them, at myself, seemed to create some persepctive.

my teenage years

all the thickheaded things

not caught on camera

©️sbwright2023