City of 可憐

I was in Tokyo for 5 days (from 19th to 23rd Apr) for an official trip. I stayed in the Shinjuku Prince Hotel, which was right within the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Says alot really when the Shinjuku train station is the busiest train station in the world. As the trip was confirmed at the very last hour, we made our own arrangements for travel to and flo our destinations, and meals as we didn't want to impose on our hosts (Japanese are well known in wanting to confirm arrangements way in advance due to their extremely busy schedules). That means jumping right into the hustle and bustle of the Tokyo citizens! After 5 days of rush, stress and suffocation, my colleague and I came to the conclusion that Tokyo people are super pitiful. The following are some of the points to prove that:

- Japanese men will go home late. Even if they get off work early, they will stay back near their office to play pachinko or go pub to drink... so that their wives will not think they are incompetent, thus not much work dished out to them from their bosses

- Even their entertainments are torturous! Pachinko arcades have to be the noisest places (I could not stand even 1 minute in them without going deaf). Also, their local drinking places are pathetically small and hardly anyone talk to one another when drinking (wah lau eh!)

- Seating spaces in restaurants/eateries are mostly so small that it almost induce claustrophobia in us (to think we as firemen are supposed to be immuned as we may need to work in confined spaces)

- An average working person will stay about 1 1/2 hour from office. And to think they mostly get home close to midnight and wake up at 5plus to get to work. No wonder theres so many of them dozing off in trains, even though theres hardly any room to breathe in the cabins! Also, explain their super low birth rate

- One is considered a failure if one is sacked/resign from a company. So, no matter what, many Japanese have to endure their bosses and working environment.

- Even though Tokyo is so advanced, there is still a shocking lack of escalators. I personally was ok with that but if one is like my colleague, who is still recovering from leg break, you can imagine the PAIN he went through.

- Ultimate: When we were trying to get across a road at a cross junction, we could not believe that we had to cross a "U" shaped overhead bridge that cuts across all the other 3 roads of the junction just to get to the other side (get the picture?) Wah! My colleague went from cursing to laughing non-stop...such was his flabbergastation. Hahahahha

So, they are really really pitiful...

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!