Tokyo Station

Written by Lina Qazi

I knew I had to include a story highlighting the respect and helpful nature of the Japanese people. There was a moment when Hira, Marwa and I were touring the vast underground city of Tokyo Station, exploring what appeared to be a mile-long pastel rainbow of Kawaii Japanese shops, otherwise known as Character Street. Each store highlighted a unique Japanese, cartoon character, full of trinkets, stationary, keychains, fun snacks and more- every single item covered in cartoon. We all felt like a kid in a candy store and could’ve spent days in the underground city and we almost did! The place was a maze of stores, corridors, train platforms, restaurants, and hotels. While literally getting lost in character Street, we could not find our way out. We must’ve walked a good 10 to 15 minutes, turning from one corner to the next going up sets of stairs and down other stairs only to find ourselves deeper within Tokyo station. We finally went to a shop and asked the owner for directions. This guy not only left what he was doing, and not only left his shop completely unattended in the swarm of travelers, but he found a map for us and started walking us towards the exit we were looking for. I think he would’ve walked with us the whole way out, but we were concerned about his store and told him thank you and went on our way. Because of him we were able to make our way out of Tokyo Station to the exit we were looking for and didn’t have to spend the rest of our days lost wandering around Tokyo Station (which wouldnt have been so bad ;)).