Tokyo: Farewell

I spent my last day yesterday walking the streets of Tokyo. The city has changed a lot since I was last here but some things never change.

The thing that has changed the most from my point of view is how the city feels like a ghost town in many areas.

I did manage to find a Mexican restaurant that was actually quite good.

But Tokyo can’t decide between being fully cashless or cash only. Half the restaurants only want cash, the others want cashless transactions.

When I first visited Tokyo about a decade ago, I thought it was a technological marvel but now I think it’s falling behind. The Tokyo train card machines (SUICA) seems like they are the exact same devices I first used 10 years ago. I read an article that the train system is just now hoping to roll out a system where you can use any bank card (credit/debit) to pay for the train booths, most countries around the world have already deployed such a system.

A second observation is when I first came here a decade ago most of the workers we encountered at hotels, restaurants and other places were Japanese, today they seem to be foreigners from Nepal, India or other places. There is considerable backlash from Japanese people about the whole thing and you can read about it here: Record number of babies born to foreign parents in Japan.

The worst part of Tokyo now however is the barren city scape in many areas. There is a recent documentary called the Birth Gap that features Japan as a case study in demographic declines and the fallout from low birth rates.

I hope to be back in Tokyo someday but I wonder how much more it will change in the future.