My favourite pastime in any place that I visit is to walk around exploring the place
and get to know it better. Rushed tours do not do it for me - I need to take my time
and know the place better, rather than see it pass by from the bus window.
Europe was one place I loved to explore on foot, given the pedestrian-friendly roads
and road-users. You walk around and stumble across an old church from WW-II times,
with a legend of its own. The U.S. was the biggest pain, with people looking strangely
(from their cars) at pedestrians and the roads not as safe as in EU. Japan, is also a great
place to explore on foot, given the amount of pedestrian traffic and pavements all over.
The first few days I was here, I would take short walks in the vicinity of the hotel, being
careful to not go far, for fear of getting lost. Reason being that Tokyo looks the same everywhere, with high-rises all around. So, it's easy to get lost over the ground or in the
maze that they have under the ground (subways).
I would be walking along the pavement and would hear the constant calls of a bird. I would
pause to get an idea of where the chirping is coming from and try to locate the bird, without
any success. After a minute or so, the bird would go quiet and I would walk away only to
find another one chirping happily. Again the process of looking for the bird and the same
result of failure. Hmmm, this was getting spooky.
The mystery unravelled a couple of days later, when I was at a pedestrian signal waiting
for the signal to go green for me to cross the road, along with thousands of others (Yes, the
crowds here are more than I have seen anywhere in the world - even in India). My gaze is
on the signal, and the moment it turns green, I hear the chirping sound. I am surprised by
the coincidence, yet still rush to cross over to the other side. Once there, I wait to find the
bird, as usual. The signal flickers quickly for sometime and turns red. At the same instant,
the chirping stops. Hmm.
Now I need to confirm the relation between the signal and the bird chirping. So I wait there
till it turns green again and yes, the bird chirps again. Only to stop when it becomes red.
Eager to solve the mystery, I check with my colleague 'R' who can be said to be a Japanese expert from his on-off 3-4 years spent here.
He clarifies that its actually a recorded sound played when the pedestrian signal turns green
to guide blind pedestrians crossing the road, who cannot make sense of the visual cue provided by the traffic light. I am impressed, not only by the concern for the visually challenged, but for the attention to detail. I do not remember seeing such a system in the US or EU.
Such sensitivity to the visually challenged in Japan is not limited only to pedestrian crossings. You can see special pathways (made of bumpy yellow blocks) stretching all along their metro system, pavements and government facilities to enable the blind to know their way around.
Contrast this with how we go about it in India. Every year, we have one day to celebrate
World Disability Day, when our politicians and some Page3 personalities make their usual
noises about being sensitive to the disabled, blah, blah, blah. Instead, if only we took some concrete steps like these which would actually help them in going about their daily lives.
Yeah, I know, it's easier said than done.
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