This week: Tokyo observations
Here is my chance to be a foreign correspondent. Well, not quite a real one. There's nothing dramatic happening around here. I am not dodging artillery shells and there isn't any risk of me stepping on a live mine. I'm writing this week's column from a coffee shop on the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo. I'm here on a personal mission - to acquire some fancy surgical equipment and to stuff my face with Japanese food.
I've been here for two days now and that isn't enough time to make any conclusions about Japan, its people and its ways. But I have seen some things I like and I am going to make some comparisons with Hong Kong that Hongkongers can appreciate.
I arrived at Narita airport and I went directly by the express train to Tokyo. I had to wait a little for the train to arrive, so I had some time to work out my train connection to the suburb where my hotel was. I stood in front of a poster displaying a bewildering array of rail lines that criss-cross Tokyo and extend out into the hinterland. Given the country's long love affair with railways, I wasn't surprised. One of the measures of success of imperialist countries during wartime was the size of its railway network.
In fact, one of the reasons for the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-95) was tension over railway tracks in Korea. After the war Russia and Japan began a race to build railway networks in China. The Russians and Japanese strong-armed the Qing dynasty to allow them to build tracks that extended all the way to Vladivostok and the Japanese to build through Korea and down the coast of China. Soon after this rail race the Russo-Japanese war began, in 1904, and the first thing the Japanese took over was a major rail junction at Yongsan-gu in Seoul.
This emphasis on the importance of the rail system led to the extensive use of rail after the war for both transport and industrialisation. This is easily seen in the rail system in place today. To put it in perspective, Hong Kong has more than 200km of railway, while Tokyo alone has more than 1,100km.
The Tokyo system took a little getting used to but I reached my destination with little trouble. During my stay I noticed that train stations were not separated by much distance, which made travel by car almost unnecessary.