Tokyo Taxi

I have written about Tokyo before and how polite the people were. Here is one story that demonstrates this:

After a night out in Roppongi (the bar district and another story altogether) we didn't realise the Subway closed and had to take a taxi back to the hotel on the other side of town. After about 45 minutes in our room, we got a call from reception politely asking if I had lost my wallet. I checked and sure enough, I had. The receptionist said that the taxi driver had brought it back to the hotel. I threw on a shirt and headed downstairs.

The taxi driver was still there and had my wallet in his hands. I thanked him and bowed deeply to him in gratitude. He said in slow but clear English that his customer had found it in the backseat and handed it to him. He bowed and passed it to me and I bowed, again gratefully. He told me to check it. I didn't want to but he insisted and I opened it quickly and gave it a cursory glance and thanked him again. Check it properly he said. Okay, fine...I checked it and he asked if everything was there. It was and I thanked him again while taking some Yen out of the wallet, he put his hand up in a sign to stop me, smiled, said goodnight, bowed again and walked away.

As I walked back to my room I was thinking. This taxi driver had a stranger's wallet handed to him by a customer in the back of his car. He completed his fare and wherever he was, drove back to the hotel. This took 45 minutes so I am guessing it was not a short trip. He had no idea what was in the wallet to begin with, no idea whether the customer had taken anything out and still stood there waiting while I checked if anything was missing, confident it would all be there and knowing that if it wasn't, he may face the blame. Yet still, he trusted his customer enough not to take anything. On top of that, he wouldn't even take a tip for all his trouble.

How many people live in such a country?

For me, this is only one of the stories that demonstrates my experiences in Japan with the locals. There are many and I will give time to a few of them soon. When I think of this story, it makes me want to be a little better in what I do and how I give because the world I want to live in is one where I would be have the integrity and generosity of this taxi driver. How about you?

Taraz
[ an original ]

The photograph is from Asakusa, nearby the hotel we stayed at and is one of my favourites from the trip.