I love Tokyo…it’s a mix of las vegas, new york city and the future. There is a riot of color everywhere I look, along with masses of people politely going about their day. People stand in line, wait their turn and are never rude. This is something quite different from what I’d expect from such a large, congested city. Technology abounds as well. Large screen displays that are crisp, clear and distracting decorate tall buildings. Neon signs crawl up every available inch towards the sky. Lights move, music plays and characters dance, all in effort to grab attention and draw people near.

Shopping is simply overwhelming. I don’t even know how to explain it. Jammed packed? Every inch of space in any stall, on any shelf is packed with color and goods. Yet the space is skillfully used. Items are actually easy to find and navigating through streets or department stores somehow feels easy and well organized. Well, except for the fact that streets are not named. Now that is strange. But explains why maps, train schedules, etc on cell phones or printed from a PC is critical.

We visited Au showplace and DoCoMo’s future lab. Au has astounding phones! Music plays when you open the phone and the cameras blew me away. I found that many use their phones for photos since the quality is so good, yet still use their iPods for listening to music. Mmmm. At DoCoMo we got to play with video cell phones where we had up to 8 people doing live video conferencing. Working code, great experience – they’re phone development cycle is a new phone every 6 months. We also saw Assimo the robot walk and talk. I thought I was going to pass out from how advanced the technology is here.

So my favorite moment in Tokyo was when we went to a park and shrine built to honor the passing of the Samurai and the beginning of modern Japan. It was breathtakingly beautiful with such a presence of history. There was a wonderful wishing tree, where people write their wishes on a piece of wood and hang them on the wall protecting the tree. I found many, many wishes is languages from all over the world. As I approached the actual temple, an elderly man stood in the door for quite some time looking inside. I didn’t know if it was polite to enter yet, so I waited. After a moment, he sighed and bowed deeply towards the ground. He held this bow for a bit and then turned to leave. I don’t know what it was about this moment, but I cried. It was something about the stillness, beauty and great honor in his bow.