As a part of the inaugural JAL jumbo flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, we had been booked at the new Hotel New Otani. After a delightful lunch at the Rose Gardens, we took the elevated monorail to Tokyo Central, from where we would take the tube to our hotel. We were discussing whether it would not be better to get down at an earlier station, from where the hotel should be closer. However, we could not locate anyone who understood English. Suddenly a young school girl–perhaps 10 or 12 years old–got up from her group, came up to us, curtsied and in halting English asked us to disembark at the next station. She even volunteered to help us get a taxi for the short ride to the hotel. Gratified by her gesture, we followed her out of the train. She called three cabs and gave instructions to the drivers. Out of politeness I asked her if one of the cabs could drop her at her house. Her answer really floored us. “No, I thank you - I go back–take next rain to my station.” Can you imagine this - a young kid leaving her school group and train, to help out strangers - in any other country?
On another occasion, I was roaming around the Shinjuku area looking for a particular store. I stopped two teenagers and showed them the slip of paper on which I had written the store’s name. Very apologetically they shrugged and showed their ignorance, all the time saying ‘sorry’ (it took me a little time to figure that they meant ‘sorry, when they were saying ‘solly’). A few minutes later I heard some one calling out ‘Sir, Sir’. I looked back to find the same boys running up to me, all smiles, and bidding me to stop. I was amazed when one of them said “We telephone–we find your store–we show you.” They beckoned me to follow till we reached the store I was looking for. “Sorry, we did not know first,” was their parting sentence, leaving me completely stumped with their ‘painstaking decency’. In yet another encounter, it was a taxi driver who was simply too good. I wanted to visit the Taiwanese consulate for a visa. The hotel bell captain wrote out the address in Japanese and asked me to give it to the driver. This place was located in some God-forsaken crowded area, and with the ‘funny’ street numbering system –or the absence of it–there was no way I could have found the place on my own. The taxi driver saw the address, nodded affirmatively and started. Throughout the half hour that we were on the road, going through a million turns and intersections, he must have spoken to his office on the radiophone at least twenty times, always looking at the address slip and obviously making enquiries. Not once did I notice any hint of annoyance on his face. In fact, there was a big grin when he finally pulled up and pointed out the small board in an old office block. I thanked him, saw the meter and handed over enough yens to cover a generous tip. Trying to open the kerbside door, I realized that it was locked. My good man turned back, smiled and motioned for me to wait. Only after he had fished out the exact change from a conveniently hung bag in front and handed it over to me, did he unlock the doors, indicating a firm no to the tip… instead bowing a hundred times! A friend tells me of yet another pleasant experience. He had lost his handbag, which contained his passport, money and tickets, while on a shopping trip. His frantic call to the Indian embassy received a cool response; they asked him to just leave his contact number. Surprisingly, the embassy called back within half an hour. Someone had found the bag, seen the Indian passport and called the embassy to tell them from where it could be collected. There was nothing missing…not even from the cash.
There are numerous such cases of the Japanese sense of concern for others, their helpful nature, their disdain for gratuities and tips and their desire to go out of their way to help others – especially foreigners. Their total dedication to work and commitment to quality and excellence, is also legendary. All this co-exists with their hard-nosed, stubborn attitude at negotiations and an almost ruthless business and national zeal - which only further builds up their enigma to the rest of us lesser mortals. I do believe that their human traits are equally responsible for all that they have achieved.
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