Sunday Subway

I love to ride Tokyo's subways. I take a Sunday ride on the subways just like families used to take Sunday drives in the country. I wish they had a circular subway line that I could just ride all afternoon, watching and listening to the people get on and off and go about their daily business. I like reading or listening to podcasts or music while I watch the line of interesting humans seated across from me.

Twenty years ago, when I first started coming to Tokyo, everyone on the subway read small paperbacks they could stuff in a pocket, all except the men. They read manga, or Japanese comic books, some of them almost pornographic. Today, most young Japanese sit staring at games or videos on mobile phones. A few middle-aged people are still reading books. Senior citizens sit staring into space or looking furtively at the younger people in bewilderment.

I take it all in.