Shitamachi

We got into the taxi as we walked out of the Hama Rikyu gardens. Beautiful gardens right in the center of Tokyo with skyscrapers towering over the manicured trees.

He pulled in very enthusiastically as if he were happy to see us. His seat colours were different. I thought that he was a kojin taxi, but no, it was just that his company is small.

His company was based an hour outside of the city in the countryside on the border of Saitama prefecture. Every day he came into Tokyo to work.

He had only been working as a taxi driver for two weeks.

For the last 12 years, he worked as a driver for an executive, actually the owner of a company.

Up early in the morning, on call until late at night as the executive went to meet clients.

The driver didn't develop a friendship with the owner. Of course, he answered questions about himself when appropriate, but he was never allowed to enter into the state where he could talk freely about his own life. It was all about the owner.

The owner was a difficult man. Before he had started doing the driving, other drivers had done it. Each quit after two or three months. They just couldn't take working for this guy. He was 'muzukashii' - a difficult man. Not 'chotto muzukashii', a polite version which toned it down.

He would lose his temper over tiny things and shout at the driver. Before the driver started this job, he knew about this. He had thought about it very seriously and wondered whether he could take it. Finally, he decided that by taking the job he could learn something important.

So did you learn anything? (benkyo ni natta ka?)

Yes, I learned that there are different kinds of people and different ways of thinking.

I asked him, "If you were reborn, would you like to be the driver again or to become the owner. Obviously, he had lots of money".

He started talking about shitamachi and I thought that he had misunderstood my question. He explained the meaning of shitamachi. It literally means 'downtown', but it usually means the poorer areas of a city. He said in New York, it would be ... I finished his sentence for him, "Harlem, the black areas".
- Yes, that's right. In shitamachi, people have bigger hearts and more empathy with other people. In the tokai (the city), people only care about themselves. In shitamachi, if someone else is crying or upset, they try to help them.

I began to understand what he was saying. He was clearly from a poorer background himself.

- "Was the owner happy," I asked

- No, not at all.
This time, his answer was very clear.
- He didn't care about anyone else but himself. He didn't even care for his wife and children. If he believed something, that was all that mattered. He didn't care about anyone. If I were reborn, I'd like to have the same life, with the heart of shitamachi.

As we reached Tokyo station, a huge railway station at the heart of one of the biggest most impersonal cities in the world, we wished each other luck in developing the big heart of shitamachi.