I went to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. As I looked out over the city, I felt a mixed sense of fear, loneliness, and luckiness. I seldom see Tokyo from above, and it's easy to forget that it's such a massive city. It's a city that houses about 9 million people just in the center and whose metro area is home to roughly 35 million people.
When you look out on the city, you don't see any of those millions of people. You see buildings.
Some interesting buildings.
Mostly boring ones.
Some famous buildings.
Mostly unknown ones.
Regardless of its traits, the fact remains that from above, Tokyo is an endless landscape of mainly anonymous buildings.
And somehow that scared me. And made me feel alone.
When I'm down in the city, I don't have that sense of fear. Though I still feel a bit lonely sometimes. There are so many people. So many people with no connection to me aside from the place we exist in at that moment. I don't know their names. I don't even take note of their faces. Neither do they me. It's a weird sense to be surrounded by people but feel alone.
So how do I survive this city of seeming solitude?
Why did I feel lucky looking out on such a place?
I have amazing people in my life. It's as simple as that.
Even in such a huge city where there are more strangers in a single day than people you'll know in your entire life, connections are made. People become friends. People fall in love. People start families. People become connected. And parts of those connections become tied to other people.
I used to think Tokyo was just a sea of people. But it's more like a web or net, isn't it? I may not be linked to you directly, but maybe I'm connected to someone who is. Or maybe I'm connected to someone who is connected to someone who is connected to you. Whatever the case may be, somehow we're all connected.
I've had moments of loneliness in Tokyo. But I know how lucky I am to have both found special people and to have been found. It amazes me to think that one lucky chance can bloom into something amazing. But it scares me to think that because of the sheer number of people and the annonimity that comes with it, the odds of those chances seem so low.
But I find it comforting to realize that a web of people increases those odds.
And I find it very fortunate that the odds were in my favor, and I've had that kind of chance.
