Walking the Streets

Walking in Japan is the simplest thing in the world, if you learn one important detail: stay to the left. The Japanese drive and walk on the left, so when you step onto the street, look right for oncoming traffic. Traffic engineers make walking easy by showing you where to go:

Every street in Tokyo and Kyoto (at least) has a yellow line down the center. Keep to the left and you'll be fine. Well, mostly. If the street isn't crowded, people will ignore the line, but it does serve as a guide.
Turns out that there's an additional reason for the line. It's raised rubber that can be felt with a cane; the theory is that if you're blind, the yellow line shows you the center of the sidewalk. And although I didn't see anyone using a cane, it makes some sense.
I also saw, in a new building, a yellow line in the corridor. I think it lights up if the power goes out, providing an illuminated pathway in the event of an emergency.

Tokyo can get crowded. There are, after all, 13 million people in the city.

(By the way, I like the clock on the building)

One pedestrian crossing is supposed to be the busiest street crossing in the world. I'm a little skeptical; I figure New York must have some pretty busy crossings. But I had to check it out, the Shibuya Crossing:

It's sometimes called "The Scramble."

There is never a conflict between pedestrians and cars. Pedestrians always have the right of way and cars always yield to pedestrians. Sounds normal, but it doesn't work that way in the US, or at least in Boston. As a pedestrian, I never know for certain, that a car will stop for me, even in a crosswalk, so I hesitate, sometimes signaling the driver to go ahead. But the driver tries to be nice and signals me to go first. Maybe I trust him, maybe I don't. It's a dance that on the surface seems like everyone's being polite, but we all know we really don't trust the other. This "dance" never happens in Tokyo, where all crosswalks have signals, no one jaywalks, and cars always wait for the pedestrian.

 

Umbrellas

When it rains, umbrellas sprout like mushrooms. Everyone has an umbrella. Everyone. We stood out like sore thumbs with with our hats and rain coats. One stranger tried to give us his umbrella, which would have left him without one.
There's a cheap clear plastic umbrella that goes on sale as the first drops fall. People buy them, and after the rain ends, they accidentally leave them on subways and in bathrooms. I imagine that the shop owners walk around and collect the abandoned umbrellas and sell them the next time it rains. You could say that people rent umbrellas for an afternoon.

Outside museums you can lock up your umbrella for safe-keeping

Sometimes people carry the umbrella thing a bit too far. More than once, we saw people carrying umbrellas when it wasn't raining. Okay, I can imagine doing it to protect from the sun. But then we saw people with umbrellas when it wasn't raining...at night:

More than one:

(Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of a black umbrella at night?)

 

Police Officers

And if there's ever a concern for pedestrian safety (like in a construction zone), there's a police officer helping direct.

He (and he's always a "he") is dressed in a reflective vest with a short red baton to wave people or cars along. But what's really cool, is that at night, the batons light up...

...and suddenly, they're armed with light-sabres! And they wave them around just like they're in a duel. (They always seem to win!) And if they ever tuck their light-sabres into their belts, it looks just like a samurai sword.

 

Construction zones

Speaking of construction zones, you've got to love it when they put bunnies to work:

And they really want you to see their construction workers with moving arms:

And at night...

 

Bicyclists

I do have to mention bicyclists. In Kyoto, especially, there are cyclists everywhere, because much of the city is flat. Unfortunately, they seldom ride on the street: they're on the sidewalk. Some sidewalks have marked bike lanes next to the marked pedestrian walkways, but mostly it's just a free-for-all.

There are bicycle parking lots. (This is a small one.)

People almost never lock their bikes. One side effect is that people don't lock their bikes to lamp posts and railings, but instead leave their bikes with all the other bikes.
And in some cases, it's clear that bikes are the preferred mode of travel:

(Don't ask me how they get the car parked in that garage.)

Finally, what do you suppose bicyclists do when it rains? They carry umbrellas:

And yes, some will ride full-speed while carrying an umbrella!