This
was supposed to be titled "Pass on the Right" but the story
this time isn't really about the picture.... I received this
request today off the wires: "I would love to see more
scenic photos instead of people pictures."
And so I thought "Yo-kay! Comin' up!" and dived into the
photo files to grab a photo I took in the mountains a few months
back, but as I looked through photos of a trip I took to Kamakura, I
noticed this picture which I took as I zoomed down an escalator at
Tokyo Station in the fast lane - something that couldn't have been
done in 1984 when I dropped out of the sky and landed on this
island. You would get on an escalator and it would always
(always as in 99.79% of the time) be clogged up. If you were in
a hurry, you took the stairs! Now... progress has arrived and
speed demons can zoom around on the right side going up and down
escalators. (Apparently in Osaka they stand on the other side,
a practice that is said to date back to the 1970 Osaka Expo when they
developed the habit then of leaving the left side for the fast lane
for all the left-hand-drive visitors to the '70 Expo.)
Copyright 2004 - Lyle (Hiroshi)
Saxon, Images Through Glass, Tokyo