Tokyo, May 10, 2013
Even though the digital age has hit us hard in the last few years and even though I have been trying my best to keep up with technology, there is something about bookstores that’s just addictive to me. I can spend hours browsing around in a bookstore and to me that’s probably the most fulfilling me-time ever. And so I struggle in countries where bookstores are nowhere to be found such as China. Guess what? I feel completely at home in Tokyo. Tokyo is not short of giant bookstores like Kinokuniya but what makes me fall in love with this city are the quaint little bookstores which can be found on every street corner, especially at high traffic areas to and from the subways.
Call me old-fashioned. I love the feeling of flipping the paper pages. And I still carry a small paper notebook and a pen around to take notes of the interesting observations, thoughts, ideas, concepts I come across every day in life. In some places, people think you’ve just come out of the Stone Age. Yet in Tokyo, it’s like coming home. People carry their books around. People get into meetings with paper notes and pens. No phones, no tablets, no digital gadgets on the meeting tables, and no checking your smart screens every 5 seconds.
What’s better than having your true presence for someone just for one moment? When you are there, that moment is eternity….
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