Sidewalk Zen:I can’t remember how long it took me to figure out the trick to walking the crowded sidewalks of Osaka without bumping into any of the other 16 million people in the region. ( I lived in Japan for 365 days in ’93/’94.) But I can tell you that the solution did not come naturally.
The instinct is to play it like a video game: take matters into your own hands, own the responsibility yourself to navigate and dodge bogies. Makes sense, right? After all, are we not responsible for our selves and our trajectory? If you want something done right, do it yourself, non?
The thing is that this approach has a number of disadvantages. The first being that it doesn’t work. It causes frustration and confusion not just for yourself, but also the hundred thousand fellow sidewalk folk you will encounter on any given day. Awkward incidents, lots of contact, plenty of irritation all around. Not cool. It is also a needlessly exhausting tactic. Because you’re over-clocking you adrenal glands trying to control your sidewalk destiny. The chemical result is that you’re wiped after about 20 minutes. Adrenalin is designed to be used for those very intermittent and brief “fight or flight” moments. Not for merely getting around town.
The solution is counter-intuitive. It requires a different understanding of what the problem is. You see, if you approach the problem like the trick is to avoid bogies, the reality will be hidden from you. Because the reality is that other people are not the bogies. The reality is that YOU are the bogie. You are the foreigner. So there is no social expectation for you to have any understanding of the subtle body language of sidewalk manoeuvring. So it is you who is the obstacle.
A tough pill to swallow, but if you can get there, the sidewalks open up like the Red Sea for Moses. Abandon the responsibility to avoid others. Be the bogie. Don’t worry about other people. Look around, check your phone, talk to your friend, look in shop windows, be a space case. Everyone will avoid you. Have faith. It works: you could close your eyes and nothing would touch you for miles. There is a system and you have a role within it whether you choose to clue into it or not. If you do clue in and accept the role, life becomes instantly easier. But if you’re convinced that you will be the one to fight the system, because of some Western notions of self-accountability, it will be a tough go.
Learning this trick was liberating, and symbolic. And a reminder that the way we look at the problem *is* the problem. ♦
