Police Box (2004-11-15)
You hardly see any police walk the beat in
Tokyo.
What you do see are small police boxes known as koban in every suburb
and
outside numerous train stations. Since petty crime rate is
relatively low in Japan, the police
in a koban spend most of their time not solving crime but giving out
direction.
Yes, police stand tall at the door of koban ready and eager to help
lost pedestrians with the most sophiscated equipment, a street
map. I have sought help at a koban several times when I couldn't
find that darn address I was looking for. There was one time when
KL and I were utterly lost in a quiet suburb and there was no koban in
sight. Miraculously a policeman appeared around the corner and
walked toward us (This is a rarity because you just don't see cops on
the streets in the suburb). We quickly approached him for
help.
Without a second thought he pulled out a beat-up map under his
hat! The action was spontaneous and free-flowing, it's like he
expected people to go to him for direction. He was
able to help us at the end of course.
There are all these high-tech gadgets such as cell phones, palm
pilots and watches with global positioning system installed in them on
the market. But who needs them when you have good ol' policemen
with maps? That is, if you can find one.
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