kyoto's friendliest cab drivers
My family is in Kyoto for five days for my brother and sister-in-law's destination wedding1. Writing this at the end of day 2 - and so far two of the cabs I've been in have had really friendly drivers.
The first one took me and my dad from the station to our hotel, and chatted about the different areas we were driving past. He gave us recommendations for areas to visit to see the cherry blossoms at their best, and also recommended against seeing the lightshows in the evenings because of how crowded it would be. These days Kyoto is packed with tourists, who he said are 70% foreign and 30% Japanese. He seemed really proud to be from Kyoto and was also like, "People come here for 1 day and then go to Osaka the next. It should be switched!"
The second one was today, and he had just dropped off some drunk salarymen2 when he picked me and my siblings up from our dinner downtown. He asked where we were from and proceeded to tell us everything he knew about our country as best as he could! He said some things in straight Japanese but I tried to piece together what words I remembered from back when I studied and interpret in real time. He even asked us a bit about the politics in our country. And when my brother told him we were here for five days, he called him the "number one rich man" and then doubled down when we said we were here for a wedding.
It amazes me how well these guys could communicate with us despite the language barrier - them with some working English vocabulary, us with our anime or dusty stock-knowledge Japanese - and how enthusiastically they did, too. Whenever we travel, I'm always overly cautious to take exactly just enough space or say just enough to not be a bother, but I forget that some people... like interacting with foreigners. And maybe not even that - they just like the feeling of human connection, and of making it happen, in spite of everything that could prevent it. If I were to describe that feeling, I'd say it's a mix of accomplishment, solidarity, and, for some reason, hope.
I like that feeling, too. Thank you for sharing it, cab drivers :•)