Trying to Find What’s Good About New York — New York Stay, Day 10

During dinner, my daughter asked me a simple question:
“What was good about coming to New York this time?”

Of course, the best thing was seeing her.
Being able to visit New York for the first time, and spending time together as a family of three, mattered just as much.

Later that night, as I lay in bed, my thoughts turned to New York itself—
the most famous city in the world.

As I tried to fall asleep, I began to wonder what was truly good about New York.

Finding faults would have been easy.
Finding virtues was not.

Was it because I’ve grown more conservative with age?
Or was there another reason?

That doesn’t mean I wanted to compare New York with Japan or Tokyo.
There are countless things Japan does better—but New York, too, has its own strengths.

The first is its openness.
New York accepts everyone.

In this melting pot, there are people of every kind imaginable.
Beauty and ugliness seem irrelevant here.
Americans, people of African descent, people from Asia—faces upon faces upon faces.
In that crowd, I felt a quiet pride in my own East Asian, Japanese face.

The second is how compact the city feels.

I haven’t seen all of it—only as far north as the middle of Central Park, mostly in the southern half of Manhattan.
Even so, what struck me was how places of extreme wealth stand just steps away from neighborhoods where safety feels uncertain.

One could simply call it inequality.
And indeed, the contrast is unmistakable.

As a tourist, I can walk almost anywhere without much concern.
But ride the subway just a few stops, and the people around you change completely.
It’s not a matter of which place is better or worse—
only a question of where one would choose to belong.

Naturally, there is an abundance of things.
More than enough—perhaps far more than necessary—are consumed, traded, and discarded every day.
If you have money, you can obtain almost anything.

On the menu of a stylish restaurant, wines under one hundred dollars sit calmly beside Romanée-Conti.
For concerts and musicals alike, moving just a little farther away can mean a difference of a hundred dollars.

For those who are eager to push themselves forward,
this may not be a bad place.

But for those who are not—
New York can be a difficult city.

 

In New York, you hear sirens constantly, and they usually belong to NYPD patrol cars.

The NYPD plays a vital role in maintaining public safety, and on the side of each patrol car are the words Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect. These words reflect a strong sense of responsibility toward the citizens they serve.

Even in a place where gun-related homicides are an everyday reality, the police seem to function as a familiar and approachable presence in the community.