Chicago - Final thoughts and images

Rainy Chicago

It was certainly an interesting visit to Chicago, a city I never expected to visit during my lifetime. Perhaps, like many cities around the world, Chicago is separated into distinct areas e.g. the downtown area with fantastic mix of old and new skyscrapers and the Latino area known as the Little Village. Chicago has a large number of ethnic communities which have remained separate in terms of location, language, and also in terms of income / quality of life.

It was somewhat surprising to discover that Chicago was much smaller than I expected, although strolling down the wide sidewalks looking at the old and new skyscrapers was certainly a memorable experience. It was such a contrast to Tokyo when every few steps you need to change direction in order to avoid walking into someone.

Typical intersection

The food was typically American - unhealthy and packed with fat. Towards the end of my stay in Chicago, I was really looking forward to returning to my normal diet. The beer was surprisingly good, perhaps due to an explosion in micro brewery production in the USA.

The last day in Chicago was perhaps the most unusual. During the day, I saw a white lady assaulting a black wheelchair bound woman. The police were called. Then during the evening, whilst I was waiting for the train in downtown Chicago, a man fell onto the railway tracks and lay there immobile. I can only assume he was wasted on some kind of drug or other. With the help of another commuter, I managed to pull him up from the tracks and back onto the train platform. He was quite fortunate he didn't fall onto the tracks whilst a train was approaching.

Stars and Stripes

The evenings were excellent, the live blues music being the most prominent highlight. I also found most Chicagoans friendly and approachable and they seemed to react very well to my Scottish accent. I spoke to a large number of people and found them very welcoming.

An eye opening visit to the United States. Perhaps if I visit the US again, I'd like to check out New York or California. Now it's time to return to reality in Japan.