Kids and Japan

Something I might not have noticed had I not been trying to compare my children's slightly boisterous behavior on trains to the local norms is the dearth of children in Tokyo. Today in Ueno Park, a giant area of park and museums, a glance around a wide, wide area yielded 2 or 3 kids in total, and the random train carriage has zero. Local norms thus calculated unreliably from very small sample size still put Eliot's loud singing, infernal squirming and "I can handle it!" behavior way, way out in the tails. In fact trains and metro cars are generally completely silent. Cell phones are forbidden, and no conversation occurs either. We are comforted only by the fact that we will soon make a quick exit, and that most occupants are wearing headphones (and determinedly trying to ignore the unruliness).