Wow, Tokyo was nothing close to this for me. I only visited for two weeks but I was SURROUNDED by helpful people.<p>For example, on my second day there, right after getting off at my stop, I realized that I lost my phone on the bus. I waited at the stop and asked the bus driver on the next bus how I could retreive it. I speak zero japanese and he spoke no english. He asked over the speaker if anybody spoke english. A young girl came to the front and interpreted. He gave me a number to call.  Then I gave the number to the woman at the front desk of our hotel. She said that the driver would DELIVER MY PHONE TO ME in the morning, and what time would I like to get it. I was flabberghasted. sure enough it was delivered the next morning.<p>That is only one example of the two weeks I spent in a city with the  kindest and most helpful people I&#x27;ve ever met.  I have so many examples of people going out of their way to help me in Tokyo.<p>I lived in Finland for years and your description sounds closer to their culture, but even then they were not as cold as you describe, but just very hesitant to help.