Bilal Maqsood recalls Tokyo encounter that became 'kindest moment' of his life

Bilal Maqsood recently shared a heartwarming story from his recent trip to Japan that restored his faith in humanity.

The singer and his wife were at Tokyo's metro station on their first day in the city. They accidentally took the wrong exit and quickly realised they couldn’t re-enter through the electronic gate.

Maqsood recounted the experience in an Instagram post, saying, “We quickly realised we’d turned the wrong way and tried to re-enter through the electronic gate, but it wouldn’t let us. After all the research and YouTube videos about Japan’s metro system, I never thought we’d get stuck, but it happened.”

Stranded in a quiet hallway, Maqsood approached an elderly Japanese man who could not speak English, but he understood their situation. “I hurried over, apologetically, convinced he wouldn’t speak English. And yes, he didn’t. But he understood we were stranded. With a warm smile and a hand gesture, he asked us to wait, repeating the gesture two or three times, then powered off and disappeared.”

Just moments later, the man returned with a station officer who spoke fluent English. The officer explained what they needed to do, while the kind man stood by, smiling. “When everything was sorted, we bowed and thanked him two or three times (Japanese style). But he waved that off, ‘come, come, come,’ still smiling and personally guided us to our platform.”

As the couple boarded the train, the kind stranger pointed out the train and made sure they got on. “We bowed again, jumped in, and when we turned back he was still standing there, smiling and waving. We waved; he waved back. We waved again; he waved again. Doors closed. He was still there, waving and smiling and kept waving till the train started moving.”

Maqsood described the experience as “one of the kindest human moments” of his life.