Japanese trains
This is a topic I’ve wanted to do for a while now and I’m going to do a speech about it in class next week. Might as well jump on the bandwagon and write it down in my blog. In Sweden, going by train is a pretty simple and nice thing. You make a reservation for a seat and you just go. Sometimes on shorter distances you don’t have or can’t reserve seats. If you don’t make a reservation and just jump onto the train and buy a ticket from the conductor you might get a seat for a while, but if someone has reserved that spot you have to give it up once that person gets on the train.
If I’m not completely mistaken, you can only reserve seats for the Shinkansen (Bullet train type) in Japan while the regular ones you have to literally fight your way inside the train in order to get an open seat. If you’re working in Tokyo but live outside in another prefecture, you still need to fight for the seats. If you don’t get a seat during the rush hour, you’re pretty much done for and have to stand for the rest of the trip. Hell, I don’t even possible to get a seat unless you’re getting on the train on the first station. I remember two years ago when I was here during the summer. I went to a language school in Tokyo but lived with my grandparents in Ibaraki-ken. It took about 1 hour from Ushiku station to Takadanobaba. Fortunaly, I mostly had my classes on the afternoon so I didn’t have to worry about the rush hour, but there were some mornings I did have to worry about them and it was chaos.
Now when I live inside Tokyo and have to go to school on the morning it’s like going to war. Some days are worse than others but the most irritating thing is that it’s getting colder outside but as soon as you step inside a train it gets hot as a cooking pot. I usually have my jacket with me, but I have it in the bag cause in a train full with people it’s irritating to have more luggage than necessary.
So, war you ask? The only place where there’s a subway and it’s in Stockholm and not even that can be compared to the mornings here. Ok, it’s not THAT bad, but if a Japanese takes a manin densha in Stockholm, he or she will probably feel that it is 20% full (creds to Mikael for all the data collection) and go like ”Oh there are so many spots here and there left in this train”.
The manin densha in Tokyo, however, don’t have even have one decimeter to spare. Once you’re inside squeezed between all the people you’ll have to stick to that spot, shut up and focus on not to swing to much from the trains irregular movements. Fortunaly you don’t have to worry about falling down since you’re surrounded by human cushions, and they most likely think the same way about you.
Now, where to put your hands when you’re in a train like this? There’s a thing called ”chikan” in Japan which means molester. As far as I know, I’ve never seen one or heard of any at all since I got here. Most people try to keep their hands occupied by holding them high, holding their bags, hold on to the supporter ring (I’ve no idea what to call them, but they’re the ones hanging down from the above which you can hold onto so you don’t tumble) or something like that. The higher up you hold your hands, the better so to speak. Because if you hold your hands below your belt and are unlucky, I’m guessing that you can be misunderstood for being a molester.
During rush hours, some of the train cars are for women only, which is a great idea but most train cars are for both sexes. I usually hold either both my hands on my bag or one hand on the bag and the other in the support ring or if possible both hands in the ring.
There’s also something holy about the Japanese trains. The Japanese people tend to be very quiet on the trains. In fact so quiet that it’s almost embarrassing to have your iPod running. I usually lower my volume when I enter a train just because I’m afraid I’ll make too much noise. Of course, if there are friends inside the same train they make conversation, but usually it’s not that loud. However, when westerners step into the train that section of the train becomes like a farm. Westerners tend to talk alot and it’s especially notable in trains where most Japanese are quiet. Of course, as a westerner myself it’s hard not to talk but I try to do it in a low voice or not at all. The train is like a sanctuary to the Japanese and most of the time when they sit down they sleep. I hardly see anyone sleep on the subway in Stockholm. The train is also the perfect place to check blogs, other home pages and your mail. Since most people go by train pretty far it’s another good way to spend their time if they don’t have a seat.
There’s also a few things that are pretty much different in some Japanese trains. There’s alot of advertisement. In Stockholm’s subway trains there are a few ads, but in Japanese trains they’re everywhere. And on top of that, there’s no limit to what kind of advertisement they can put up either. The most bizarre ads I’ve seen are the pornography ads. Funny thing is that the Japanese doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all or at least not on the outside.
One of the things which is “annoying” about Japanese railway is that there are like a hundred different lines. Of course most of them go to the bigger hubs such as Shinjuku and Ueno but there are so many lines to keep track of, where they go, which stations the different types of trains stop at and so on. There are usually local, rapid and express trains but in some cases even rapid-express. You have to be careful not jumping on the wrong train, because rapid and express trains don’t stop at every station. Thus it’s necessary to keep a look out for which one to take. The safest way to go is by local of course, but it takes longer time since it stops at all stations.
