Saturday, January 21, 2017
A Train Ride in Japan hr585
My main means of transportation is the train. As manners and common
sense vary in countries, I introduce here what a train ride in Japan is
like. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, it’s just atrocious especially
during the rush hours. I had had a lot of trouble when I lived in the
area. It’s almost impossible to get a ride since both the train and the
platform are packed with people. The train is full, which means in
Japan’s case that you can’t move as you’re pressed firmly against other
passengers’ bodies around you. Because I’m short and feel claustrophobia
only in a few minutes, I have to pass several trains to wait for a less
crowded one. That results in a long, inefficient travel although the
trains run every ten minutes or less. As the night deepens, the smell of
alcohol fills the train car that has more drunken businessmen, some of
whom are befuddled. It used to be common that men openly spread and read
porn magazines and tabloids in the car, but thankfully they are
replaced by smartphones now. There are women-only cars that men aren’t
allowed to get in during the rush hours. Too many cases of being groped
or molested in a crowded train car made railroad companies invent this
crazy sexism solution. I myself can’t count how many times I was touched
or saw a man expose himself in the train. When I once squeezed myself
into a packed car on my way to school, I barely got my body inside the
car but my bag couldn’t. The door closed on the handles of my bag and
left the bag outside. I rode for three minutes with my bag dangling
outside the train, swinging violently. In daytime, the murderous
congestion subsides. Instead, enters a group of housewives with large
strollers that block aisles. They ignore their children who are crying
and shrieking. Some passengers eat snacks, rice balls or sandwiches in
the train. Some eat cup noodles or lunch in a box called bento. Even
drinking alcoholic beverages is okay. But, people dart an angry look at
someone who is putting on makeup. One of major complains to railroad
companies is making up in the train. I don’t have the slightest idea
what that means. It’s acceptable no matter how drunken or how loud you
are inside the train, but not that you’re putting up makeup. I heard on
the radio show that an elderly woman complained about a young lady who
was putting on mascara in the train. Her point was she couldn’t allow a
woman to turn up the whites of her eyes in public. It doesn’t make sense
and to me, it sounds clear sexism. I almost always put on makeup on the
train for time efficiency and wage a quiet battle against other
passengers’ angry glances. With good or bad manners aside, trains in
Japan are generally safe and a murder or a robbery hardly happens. A
pickpocket steals a wallet from a drunken passenger who has fallen
asleep, or a drunk beats a conductor, that’s the maximum. If you have
carelessly left your belongings in the train, they’re found and
delivered to a station in most cases. It may be too extravagant to
complain of Japan’s trains that are well maintained, so clean, and
graffiti-free. While it’s sometimes uncomfortable to share a ride with
people whose likes and dislikes are pretty different from mine, it’d be
better to relish the difference and be surprised by it. That may help me
grow leniency. Besides, there’s no such thing as the world going round
solely by my own rules after all…
Labels:
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