Last night on the way home my train was delayed about 15 minutes. This is kind of a weird situation, because since my train runs every 15 minutes, I actually caught the train before mine at the my regular time. The only problem was that there were a lot more people on board.
When I first arrived in Japan I was astonished by how many people ride the train during rush hour. Normally it isn’t a big problem for me – I can choose my train and it is rarely crowded, but on many other commutes people face crammed trains every day. The first time I saw it I remember thinking that they wouldn’t let the train leave with this many people on board. But of course they did.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to catch a corner when an old man fearing his placement moved deeper into the train. I squeezed into the corner and watched as more and more people crammed and levered their way on the train. There is a really interesting move for only the most desperate where they turn around, push their butt into the crowd, and reach up above the door to push themselves through. Since the person is not making eye contact with the people he/she is pushing aside with their butt, there is apparently no embarrassment.
Once they get the doors closed you are surrounded by total strangers pressed against you, and all rules about personal space no longer apply. Years ago I got off a packed train with the shape of a woman’s face painted on my black jacket – her foundation had left a nice little silhouette on the side of my coat.
I’m always impressed how despite these packed conditions, people rarely get angry with each other. Even though it is a pretty stressful situation, everybody knows there is nothing to do about it but hang in there and wait for the their stop. This sense of group working together to get through a tough situation is interesting – I couldn’t imagine the same situation in America without some people getting upset/angry/threatening lawsuits.
So yesterday I got home just a few minutes later, with no makeup on my coat, and with a little deeper appreciation for public transportation. Sometimes there are sacrifices to be made, but for the most part they’ve got it figured out here in Japan.
