Whhooaahh craparoni, what an utterly traumatic and excruciating experience that was!!! Can you believe in five years of living in Japan on and off, yesterday was the first time I had ever taken a peak hour train in Japan.
I had two days of extra work starting at the unusually early time (for an English teacher in Japan) of 9am, so I had to leave my station at 8am. I noticed that the lines on the train platform were much longer than usual but as I was near the start of a line, I wasn't too worried about it. I got on the train which was already pretty much at capacity and managed to find a ring to hold onto. It was a sub express and I had five stops before I had to change to a local train. Well....each and every stop about two people got off and 50 more got on. We were pushed from in front, behind, beside and occasionally from underneath. An umbrella poked my thigh, an elbow nudged my shoulder, a briefcase dug into my back and a young lady being a head shorter than me, basically had her head under my chin. As the train pulled away from each station, the whole mass of humanity would tilt backwards with the force, supported only by those lucky (?) enough to have hold of something.
As I was being pushed from behind, I was forced to stand at a very unnatural angle and that along with holding my heavy bag was basically causing my leg muscles to shake. You know the way they do when you suddenly do some heavy exercise, like run up a hill full sprint? I wasn't sure if I could hold out for the five stations. I had a horrible thought, "what if I get train sick". I had nowhere to run, nowhere to throw up and definitely nowhere to hide.
At last we made it to the station where I had to change trains. I have no idea how I managed to get out. There must have been about 15 bodies between myself and the doorway to sweet sweet freedom. I think it was only for my oversized bag which I used to bulldoze a path through the pack (thank goodness for big heavy text books) and my very strong desire to not be touching 20 people at once with every appendage I own, not to mention all the other people's appendages touching me.
I crossed over to the local train which was full but at least everyone could have a handlehold. I stood and watched the young men especially employed by the train company and who only work there at peak hour, rush from door to door pushing everyone's bits and pieces that had been caught in the train doors back inside. The images of faces pressed up against the windows were no longer comedy but real and right there in front of me. I just shook my head and gave up a silent prayer that we're moving home soon.
I might think twice now before complaining about the late working hours of an English teacher in Japan. At least by starting later we get to avoid this daily distress.
I s'pose it could be worse.
In reality it was like this. Crowded Japanese Train
