PACKED TRAINS!!

I've always wanted to blog this. The train traffic during rush hour here is すごい! When my Japanese language teacher told me that in Singapore, I could hardly imagine how amazing it was. After all, I've taken the New York subway, the London tube and Singapore MRT during rush hour too, what can amaze me further?

Well, you have to try it for yourself, and as much as it amazes me, we all hate it. My friends who came to visit me in Japan all said the same thing when I asked them why they hated Tokyo, "The trains are too damn packed!", "The city is too crowded". This is all thanks to poor urban planning according to an architect friend.

The standing area between seats usually has 3 rows of people, and the place next to the door is packed like sardines. When people need to get off and you're standing somewhere there, you'd be SHOVED out of the train, pretty roughly I might say. If Japanese are known for their politeness, everything dissipates into thin air on the trains. See them rush for the seat like hyenas pouncing on their prey. People pretending to sleep when needy people come along. Trains full of drunkards at night tipping left and right. Shoving and pushing to get on the train. Worst of all, molesters out to take advantage of the situation to feel ladies all over without getting punished. =(

Jammed pack on the platform.


Squeezing onto the train. Even ladies do it, leaning the body-weight against the person behind so you make a space for yourself. By the way, after I took this picture and before the door closed, 3 more people squeezed into this cabin.


Inside the sardine-packed train.


Slack.