Daily Travel and the Shinmatsudo Incident

So I am hoping that you are all well aware that Japan has trains. Not just any trains. Very efficient trains. In fact, I would go as far as to say that these trains are probably one of the biggest money makers in Japan. Sure, it may only be a few bucks to get a ticket. But that's just one way and it adds up very quickly.

They have some the most elaborate train system I've ever seen. (Not that I've seen a lot of train systems) It certainly puts the trains in Salt Lake City to shame. But at the train stations they have big maps with the station names on them. Then the price of the ticket next to the name. Then you use the kiosk to buy a ticket and you're on your way.

But there's a problem. There are like a billion different train lines with like a gajillion different stations (a slight exaggeration) and I don't know how to read the Japanese Kanji. Which, fortunate enough for me, it's all written it. Take a look at Tokyo Metro.

So yeah. I'm confused. When buying a ticket you must go to the correct kiosk that provides the correct train line. If you need to switch trains you have to buy a ticket that transfers you to the correct line. Although there is a English option on the kiosk, it only applies to one part of the screen. Once you press a different button it goes back into Japanese and there is no English option.

Awesome. (much sarcasm)

It's all a little bit confusing to me and I still don't fully understand it. It is at this point I'd like to introduce to you the coolest card in the world.

This is the Suica card. It's one of the two types of train passes you can use. Mine is a monthly pass that will get me from Kita-Kashiwa to Jinbocho free! At the stations there are gates that you have to pass through. If you have a ticket you have to put the ticket through said gate. But with this card, all I have to do it tap the top of the machine and it lets me in. And when you leave the station you go through another gate so it has a starting and finishing point.

You can also put money on this card so that if I go outside pre-agreed limits, it will automatically charge me the correct rate of which train I took. That way I don't have to know how much the ticket cost or which train line it goes on or which transfer ticket I need to buy. It figures out where I went automatically and charges me. It's quite a relief.

Another cool thing about the card is that there are vending machines in stations that will accept a Suica card. So if you're waiting for a train and you're thirsty, all you do is tap your card on the vending machine and select what drink you want and it will take away from the money you have added on to it.

I don't know if you've seen movies or anime where they travel on the trains in Japan. But if you have, it's just as crazy as they make it out to be. The trains are almost a block long and have maybe about 10 cars attached to them. Hundreds of thousands people need to use these trains each day. And if you miss a train, just wait three minutes and another will come.

But what amazes me is that despite how big the trains are, and many of them come every few minutes is that you still don't have a lot of room on the train. I will be standing in one car with maybe about 100 other people or so when I get to a certain station then all the sudden a rush of people flood the train. Leaving me squished up against the door. There was one day I wish I someone had a camera on the outside of the train so they could take a picture of me with my face pushed up against the glass as the train passes by.

However there is one thing that amuses me. There is apparently a bad groping problem on those trains. After riding those I can see how that can happen. So from about 7 to 9 in the morning they have women only cars. I'm glad my friend told me about these women only cars. As he told me the story about how he got onto a when it was time for women only and received a barrage of women staring daggers at him.

Lateness is not well accepted in Japan. A train is rarely late and if it is, the conductors at the station hand out what's known as 'chienshomu'. An excuse ticket. That way if you're late to school or to work because of you're train, you have a legitimate excuse. From this I'm going into the...

SHINMATSUDO INCIDENT

(Shinmatsudo)

You're probably not aware, but it's typhoon season in Japan right now. Although the worst has past, they've been showing footage on the news of some of the worst typhoons that have hit Japan. In the footage they had people being blown over and pushed around by the really strong wind. They wanted to take precautions to avoid any disasters that might occur. But they decided to wait until I was in Shinmatsudo. Which is miles away from anything for me.

So I wake up like normal. Take a shower, get dressed, ride my bike to the train station, and get on the train. For whatever reason it was particularly crowded that day and I wasn't certain why. But we head off with me being cramped in a corner, waiting to my station so I can be set free. However we arrive at Shinmatsudo and the train stops. An announcement goes on the overhead but I can't understand what it's saying.

People start waltzing around, making phone calls, and slowly start disappearing. I have no idea what's going on until my friend text me saying that he's a Shin-Funabashi and it's the same thing. They trains are stopped due to strong winds.

Well that's great. (more sarcasm)

Shinmatsudo is too far for me to walk home and it's too far for me to walk to my school in Jinbocho. I'm stuck for as long as the winds want to blow. Which is apparently 5 hours. The trains start moving again about 20 minutes after my class finished. With nothing better to do I go to the school and see if this will affect my attendance record since it was well beyond my power to get to school.

And it does. I was marked down as absent.
It was a frustrating day.

-Blake
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