Waiting for the Shinkansen...

So I'm waiting on the Shinkansen platform for the next train...

I'm in the non-reserved car line which has about 7 people in it. I'm the last one in line and I'm killing time by sending a message on my phone.

It's a Sunday afternoon. Two older men appraoch the line wearing wedding suits, the standard black Japanese Model 101.

The first guy does the whole "gaijin don't exist" thing and just gets right in front of me in the line. I'd left a small space there so people could pass through, and he plugs the hole nicely.

His buddy, who does seem able to see the gaijin ghost, get in back of me in the line. I can see his body language out of the corner of my eye, not really sure what to do, kinda of shifting forward then back again.

So now I have one in front and one behind me. I'm still typing in my message on my mobile phone but mostly I'm just seeing how this all plays out. I haven't said anthying to either of them or even looked up.

What do they do? Well, they continue their conversation. With me in the middle. I'm like a big blockade standing in between two Japanese men who are having a conversation as if nothing is there at all. The guy behind me tries to position himself on the side but he's obviously a bit embarrassed by his friend and he doesn't want to be rude and go ahead of me. The guy ahead of me doesn't seem to realize that anything at all is happening. I literally think he has no clue that I'm standing in front of him (he's turned around to talk to his friend behind me).

The train comes. The guy ahead of me turns around and walks to the door. The guy behind me, who has inched up to my side by this point, makes a gesture to let me go ahead. Very polite of him.

Two very different people in Japan...

 

I don't see that being any different to me being in London/other big city when I am not wearing a suit... 6'2" guy in suit = respect, 6'2" guy in denim and gamer T-Shirt = Ignored

 

nice story and so true. an almost everyday happening!

 

Yeah, I think because courteousness is such an important part of Japanese society, whenever someone is discourteous, the difference is like night and day.

 

what i never can and also will understand, those people which every morning before 9 o'clock riding the elevator up to the 2nd floor (one above the ground floor) and sometime they're waiting more than 2 minutes for, while the stairway would take them less than 10 secs to go up there. but not enough, most of the time they enter the elevator first and half of the other 15 people who followed have to leave the elevator just to let the lazy bastard out. i really can't understand what kind of shit is going on in those brains day after day!!?

sometime i really like to kick some arses in the public!!

 

Tatsujin, I know just where you are coming from with the elevator shit. I also wonder just what on earth are these people thinking. I've seen people run like crazy pushing past others just to squeeze themselves in to the elevator to go up one F*ing floor ! I really can't stand these people. So impolite.

As for Japangames, yeah I use the train EVERY week day. Many a time I've had some twat just stand right in front of me or when everyone stands in a line waiting for the train then you get some shit thinking they can stand at the side of you then push their way in front. Well, you know what I do and this is the truth. When someone just stands in front of me I tell them that the line starts behind me in Japanese. If they still don't move (they always will though because you've just embarrassed the shit out of them) then I'll just stand in front of them.

Now, for the twats that stand at your side and push their way in I (being bigger than most Japanese) make sure they can't get past by either pushing them more to the side or if I have my umbrella I'll stick that in their way.

Yes, I may sound like a shit but nothing pisses me off more than twats pushing in line. Same goes for drivers.

Yakumo

 

My best one:
I'm in Shinjuku station, taking the elevator to go catch the NEX. Got wife & kid in tow. Wife has the little guy in a stroller thingy, and I've got a fuck load of suitcases. We're first in line, as we just barely missed the last one. By the time the elevator comes back up, there's two fat Indian ladies (dots, togas, everything) and some old Japanese farts... all lined to the side and whatnot as it's Shinjuku and it induces chaos. Doors open, my wife goes in with the kid first. I take one step and I shit you not, these old bastards fucking moved like they were getting last food... ever. I stared at my wife and kid in the very, very back and said, "I'll take the stairs".

 

And yet the ironic thing is the Japanese would be mortified if they were treated like this overseas...

 

I've noticed that too whilst waiting for a train, you stand near the little mark showing you where the door is, you stand well behind it for safety and some guy will (esp during rush hour) will pop in front of you if you leave the space, I'm sure if I sneezed he would fall on to the tracks considering how much space is left between me and him...

As for rush hour trains in the morning in Tokyo, it does seem to be every man for himself, esp trains with Women only carriages that always seem to be a lot emptier then the rest of the train that is very packed and the bastards won't wait for people to get off the train, if you wait near the doors, just letting people off there will be someone that will force past you and clamber on the train like if he doesn't he will die or something.

I also remember getting up to let some old person sit on the seat I was in, and the old person was walking to it when some salaryman pounced on it and started to read his paper. I tapped his paper and said Sumimasen and pointed towards the old person walking towards it and he gave me a drity look before getting up and disappearing up the carriage...

 

Another classic is giving your seat to an elderly person. I gave up my seat the other day to a little old lady with a stick. She acted like it was the finest thing anyone has ever done for her and the rest of the carriage looked at me like I was from another planet.

 

Well I am a member of the f-ing daily rush hour commute that takes in sweaty Shinjuku. I hate it. I actually find myself aiming to get to the station a bit late just so I don't have to deal with the most hardcore of rush-hour trains.

I find most people don't mess with me given I am usually dressed like I belong in Kabukicho or a host club (as has become my fashion of late). I am turning more Gal-O by the day.

So not many Japanese people fk with a sunglass wearing, Gal-O, Gaijin dripping in jewelry.

Thing that pissed me off recently was I was just on a normal train at lunchtime, my phone goes and it is my boss at my part-time job. So I answer it and whisper - sorry, on a train. Literally just as I say - sorry - a guy has tapped me on the f-ing shoulder and said that I shouldn't talk on the phone. It was like - give me 20 seconds, see what I am going to do. It was the fact that he was just waiting to play police man and did not give me the chance to do the right thing.

So anyway I stared the bstard down without saying a word and he got off at the next station. I sincerely hope it was not his stop.

Another thing that grinded my proverbial gears recently was I saw a women get pushed onto a train in Ginza, she ended up losing one of her high heels in the gap between train and platform. That has got to be the worst way to start a day.

But worst crime for me is seeing young people sitting, when there is someone who really needs to sit down right in front of them. Especially when that person pretends to be asleep to ignore them.

 

No, no. The worst are the fucking school kids with their bags on the seats making half the seats un-usable. Oh, in fact not just kids but half the people in Japan. What is it with these people? Bags go on the floor or you're worried about it getting dirty then on your lap or the overhead storage rack.OH:

Yes, some Japanese are right shits when it comes to train maners. In fact it also depends on the area. Where I live people wait, give way and respect older people. In Kyushu however ....... The worst ever for me though was in Osaka. I can't remember how many people I had a go at there.

Yakumo

 

Get on the train w/ your pregnant wife. Of course, only the women notice. Dumb asses.

 

At least they actually have courtesy seats for pregnant women & others. We have only a small 5x5cm sticker saying "offer this place to handycapped people" which nobody ever notices and I'm not blaming them.
It's not that nobody would offer a place to old women though.

 

damn, how i hate some of the youth here!! as in the bus i'm riding every day, the tarted up girly sitting down and next to her, of course the bag full with a load of cosmetic shit to continues with that, the time at home wasn't sufficient... while other people have to stand up!!!
but not enough, all 2 minutes the damn celly rings with one of the latest shitty j-hop tones, played as loud as just possible. then she always like:"mada basu yo!"...."hai ha~i, ato de neei.. ja neei..baiba~i..ja neeiii!!!"

at least they're not consciously criminals, just brainless dumb at some points. and actually i should be glad and shouldn't complain about such chicken-feeds, since the youth in my homecountry is 10 times the worse, if it comes up to criminal acts and such things. but how can i say, the shit which happens here is more stressful in a way. :lol:

 

I experienced a lot of the same shit when I visited a relative in Washington D.C. I had to take the Metro some place during the afternoon rush, I forget where I had to go. What ever, it's beside the point. I was at the front of the line waiting for the train. As I continue to wait for the train, some bastard businessman decides that he takes precedence. The jackass gets in front of me.

Mind you, there wasn't a lot of space between the barrier and myself. He physically FORCED me back. I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that someone would have the audacity to do that to me. There he is, acting like nothing had happened. Now, keep in mind that I'm a pretty stocky guy. I'm 6'1" and I weigh around 190 pounds. I proceed to lean over his shoulder and whisper into his ear "Hey, jackass, get to the back of the goddamn line before I do it myself." Of course, he decides to notice me now. He looked absolutely mortified. However, he does the right thing and gets to the back of the line. The train arrived shortly there after, and I was on my merry way.

 

Good on you, Atenhouse. Arse holes like that need to be told their place.

Yakumo

 

People are just plain out rude on the train and just about everywhere else here.

I couldnt count the times ive had to say "so what one of you is gonna get up off the seat to let this person sit down..."

Or the amount of absolute dickheads i deal with at work... Like telling someone a simple instruction turns into them telling me they gonna push my lights out. :shrug:

 

Well, I've had some positive experiences on trains, too - to counterbalance the nature of this thread a little bit

Talked all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo with two random businessmen sitting next to me, or rather, up to Nagoya I talk to the guy on my left, when he leaves the guy on the right starts 'I enjoyed listening to your conversation' and we had an interesting discussion afterwards.

And you gotta love Dutch night trains, they're usually packed with semi-drunk college students like myself, which is usually quite fun