Train Station Survival Skills

If you live on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you may experience a culture shock as you walk into a Tokyo train station.  Depending on the time of day, the station may be filled with an endless sea of people wearing black and white.  CNN reports that "24 million passengers use the Tokyo rail and subway network every day."  We avoided riding the train and subway during rush hour periods, but we learned this the hard way. . . .

We've all seen pictures and video of train attendants pushing and shoving people into the train right up until the last second before the doors close.  One morning in Shin Yokohama we decided to get on the train at 8:00am.  As we were walking on, I thought to myself, "Can we all fit?"  The six of us quickly walked into the already crowded train.  After we got on, about 20 more people got in and suddenly we found ourselves pressed up against each other.  My husband was standing on one leg and my dad stood at a diagonal angle.  I hugged my oldest daughter close, while my mom hugged the little one.  The most awkward part of the trip was that everyone stood there in complete silence.  After a minute went by, my mom started to chuckle quietly and then my daughter started laughing.  It was the longest 6 minutes to the next station and the whole time all I could think was, "How are we going to get out of this train?"  At the next stop we all jumped out and burst into laughter.  Needless to say, that was the most told story of the trip. 

After that experience, we made sure we caught the morning train at around 9 or 9:30 and we were back at our hotel area no later than 4pm.  Although it was a memorable experience, we didn't want to repeat the feeling of being squeezed to death. 

Shinagawa Train Station:

https://vimeo.com/201809849

The Japanese people do not have lively conversations while riding the train.  In fact, almost everyone is on their phone, silent mode of course.   I never saw anyone actually speaking on their phone, never heard a cell phone ringing, and there was never the constant binging of a text message coming in.  If they're not on their phone, most people sleep as they sit in their seats.