Train Etiquette

While being smushed on the train at 7 am this morning on my way to work on the Denentoshi Line the most phenomenal thing happened to me--someone was courteous on the train! Really. I wasn’t hallucinating from the stifling heat blowing from the air vents even though the body heat of 5,000 passengers is enough to fry your noodles into yaki soba.

When the train stopped at Mizonokuchi station 600 people stampeded onto the train whose dimensions are designed for about 40 people comfortably. As usual, before I had time to pick my feet up to move out of the way on my own accord I was swept up in the undertow of salary men, being rocked and shoved like a 17th century sailor near Cape Hope. I’ve learned to swim in the treacherous morning train seas, so I didn't skip a line of the book I was reading as the whirlpool swirled me around.

The only difference this morning was that as a Japanese man came barreling towards me from the might of 56 men pushing behind him he said, “Please excuse me.” I couldn’t believe it. I thought for a moment that I was in another country, but the familiar pressing on my ribs of school bags and elbows reminded me that I must still be in Japan. His manners made me feel like more than a cow being crammed into a cargo hold—I felt like a real person that deserved to be given a small apology for plowing into my body.

To the anonymous man on the train who knows at least three English words: Thank for saving my dignity and recognizing that not all people find it normal to be jammed into a narrow train as if testing the number of people to survive with no oxygen.

Global FFFFFFFFFreezing

I read last year in Time magazine that Japan had the cleanest air in all of Asia and the most improved air quality in the world. Living here, there are clear indications as to why Japan is deemed the forefront leader of global warming efforts.

When I lived in Fort Lauderdale, I carried a sweater everywhere I went in the summer because every building, house and car had its air conditioning cranked to sub-arctic temperatures to counteract the 180 degree sunshine outside. Even with perpetual heat-saving grace people constantly complained about how hot it was to walk from the freezing car into their frigid house.

Rotate floors to Japan where the summers are so brutally hot and humid that friends take turns spitting on each other in relay attempts at heat stroke prevention. Summer humidity in Fort lauderdale is a fresh breath of relief compared to the wool blanket suffocating you three minutes after you have stepped outside in Japan.

So, whatever, summer is summer and it's unbearable anywhere. The big difference, however, is that global warming initiatives in Japan mean that you will be publicly shunned for using your air conditioning. Government buildings are not granted to turn them on at all. My elementary school, with four stories and two wings, did not once turn on its air conditioning units located in every classroom installed in the glorious days of pre-global warming ignorance. I had to go to the bathroom every hour and give myself a sponge bath in a stall to survive.

Now it's winter and of course the heat is not being used. I wear a scarf and three sweaters inside the school all day. I was drinking literally three cups of green tea per half-hour to keep myself warm, but had to switch to hot water as my urine was flourescent green like the Hulk's.

I am proud that I live in a country that takes the environment so seriously that it actually takes action to save it rather than simply preach about change from inside an air conditioned building where the trash is not recycled and the lights stay on all night. But knowing that we are one of the only countries in the world actually giving up our comforts for the environment is tortuous.

I have more to say on the subject, but my fingers are frozen. I'm putting my mittens back on now.

My Blogging Debut

Thankfully my job gives me about four hours of spare time a day to create and update this blog site. Since I have already been living in Tokyo for over a year I am going to avoid the cliche travelogue-esque blogs to various temples and run-ins with stinky raw fish. My purpose is to open a (very small) window of insight on my daily thoughts (you don't want too wide a perspective inside my brain--trust me) and experiences living in one of the largest metroplises on Earth.

I intend to diligently blog once a day, but my attention span is the length of a a centipede's foot, so I may occasionally forget. Consider this my official blog for Tuesday, November 27th.