Trains, Trains, Trains!!! Toot toot.

So I have a collection of train stories. They seem to be the best ones.

-Yesterday, someone jumped in front of my train and we subsequently stopped for 40 minutes while they cleaned up. I am SO glad I wasn't in the front of the train to witness that. God, how scarring that must be for the other people on the platform. It was funny though, at first I thought the announcer said it was because of a "Jishin" (Earthquake), but he actually said "Jinshin" (Person accident). Damn Japanese and it's words that sound exactly alike! So I went around the whole day being like "Did you guys feel the earthquake this morning?" Only to get confused looks. And then today was it pointed out to me.

-(Not exactly a train story, but a transportation story).

Remember how there’s that guy who I usually sit behind and he turns and stares at me for like 10 minutes straight? Maybe I didn't mention that. Well today I made the mistake of sitting in FRONT of him. So the whole ride, he kept whispering “Ohayoo gozaimasu” (Good Morning) right behind me. At first, I thought some crazy was just talking to himself, but eventually (and I saw this out of the corner of my eye, it was creepy as fuck) he leaned over my seat slowly and whispered in my ear “Ohayoo gozaimasu.” At that point, I wanted to be like “OK, personal bubble, it was okay when you were being creepy 5 inches away, but now you are crossing the line.” But I just pretended I didn’t notice. What’s so fascinating about us foreigners anyway?? I don't remember if I mentioned the other loon who daily commutes on the bus, who just reads from the newspaper in a constant stream of babble, and starts laughing maniacally. He must be late 20s or early 30s, but he's dressed in a little school boy uniform. I think this is probably how Japan deals with mentally retarded people. That, or send them to the Coco farm, where they will make wine and bang on gongs to scare away animals (we went there on a field trip, it was soooo lame, but worth it for all the Coco farm references that everyone makes).

-My train experience on Friday was also rather noteworthy.

I was basically the train’s bitch. People kept entering from the other side, and I just kept getting pushed up against the door more and more until I couldn’t breathe. Whenever anyone wanted more space they would just push BACK and I would feel it ALL. Ugh. I had so much pressure built behind me that when my doors finally opened at Shinjuku, I basically face planted out. I managed to maneuver myself by using my one arm that had a little 3 inch radius maneuverability to push myself back before the doors opened, and then catapulted myself out. If I hadn’t done that I most definitely would have had a complete wipe out, or maybe tripped and fell into the gap between the train and platform. I've seen it happen when the trains are really crowded.

-Also, I think it was last Thursday, someone put on the emergency breaks, so that everyone on the train just toppled on top of each other. It was already so crowded, and that did not help the situation. It was kind of funny watching all these people fall over each other though. I was lucky, I was pushed up against a wall, so I didn't go anywhere.

Thar. I hoped you enjoyed my train tales. Stay tuned!