Sumimasen!

As usual, long stretches of time have passed since my last offering...but really, is anybody reading this?

This month I offer you a glimpse at Japanese society. A glimpse mind you, and one I personally did not experience while visiting.

I'm sure you've all heard about the amazing train system in Japan. You can go everywhere and anywhere and know when your train will arrive and depart down to the minute. And yes, sometimes they do get crowded.






Isn't that insane?! I will say that one evening, at around 11:30 pm, we left Shibuya station and because the trains end rather early there we were amongst a lot of people. We crammed into our train. And then more people got on. And then, when I thought it impossible to get any more people on uniformed station employees wearing white gloves gave one last good push to get everybody inside the doors! Everybody was squeezed together, touching, and somehow being polite.

One day, while suffering Toronto's rush hour, I decided that there was room for me on a crowded subway at St. George station. I did the Tokyo push--this involves approaching packed train car, turning around and pushing butt first into the train. I managed to get on and was quite proud too. I could feel everybody resisting me and at the next station a rather flustered lady got off, turned around and just scowled at me! Scowled at me as the train left the station and I got to work on time! Toronto don't know crowded transit!

But I digress. Somehow, I think the Japanese crave this type of closeness. Take a look and tell me what you think........







You kind of have to see it to believe it right?

Well, that's all I have time for. I gotta scarf a bowl of cereal, squeeze on a subway train and light a glory hole.

ciao for now!