Trains

Some lumber and sway as they chug slowly along. Others speed seemingly motionless at 300 km/h. Others tilt around corners to maximize speed while you sit in hip hugging chairs nestled into chair backs that have mickey mouse like ears, your feet rest on wooden floors. You just dont know what to expect from a Japanese train.

The Japanese are clear on their train etiquette. No cell phones may be heard on trains. All ringers must be off and dont even think about talking on your phone. Only fingers may be used to silently text or play games. Only on long distance trains in special rooms between cars can you talk on your phone. Some of these cell phone rooms have surprisingly sophisticated decor and look more like an ultra modern bar. Trains may be packed but they are often eerily quiet as no one so much as makes a noise.

Occasionally everyone on a long distance train will stand up at a station and swing all the chairs around. Solid looking chairs have mechanisms that allow them to swing 180 for when the train changes direction. Trains pull into a station and back out for the next leg. This can be overwhelmingly especially if you have fallen asleep and the entire car does this maneuver silently. You wake up to a train where everyone is facing the other direction except you.

Beer is openly consumed and sold by the staff who push around trolleys of the stuff. Pop vending machines are a popular train addition. Sometimes teddy bears sit in glass cases as decor. Conductors do a deep bow as they enter a carriage and as they leave.

Japanese trains are certainly a strange and enjoyable way to get around this tiny country.

Ty

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Tyson Brooks

In India -
http://tysonwrites.blogspot.com/