When the Novelty Wears Off

One of the first things I fell in love with when I originally visited Japan was the train system. Like any other tourist coming to this great country, I was in awe. So many trains, and they go everywhere all the time! How can that be?? From slow local trains to bullet trains. From subways below ground to suspended monorails up in the air. They were all working simultaneously and ON TIME! I couldn't believe it.

As a tourist, there are not a lot of trains you have to hurry to catch. Whatever train comes that goes the direction you need, that's the one you take. Unless you're travelling far or to go see something specific that is limited by time, you don't bother checking. You rely on your little map that doesn't give you even half of the massive maze that is the train network here and you just role with it.

When you live here however, that's when you see that even the most reliable train system in the world has its flaws. And boy are those flaws big. Let's start with the obvious reason: earthquakes. Of course, if the ground is shaking, trains will slow down and therefore delay. However, while this is a legitimate and obvious reason, other reasons for delay would be; rain, snow, wind and the tragically frequent person who either jumped or fell off the platform. See, with such an extensive system, the train that the delay occurred on originally doesn't have to be yours in order for your train to be late as well. All the trains are so connected and calculated with such narrow margins of error that it's enough for one train to be 3 or 4 minutes late to cause a chain reaction in many other lines. Now, while a 3-4 minute delay sounds very petty and there's no need to complain about it. The fact is that most people will have to switch trains in their commute. Personally, twice a week I have to take 3 different trains in order to get to work and two other days I have to take 2 trains. The time I have to change trains is usually between 3 to 5 minutes. So if the first train is even 2 minutes late, I can miss my connection, and since I don't work in the center of Tokyo, that means it might be a while until the next train arrives.

If I may go back to the topic of people getting run over by trains, it's pretty horrible how quickly you can go from being horrified to find out that your train is late because someone died, to being genuinely pissed off. It's sad but true. After a pretty short while, you stop feeling bad and start feeling angry. The reason your emotions change so quickly is because, unfortunately, it's not uncommon.

And to end this on a lighter note (not really), have a fun fact! If a person jumps in front of a train and dies, that person's family has to pay for all the delayed tickets. It's good to know then that most people don't hate their family enough to jump in front of a shinkansen (bullet train).

But hey, Japanese trains, even with all this mess, are awesome.