”Why fly when you can ride?” this crow in Sapporo seems to be asking.
For a while, my parents had two sons living in Japan, with me in Yokohama and my older brother out in a more rural part of western Honshu. When it came time for him to leave the country, he asked me if I wanted to take over ownership of his car.
As much as it pained me to turn down his offer, in the end, I had to tell him thanks, but no thanks. In urban Japan, the public transportation system is so efficient and effective that any other mode of transportation is just a less convenient way to get around the city.
And if you think I’m crazy for passing on a nicely-maintained Nissan Skyline in order to keep taking the train, consider that this Japanese crow has apparently chosen public transportation over flying.
いやそんなことある？ pic.twitter.com/7uKHy3VpJN
— s.r (@ShikanaiRyohei) October 29, 2016
The video, shared by Japanese Twitter user @ShikanaiRyohei, shows the bird sauntering through a car on the Tozai Line of the subway in Sapporo, the largest city on the northern island of Hokkaido.
While Japan’s crows are known for their unsettlingly large size and occasionally aggressive behavior, one knowledgeable commenter pointed out that the specimen seen in the video is a carrion crow, a species generally more docile than its jungle crow cousins. Sure enough, it seems remarkably calm in what should be, to it, extremely unfamiliar surroundings. The bird patiently makes its way to the subway car’s doors, waits for them to open, and seems ready to hop out onto the platform of the next station.
It hesitates just long enough for the doors to begin closing, though, which seems to startle it into backing away. But as it struts down the aisle and into the next car, I can’t help but think that maybe it’s simply gotten a taste for riding the rails, and wants to see what’s at the end of the line.
Source: Twitter/@ShikanaiRyohei
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s kind of upset at Hokkaido over the Fighters beating the Carp in the Japan Series.