Tokyo salaryman can’t be bothered to change expression, no matter how crowded the train is【Vid】

Casey Baseel

Dec 23, 2016

Even with three station attendants shoving passengers in to pack them like sardines, this guy remains cool as a cucumber.

The human psyche can be a remarkably resilient thing. Over time, the mind can learn to adapt to even extreme conditions, making situations that once seemed unreasonably unbearable merely an unpleasant yet endurable part of daily life.

Consider, for example, commuter trains in Japan. If you’re just visiting the city, and it’s your first time riding the rails in Tokyo at rush hour, you’ll probably be shocked at how much humanity can be crammed into a single carriage.

But if you’re a local, and you take that train to work every day? Eventually, it doesn’t even warrant a change in facial expression, as demonstrated by the gentleman in this video from Japan-based photographer Marco Patella.

Shot at Shakuji Koen Station, located in the Tokyo suburb of Nerima and a major rail hub for people who work and study in the city center, the video opens with the stoic salaryman casually checking his smartphone, despite the fact that the train he’s boarded is so crowded that it seems to have the woman attempting to get on next to him on the verge of tears. The train is actually so packed that the doors can’t shut, which causes one station worker, then a second, and finally third to come over and try to manually compact the mass of commuters inside the train.

The salaryman calmly puts away his phone, then raises an arm to take up less space at the shoulders and balance himself against the interior wall of the carriage. Even as the three attendants begin pushing him deeper into the pile of bodies, the man’s countenance remains as calm, even mildly bored, as it was while he was fiddling with his phone.

But again, this is hardly an uncommon occurrence at Shakuji Koen Station. Here’s another video taken there, once again from Patella.

Thankfully, Patella also gets to spend some time in locations that are relaxing even for people who haven’t been conditioned by Tokyo commuter trains, such as the historic and cultural towns of Kamakura and Nikko.

And even if you should happen to find yourself going through crowded Shakuji Koen in the morning, you can at least take solace in the fact that things actually could be worse.