When you’re crammed into a train car during rush hour in Japan and almost everyone has a smartphone in their hands, you sometimes can’t help but look at what someone’s doing on their phone. Moreover, when you have a mix of seated and standing commuters, things get even more interesting, enabling a perfectly positioned passenger to sneak peaks at an unsuspecting person’s private messages. As you’d expect, you come across some really weird stuff when no one thinks you’re looking. Let’s take a look at five anecdotes from passengers who just happened to glance over at their nearby passenger’s phone.
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Have you ever looked over while riding the Yamanote Line and saw the coolest guy you’ve ever seen? Sure he was probably wearing fashionable clothes and had great hair, but what was he doing? A poll conducted by Japanese mobile phone provider, NTT Docomo, reveals the top 10 things cool guys do on the train.
It’s all happening on Asia’s trains this week, isn’t it? According to Southeast Asian news sources, a man dressed in “samurai” garb faces up to five years in prison and “flogging” after jumping the ticket gate and then brandishing a full-length samurai sword on board a busy subway train on Monday this week.
In Japan, it is still considered “rude” to do things like talk on the phone or apply makeup on the train. Although the latter is becoming far more common as people come to realise that a girl touching up her war-paint in public is hardly the most scandalous act one can engage in, there are still many, mostly of the older generation, who believe that it should not be done in shared spaces and to be so openly “vain” is simply shameful.
We wonder, then, what the average older Japanese citizen would think if they saw a commuter like the young lady in the following video, who has thrown caution to the wind and slaps on a cleansing face mask during her travels.
Displaying all the skill and grace of a two-year-old holding a cushion over their face and shouting “You can’t see me!”, a man in Beijing was recently captured on video lying beneath the seats of a subway train and stroking the legs of a female passenger as they appeared in front of him.
Prepare for your day to get that little bit creepier.
Have you ever seen a subway train driving on the street? One of our Tokyo-based reporters did and it was the first time he’d ever seen anything like it. It all started on the night of November 26…
Earlier this week, we told you about the Yamanote Line train that will be decked out with the characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle (coming to PS3 on August 29). At the time, we could only provide you with a few artist renditions of what the train might look like. But now, may we proudly present to you 31 photos of the actual JoJo train, inside and out!
On Sunday 25 August, a 58-year-old woman walking along the platform of Kanyama Station in Nagoya slipped and fell onto the tracks. The time was 3:50 p.m. and the six-car express train running from Toyohashi to Gifu was due to arrive at any moment.
Seeing this, another passenger waiting for his train also jumped onto the tracks to save the woman. However, possibly injured from her fall, the she was unable to move. Watching the 3:50 train pull into the station and with no options left the man urgently called out to the woman to “get down!”
On August 29, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle will become available on PlayStation 3. It’s a fighting game that features all of the major players from the immensely popular manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. How popular, you ask? This beat-‘em-up video game is currently the top-ranked game on Amazon, thanks to the huge numbers of pre-orders, it’s so highly anticipated. One might think that a game such as this doesn’t need any more hype, but those who know JoJo know that this particular franchise will stand for nothing less than extremes!
Starting on August 26, one of the trains on Tokyo’s looping central railway, the Yamanote Line, will be plastered both in and out with characters from JoJo’s new fighting game!
Everyone knows that in case of an emergency, inflatable slides pop out from the exits of an airplane, enabling passengers to quickly and safely exit from the craft. But what about trains? Sure, walking on and off the platform is easy, but what if the train makes an abrupt stop and you’re staring at a four-foot drop to the ground? If you find yourself in Japan, you’ll be able to use the very seat you’re sitting on to make a swift escape.
According to a recent Twitter post, a train on the JR Oji line came to an emergency stop after a single French fry broke through a window. The topic has become the subject of great debate online, with many speculating as to how a mere strip of potato could have penetrated solid glass.
Many couples strive to plan a perfectly unique wedding. From nonconventional backyard ceremonies to destination weddings in far off places, there is no limit to the delightfully strange and creative ways people tie the knot. However, JR East is giving one lucky couple the chance at a wedding most people have probably never dreamed of.
Shot by a couple during a visit to Cambodia and uploaded to YouTube just last week, the following video treats us to a ride on one of Cambodia’s “bamboo trains” — worryingly shaky, home-made bamboo pallets balanced on a pair of train wheels and fitted with a disconcertingly large engine.
After all, what trip abroad is complete without experiencing some potentially perilous activity that you’d never dream of doing in your own country?
On Thursday this week at around 3:30 P.M., a rail employee in Nagoya City was struck and injured… by the body of a suicidal customer.
Hold on, let’s rewind a bit.
On 13 May, JR Central released station design plans for their upcoming Chuo Shinkansen running from Tokyo to Nagoya and later Osaka. In the words of JR, these stations were designed “not to rely on traditional styles” and “to boldly pursue functionality and efficiency.”
However, when the details emerged to a train station loving public, the reaction was less than enthusiastic with comments along the line of “too bold.”
In a small ceremony at the Ukyo Ward Precinct of the Kyoto Prefectural Police, Chief Suzuki presented 13-year-old junior high student, Ryoga Nomura, with a certificate of appreciation for his bravery during a train ride home. Nomura was recognized for almost single-handedly leading police to the arrest of a drunken adult male for inappropriately touching the woman next to him.
You would think any transportation business would realize that in the event of a massive delay, a steady flow of information to the passengers is crucial.
Still, places like Kunming Changshui International Airport in China and more recently Keihan Electric Railway in Japan continue to leave their customers stranded without a clue about what’s happening with disastrous results.
On 24 March, Keihan Electric Railway experienced a massive loss of power along the entire Main Line running between Osaka and Kyoto. The hour-and-a-half delay ruined many people’s days and resulted in a tongue lashing for one blind lady.
Just spending a few minutes on the train, it is possible to gain quite an insight into the type of people who use public transport; whether it be the guy crashed out after a heavy night of drinking with his pals, the student listening to his music player on full blast, or the person completely immersed in their favourite book, the types of behavior are varied to say the least.
The inside of the train carriage is a rather peculiar environment in that, on the one hand, it is a public space in which one must abide at least to some degree by the rules of proper public conduct. However, it also provides us with our own private space in which to shut off everything around us and relax while travelling.
By observing the way in which people spend their time on the train, however, we can learn a lot about an individual’s personality, claims Tsugumi Tachibana, a Japanese counselor in love relations. From a romance perspective, Tachibana analyzes in-depth the correlation between public behavior and personality traits. Her findings can be found below and might just help us learn a little more about that one special person on the train or bus that you’ve been admiring from afar.
Unveiled earlier this week, the “Tohoku Emotion” is a train unlike anything ever seen before in Japan.
Combining “food, art and scenery”, on board this train the journey itself takes the main role and passengers are able to cruise through Northeastern Japan’s beautiful countryside while sampling food freshly prepared before their very eyes.














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