Men dressed like M. Bison in blue with white gloves stuffing people into train carriages. Pink pussy wagons rolling up at 6 'o clock in the evening. Polyphonic jingles every time a train door is about to close. I could only be talking about dat Japanese train life.
A large part of Japanese life (life for most who live in any city) is the train commute. But with Japan being Japan, there are little quirks and nuances to the daily commute which make every encounter with it an experience. Something you kinda look forward to. Hoping that during rush hour M. Bison will come along and pyscho crusher you into a train, like in that popular video on YouTube.
Being from London, I feel at ease with Japan's underground / subway system, as it feels wholly similar to what we have here. If anything, Japan's train system is much easier to follow. There are maps everywhere, an abundance of staff in stations, trains which speak in Japanese and English, tell you which side of the train the doors will open, flashing maps above the doors showing you which stop you are at, which stop is coming up. It's all so informative. It's like Thomas the tank engine had a sex change and a personality transplant with a female Japanese news anchor
Something else you will quickly discover if you go to Japan and you are black, white, or 'other' is that NOBODY WILL EVER SIT NEXT TO YOU ON A TRAIN.
The gaijin force field powers strongly in Japan and a local will only sit next to you if they have absolutely no choice. The caps locked statement above is not 100% conclusive. Some locals will sit next to you. Some may even smile at you and make an attempt to talk to you. But be prepared for there to be at least one, two, maybe fifteen hundred occasions where nobody sits next to you for an entire train trip and for you to feel a little offended on the principle that nobody really wants to sit next to you because you are either darker or lighter than the hexadecimal value #FFFF99. Some locals would honestly rather throw themselves onto under the train than sit on it with you. There is something both funny and a little humiliating about being on a train which is jam packed during rush hour and having an empty seat next to you which everybody and their dead Grandmother refuses to occupy. But this isn't indicative of the country as a whole and this could happen anywhere. Some locals do not care less. Others do. It's just life. But it's a part of life you should be aware of should you ever visit Japan, or any other country where your race is a complete minority.
And it gets worse. If locals decide not to sit next you, then what they may do instead is grab their friend, sit in the seats opposite you and stare in your face as they talk about you, with zero disregard for discretion. This offended me more than not being sat next to, because this was just flat out rude. I didn't want to enforce the stereotype that all black people had bad attitudes, but I exceeded my quota of eye rolls, KMT's, dirty looks and dismissive laughs at the rude fucks who felt it okay to stare in my face and talk about me. I may not understand what you are saying bitch. But I know you are talking about me.
Dealing with it is to just laugh it off and also understand why this happens and to see things from the side of the locals. But despite me laughing it off for the first few days, it did begin to grate on me after a week and I missed not being stared at, edged away from and being the topic of a discussion between friends every time I got on a train.
A large part of Japanese life (life for most who live in any city) is the train commute. But with Japan being Japan, there are little quirks and nuances to the daily commute which make every encounter with it an experience. Something you kinda look forward to. Hoping that during rush hour M. Bison will come along and pyscho crusher you into a train, like in that popular video on YouTube.
This didn't happen to me, but by golly I wish it had.
Being from London, I feel at ease with Japan's underground / subway system, as it feels wholly similar to what we have here. If anything, Japan's train system is much easier to follow. There are maps everywhere, an abundance of staff in stations, trains which speak in Japanese and English, tell you which side of the train the doors will open, flashing maps above the doors showing you which stop you are at, which stop is coming up. It's all so informative. It's like Thomas the tank engine had a sex change and a personality transplant with a female Japanese news anchor
Something else you will quickly discover if you go to Japan and you are black, white, or 'other' is that NOBODY WILL EVER SIT NEXT TO YOU ON A TRAIN.
The gaijin force field powers strongly in Japan and a local will only sit next to you if they have absolutely no choice. The caps locked statement above is not 100% conclusive. Some locals will sit next to you. Some may even smile at you and make an attempt to talk to you. But be prepared for there to be at least one, two, maybe fifteen hundred occasions where nobody sits next to you for an entire train trip and for you to feel a little offended on the principle that nobody really wants to sit next to you because you are either darker or lighter than the hexadecimal value #FFFF99. Some locals would honestly rather throw themselves onto under the train than sit on it with you. There is something both funny and a little humiliating about being on a train which is jam packed during rush hour and having an empty seat next to you which everybody and their dead Grandmother refuses to occupy. But this isn't indicative of the country as a whole and this could happen anywhere. Some locals do not care less. Others do. It's just life. But it's a part of life you should be aware of should you ever visit Japan, or any other country where your race is a complete minority.
And it gets worse. If locals decide not to sit next you, then what they may do instead is grab their friend, sit in the seats opposite you and stare in your face as they talk about you, with zero disregard for discretion. This offended me more than not being sat next to, because this was just flat out rude. I didn't want to enforce the stereotype that all black people had bad attitudes, but I exceeded my quota of eye rolls, KMT's, dirty looks and dismissive laughs at the rude fucks who felt it okay to stare in my face and talk about me. I may not understand what you are saying bitch. But I know you are talking about me.
Dealing with it is to just laugh it off and also understand why this happens and to see things from the side of the locals. But despite me laughing it off for the first few days, it did begin to grate on me after a week and I missed not being stared at, edged away from and being the topic of a discussion between friends every time I got on a train.