The thing is, having crossed through the crossing everyday for a week now, there have been times when it is far busier. What I've observed, is how little actual physical contact there is. People go to effort to give each other space and move in a manner that doesn't cause inconvenience. I've been in situations in my home community with far less people that I had considered "crowded" where shoving, bumping into and otherwise just not working in a way that is considerate of others is the norm.
I first noticed it when we landed. Off the huge plane of 300 passengers or so, when we got to the luggage claim, I thought "oh great, here we go." But no, not a single person bumped or shoved me. Then again, the first time at the crossing I thought "this is going to be unpleasant," but again, no shoving, not even the slightest brushing against. And again, on a crowded train full of way more people that I've ever shared public transport with, nothing, just complete consideration. Anyone with a backpack switched it to be worn on the front to assure they didn't smack anyone, the phones are off, no one is eating anything... I'm really, really going to miss this when I go back home.
One story I've got to share is the really difficult situation we had today with the train. I won't get into all the details of traveling to Kawagoe, but to summarize: we were told by the lady at the rail's tourism booth that we would only need to take one train, for 60 minutes, but it basically took three trains, a lot of doubling back and over two hours to get there. Needless to say on the return I was on edge, and hubby doesn't like to ask for help, so it was on me. We got the train, clearly labelled, that was to take us back. Then it stopped, almost all the passengers got off, and I got nervous. Hubby felt certain that since the sign said it was going to take us to our destination, that must be so, but there's plenty of over-the-intercom announcements in Japanese that make me doubt this. So we're sitting there, and the train is not moving, and I think it can't hurt to ask. I see a guy of around 50 with his wife, chatting with what looks like his dad. I had previously smiled at his dad because I thought it was pretty cool to se a guy in his 70's using an iPod. "Shibuya?" I ask, pointing at the floor of the train we're on. To my shock (and this is rare) he replies in English. "Shibuya? Yes, today it's okay. Today it go to Shibuya." The stress he puts on "today" is a little worrisome. "Stay?" I ask. "Yes, you can sit down." So we sit down, but then it's clear that the man, his wife and and his father are debating this and are concerned. They ask another passenger who responds in a detached, minimal sort of way. Something about varying schedules. They're clearly doubtful. I get up. He gets up. "You wait here" he says, and he runs from the train. He runs one way, and then his dad gets off and runs the opposite way. His wife, who is wearing a medical mask, has worried eyes. His dad gets back, but him and his son's wife are now stressed out. The guy runs back, "other train, you need to come" he says in an urgent tone. All of us, including his wife and dad run. We run what is about a block, in silence, with hand gestures, down a flight of stairs, up a flight of stairs, down another, to a train that is waiting. It then becomes clear the guy who is helping us has asked this train to wait for us. He escorts hubby and I and tells us this is the train we need and that we may sit, his wife and dad appear and are seated too. He has a fairly emphatic argument with the conductor (again, from my limited experience, it seems really rare behavior to see someone have an outburst in Japan on a train), he comes over and gently assures us that this train will take us to our stop, and shows us on a map that we are nine stops away from our destination. I thank him effusively. I can't thank him enough. I say it in English then in my limited Japanese. We were so far away from where we need to be, the epitome of lost, and he's the only reason we're not still there now. He sits with his family at the opposite end of the train from us, and at a later point he goes over to the conductor at another stop and is apologizing to him. I smile and nod, he nods back. Shortly after, without any indication, I notice he and his wife and dad are gone. I'm pretty sure the whole family changed trains for us, that they took the extra excursion on the extra train to assure that we would find our way. What kindness. I'm humbled because I know he went far beyond the call to help us, some wayward foreigners, to be 100% certain we were (quite literally) on the right track.
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Topic: The best place I've never been. (Read 24326 times)