Note on Personal Space

This will be brief because I'm exhausted from teaching 4th graders. Very fun but they do drain the energy from you.

Today i took 4 trains. I had to travel to Hiroki (the new station they added between us and the main city station) to go to one of my schools this morning. I got on the train at 9:10 so it was probably the first train after rush hour. I believe it was four cars and almost everyone was able to get a seat. Coming home from Hiroki around noon again it was a four car train and this time most of the seats were empty. Granted Hiroki is only the second stop on the line but usually more people get on at Chuo (where the train was coming from) then anywhere else we've stopped on the line.

The third train I took was to go into the city for a meeting about another class I will be teaching and it left Matsumoto at 4:31. This train was only two cars and was already pretty full when I got on. The stop after Matsumoto is Kami Ijuin where there is a high school. Many of the students got on at that stop and there was barely standing room. It was impossible not to bump into someone standing near you at least once the rest of the trip. It got even worse at 7:27 when Eli and I took a train home after having dinner with a couple of friends. There were only two cars again and this time almost the entire platform was filled with people waiting to get on. I imagine the trains in Tokyo rush hour are worse, from the stories I've heard about them, but they can't be by much. We were brushing against our neighbors with every rock of the train. Eli tells me that the morning rush hour trains that he takes to get to school are almost always just as bad.

I guess my point with this story is that not every culture shares the same ideas that Americans have about personal space. I imagine the reason the Japanese lacking a clear sense of personal space has something to do with having a large population crowded onto several very mountainous islands. Perhaps you could call it a cultural evolution. I think I'm starting to get used to the idea that its not a scary or bad thing to be standing within a foot of a complete stranger for 15 minutes and occasionally brushing up against them without ever saying a word. In America you would probably make small talk if you ended up that close, or at least say "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" if you bumped them. So if you come to Japan, or visit any culture other then your own, you should expect things to be different. The best thing to do is see how the people around you react to the situations you are in and take your clues from them. "When in Rome...." and all that.

Not sure what the Japan Rails is thinking though, running 4 car trains when two would more then cover the need and 2 cars when there is a definite demand for more.