On the train in Shinjuku in 1990

It's fun being a gaijin in Tokyo

I have already posted today and wasn’t planning on posting again, but I was reading an interview with Kana Lauren Chan and she was talking about being a foreigner in Japan. I commented that gaijin people stand out in Japan because they are such a minority.

This was my second trip to Japan and I was hopping on a train at Shinjuku Station at rush hour. Shinjuku is famous for being busy and it is crazy when people are going to and from work.

1990 was the first and last year that I experienced men in white coats at the station, whose job was to push people onto the train so that more people would fit in.

One busy morning my Kiwi/Aussie compatriot Jeff and I were getting pushed on the train by these people. The station was packed and I could see some Europeans standing back, deciding to wait for the next train, hoping at least to get at the front of the line. We looked at each other and said, let’s do this.

So we got pushed on and we were like sardines in a can on its side. There wasn’t even enough room for a groper to pretend it wasn’t him. Seriously it’s a thing on Japanese trains. There’s even an app!

Anyway, the men in white pushed us onto the train and as we were squeezed into different corners of the carriage, I was a little worried about being able to get off at the right station.

There was barely room to breathe. I noticed several people instantly went to sleep, standing right there. Yep, that’s a thing too. I remember thinking, I wonder if I was able to lift both legs up, whether I would still be upright, but there wasn’t room to lift even one of them.

Looking around the carriage I caught Jeff’s eye and we both cracked up with laughter. Each of us stood well above the rest of the passengers in height and we looked down on a sea of black-haired heads. We managed to get off at the right station, but it wasn’t easy making my way through the crowd carrying my briefcase.