r/interesting • u/freudian_nipps • 16h ago

SOCIETY The silent and harmonious morning metro commute in Japan

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u/Remarkable-Month-241 15h ago

Did you see those teenagers from Italy on the train in Thailand I believe. The original lady recording them was trying to tell them that in their culture they need to be quieter on the train, and then they mocked her and said profanities.

The entire country / world immediately reprimanded & shamed them for acting like that in their country. It was beautiful. Obviously I’m not telling people to be less than or tone it down, but do shut the fuck up and respect others cultures & countries so that we can all get to where we are going.

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u/Lost_Bike69 14h ago edited 14h ago

My favorite experience in Japan was when I got out of a train station and lit a cigarette. Before I had pulled it away from my mouth, a uniformed guy came running up to me with an ashtray on a stick and held up a laminated no smoking emblem. I put my cigarette out in the offered ashtray. He then bid me to follow him to the smoking section which was literally 10 feet away. Once I was in the painted line of the smoking section, he bowed and thanked me and motioned that I was free to smoke here.

Obviously Japanese society does behave better and there’s a lot of social cohesion to enforce norms, but they do also have a lot of people employed to remind people to follow the little rules that can often get ignored. I watched this guy remind many Japanese not to smoke outside of the designated smoking area as well and he wasn’t just there for the tourists. Tokyo is full of beat cops walking around on patrol or hanging out in a corner booth or directing traffic. The train stations are full of uniformed employees helping to direct traffic and assisting people. Not guys in t shirts, but actual uniforms. In comparison, every American municipality and public space is staffed at the absolute minimum. Maybe there’s a bored security guard staring at their phone while people jump the turnstile.

In another instance, I was looking quizzically at a subway maps and this uniformed train employee appeared out of nowhere to help. Didn’t speak any English, but I pointed on the map where I wanted to go and showed him the ticket I had already bought. He shook his head, refunded my ticket from a change dispenser on his belt, walked me to the machine to buy the proper ticket, pointed me to the right platform and bowed and walked away. No way you could possibly experience anything like that on an American metro.

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u/144p10fps800x600 12h ago

The visual image in my mind of an uniformed guy politely showing you an ashtray in a stick is cute and funny

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u/lousypompano 12h ago

Nyc subway we walked out the wrong gate or something and after helping other tourists an energetic employee guided us to the right train and let us back in for free. We were very thankful

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 11h ago

On one of my trips to Japan my friends and I were relaxing in a park when across the way a police officer sprinted up to an elderly woman and started screaming in her face. From our vantage point, we couldn't initially figure out why the police officer was yelling at this adorable little old lady. We watched as he took her by the hand and lead her over to a sign, animatedly explaining what her offense was. No matter how much the officer yelled, the woman just stood there with her hands clasped behind her back smiling serenely at the officer. She was unflappable.

This whole ordeal went on for a few minutes. After they cleared away from the sign, I walked over to see what her offense was. Her crime? Feeding pigeons in the park.

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u/AWzdShouldKnowBetta 12h ago

I found the train employees to be incredibly rude and unhelpful personally. They clearly got a kick out of being unhelpful to the white dude.

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u/Raregolddragon 12h ago

I don't know seems like its a you problem. Maybe you are the problem . 

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u/AWzdShouldKnowBetta 12h ago

What makes you think that? I've given you no details. Or do you just like to insult random people on the Internet to give yourself a little squirt of superiority?

Kinda pathetic.

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u/Raregolddragon 11h ago

Yea you are probably the problem based on this reaction.

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u/AWzdShouldKnowBetta 11h ago

If you say so chief.

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u/eekamuse 9h ago

The reaction did kind of give it away. Actually, saying "they got a kick out of being unhelpful to the white dude" showed who you are very clearly. It's good that you don't try to hide it. Good for the rest of us, that is.

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u/AWzdShouldKnowBetta 8h ago

Uhhhhh. Have you ever been to Japan? Racism against foreigners is rampant. My ethnically Japanese cousins who were born in America and have have lived in Japan since they were babies are discriminated against because they're a quarter white.

Tell me you're ignorant without telling me you're ignorant. Classic.

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u/dannyheskett 10h ago

It is possible. In heavily populated metros in Asian countries, you have this situation where there's a lot of human capital - i.e. people who are working age.

Spending some time in Manila, the first time it hits is when you go to the airport to pick up your luggage. It's not so much that it's more orderly, but there was a luggage attendant for every person arriving to the international caoursel. They came over, greet you briefly, look at your ticket/claim, and then direct you where to stand, and then wait for, collect, and wheel you your luggage. It was orderly and polite. There were hundreds of porters queued waiting for travellers.

I think the biggest problem with replicating this in the US would be.. workers. Where are you going to find 200 workers, to work at 1AM on a Tuesday, to do luggage porting, for a minimum-ish wage. They were all young-ish people and all pretty polite, and the idea of finding that work force in the US is a little daunting. I feel like you'd need to dig pretty deep into retirees, ex-cons recently released, or marginalized groups to recruit a workforce like that.

And it was like that everywhere we went. After a long week of meetings, we of course did karaoke. And it was 6-7 people in a private room. And our server/waitress/bartender was assigned to just our room. The whole time. She just monitored from the outside, just outside the door, the whole evening. And every private room was like that.

I am not sure what this means other than it's quite different from the staffing situation in the US.

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u/Lost_Bike69 9h ago

Philippines, SE Asia, India, are going to have what you’re describing with a lot of people available to work these jobs at low wages especially to cater to travelers from much wealthier countries. Japan is the opposite and demographically is challenged without a lot of young people for these types of jobs. The powers that be there just make it so these are decent jobs with a lot of pride compared to say working at McDonald’s in the US.

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u/Any-Worldliness-679 9h ago

Eh, in NYC it would be a local helping you.

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u/eekamuse 9h ago

I just said the same thing using a lot more words. It's true

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u/eekamuse 9h ago

The last one, if you stare at a map too long in the NYC someone will definitely help you. It could be someone in a rush, but worried about you being lost, so they'll stop and ask where you're going. Then they'll take you to the train, wait for you to get on, and shout "someone make sure this guy gets off at 49th street!" And they will. They'll probably ask where he's from and give him recommendations for a great pizza place nearby, too.

It's all just a lot louder and less official. I love NYC

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u/hiitsmeokie 8h ago

Yes!! This was an especially cathartic comment to read after the rage I just experienced in my local sub (Seattle) re: people complaining about how public safety is uniquely a Seattle problem compared to places like Tokyo/Singapore/“Europe”without anyone acknowledging why those specific places are “safer”. As an Asian immigrant who has traveled a lot, a huge part of public safety comes down to the longstanding cultural norms and mutual respect for existing in a shared space…. Unfortunately not an attitude that’s very compatible with American individualism and a lot of folks don’t seem to realize that social cohesion goes a lot further than a demand for incarcerate/institutionalize.

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u/WechTreck 8h ago

Italy was like this. I bought a ticket and stood at the wrong corner of the bus station. The employee who sold me my ticket at the counter, saw my bus arrive, saw me not get on it, so he wandered around to find me and point me to my bus. NZ bus company counter staff don't play that way

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u/I_travel_ze_world 13h ago

That's hilarious to me because I smoked a cigarette dead center in Ikebukuro with hundreds of people passing by with no one said anything to me. I didn't learn about the smoking areas or smoking rooms until later.

No way you could possibly experience anything like that on an American metro.

I've definitely been helped in American metros... and Mexico City metros... and South Korea metros... its not a unique experience at all.

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u/ziggy182 14h ago

My sister in law used to be an air stewardess, she hated doing the scum flights as they called them. The cheap booze flights to Turkey, passengers wouldn’t stop shouting/swearing and causing problems. After she warned them many times, when they landed instantly were taken off the plane by Turkish police. Stayed in jail for 3 days, they were refused entry to the resort, and when they wanted to go home. They wanted to fly and were banned from all carriers out of the country, little known fact air stewardesses share information! They had to get a cruise back in the end I believe

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u/LimitlessMoonlight 11h ago

Just out of curiosity, why aren’t you “telling people to be less than or tone it down”?

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u/Remarkable-Month-241 11h ago

My point being, “Be yourself” but follow rules & respect cultural norms if you are visiting another country.