7 ms·

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping

• msie 11y ago
  This comment is very odd to me. If I hear something positive about a country, I never hear: "Oh, but city X is not representative of the country." Until now.
  • deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  • TeMPOraL 11y ago
    To be honest, that comment is objectively right in doing this. It's very easy to take a single, localized event - whether negative or positive - and start generalizing from it, reaching wrong conclusions. Still, if one is to feel ashamed for the bad things happening within a group one associates with (e.g. their country), it's fair to also feel proud for the good things happening within that group.
    • msie 11y ago
      I don't believe that a positive story about Japan is going to mislead anyone into thinking the place is all rainbows. I don't believe it needs to be tempered by a negative story which I believe is more damaging and unfortunately more memorable.
• kayone 11y ago
  As someone living in canada and visiting Tokyo for a week few years ago I complelty agree with you on "Tokyo is cold" statement, however I don't think the original post was trying to idolize japan, at least I didn't see it that way. To me it was more of an observation that small acts of kindness happen all around us.
• umanwizard 11y ago
  First train I took in Tokyo was the Narita Express. It was 20 minutes late so I missed the connection for the last "JR Pass"-eligible bullet train to Kyoto of the night. I had to buy a ticket for 18,000 JPY (~$150) As far as I know, no one killed themselves.
  • hkmurakami 11y ago
    "One Japanese station manager committed suicide a few years ago because his trains were late" Apologies, it was a station manager, not a conductor. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4480965.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4480965.stm
  • rangibaby 11y ago
    When was this? The NEX was notorious for suicides because of the speed it passed through stations along the way. I read a few years back that they did something to fix that. If you had made a big enough stink about it they would have let you ride the Shinkansen using your pass. This is the country where rail operators give out "late passes" to workers if their train is more than a few minutes late after all.
    • umanwizard 11y ago
      It was on 2015-12-24, about two weeks ago. Who is "they"? I believe the train I took is not even run by the same company as the one that issues JR passes.
  • fanf2 11y ago
    I am surprised they don't let you use your existing ticket on a later train if they caused the delay - that is the rule in Britain and France.
    • umanwizard 11y ago
      I hadn't bought a ticket for the first one. I had a "JR pass" which gives unlimited access to a variety of lines, but not the one I ended up having to take. That said, I didn't think to ask about getting a free ticket on the later train.
• TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Ah, the gray reality strikes again :). I understand what you're saying and I agree. I am definitely not going to define the entire country by this single act. And you're right - I think that keeping the station open for this girl was only possible because it was a rural area and not a large city. Villages generally tend to be more laid-back, there is a lot more of space to introduce little inefficiencies without causing a disproportionate economic loss. And the mentality probably takes a part too. Since you and sandworm101 decided to ruin the sublime mood by calling attention to the ordinary reality, let me play along. I do believe there may be another layer to this story. As much as I want to believe in the most positive interpretation, the choice to keep that station open could be a result of e.g. her influential family using their connections to keep the train stopping there. Or something completely unrelated. Media reports tend not to be very accurate, and decisions in real life tend to be made slowly and with multiple inputs. But we don't know for sure. I am not going to idolize a country for a single story, but I choose to assume the most charitable interpretation, that this is in fact an act of kindness to another human. And so I believe people involved should be praised for that. We need more of such kindness in this world. We already spend too much time getting angry at stuff. Let's be joyful for once instead. For whatever reason this train stops for the girl, whether it's "village mentality", external influence or honest good will, the fact is that there is this huge metal machine, driven by even greater systems and processes of our economies, and that mighty machine stops for one girl, to let her continue her education undisturbed. She could have been ignored, but she wasn't - and that is heartwarming, if you let it to be.
  • hkmurakami 11y ago
    Upon reflection, I want to apologize for the overly pessimistic and harsh tone I chose to use. Japan is almost always presented to the West from a unbalanced, exaggerated perspective (which has irked me in the past), and upon reading your post, gleaming with optimism, I instinctively reacted by adopting an exaggeratedly grave perspective to attempt to balance it out -- which in retrospect was simply uncalled for. Thanks for your optimism and hope for the good in all of us. I could use some of that too.
    • Mendenhall 11y ago
• greggman 11y ago
  You have a vastly different experience and interpretation than me. First off people will stop during rush hour in Tokyo to help people. Happens all the time. Tokyo is not cold. I've never seen anyone have trouble getting someone to take their picture, ever. I'm not denying your experience but I'm going to claim it's not common. Second, while it's sad people feel the need to take their own lives it is arguably the height of selfishness to do it by jumping in front of a train and putting out 50k+ people. I see no problem with recognizing that and being annoyed by it. Especially in Japan where putting your problems on someone else is the height of rudeness. And I'm sorry if you think mothers on strollers aren't a PITA on public transport in a city as busy as Tokyo. That sounds like a fully western (or maybe American POV). F everyone else, I have my needs and F you if they inconvenience hundreds or thousands of people.
  • jamespo 11y ago
    Strollers are a PITA on public transport but what's the alternative? This post seems to be lacking empathy.
    • pbhjpbhj 11y ago
      Assuming the stroller is synonym for a pushchair/buggy then the best alternative IMO, unless the parent is infirm in some way, is a sling and backpack.
    • BostonEnginerd 11y ago
      My issue isn't with small strollers, it's with their Hummer sized pneumatic tired cousins.
    • iofj 11y ago
      After having 3 kids and going through a lot of strollers I can answer that a bit. A way to make a big improvement for yourself and for others is to buy the $50 basic stroller. Not the $500 "full-featured" one. Far better everywhere, and far more considerate of everybody else on pavement, public transport and everywhere else. This: http://www.toysrus.com/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-3490966reg.jpg http://www.toysrus.com/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-3490966... Not this: http://www.bobgear.com/uploads/products/stroller-strides-fitness-stroller-17.jpg http://www.bobgear.com/uploads/products/stroller-strides-fit... You'd think that a $500 stroller would be better, but after trying 3 of those it's just not true. A $50 one folds up to the size of large umbrella, and weighs 2-3 kg. A $500 one folds up to the size of a suitcase, weighs 20-30 kg. Even folded out they're smaller. So it should be pretty obvious that a $50 one is far, far better anytime you have it with you and aren't using it as a stroller. Which is really quite often : in the car, on stairs, anywhere you're expected to sit down (from parties, at friend's houses, even cinemas). And truth be told, they're better when you're using them as well. They don't roll as nicely, but they're so much lighter. Also, you have zero issues with breaking them.
• evmar 11y ago
  I was in Tokyo (Shibuya) meeting a friend and asked in Japanese a random kid (maybe 17) to help me find the Hachiko statue. He got really excited, ditched his friends, and escorted me all the way there. Similar story once when getting a train from Tokyo out to somewhere more remote -- the lady in the ticket booth said the train was coming soon, took me by the hand, and ran in her high heels to guide me to the proper track. Whenever I spot tourists lost in my town I do these sorts of things for them, so that I can set their understanding of my entire city from just my one interaction.
  • A_COMPUTER 11y ago
    This story reminds me of many interactions I had with Japanese as a lost and confused foreigner in Japanese cities big and small.
• Grue3 11y ago
  I was riding an express from the airport to central Tokyo in the last train car. At some station, everyone left the car, except for me because I needed to go further. Then some lady came back into the car and hurriedly told me to leave it and when I did pointed to the next one. Apparently the last car was to be detached at the station and if it wasn't for the help of random stranger (I'm pretty sure she wasn't station staff because she wore civilian clothes) I would've been left out. While it's just an anecdote, in my experience I didn't find Tokyo "uncaring" at all. People were perfectly willing to help me all the time.
  • verst 11y ago
    A similar thing happened to me when I took the Tokyo metro by myself my sophomore year of college (in early 2007). Everybody had exited the train, but I thought I had another stop or two to go - I absolutely couldn't read the station names. Apparently we had reached the terminal station (and the train was going to be taken out). A kind lady in her 60s or 70s returned to my car to gesture to me to exit. Who knows where I would have ended up otherwise.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• rangibaby 11y ago
  > Tokyo is a place where a train being 2 minutes late causes ire (and a train conductor once killed himself for a mistake as trivial as this). The driver going too fast from being late was the cause of a (100+ fatalities) train accident about 10 years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_rail_crash https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_rail_crash > It's a place where if a person jumps into the train to kill themselves, many will curse under their breaths about being late to work. The rail operator will also send a large bill to the jumpers family.
  • Joeri 11y ago
    > The rail operator will also send a large bill to the jumpers family. Isn't this the case in most countries? I suspect they do it to discourage other jumpers, since if you jump you know you're saddling your family with a debt. As a society we could avoid these things if we provided a legal path to requesting to be euthanised, a legal self-determination on the end of your own life. In my country you can request it, but you must be medically found by multiple doctors to be under unbearable and untreatable pain. If we made such a mechanism more inclusive, we could get rid of jumpers, as well as having an opportunity to turn the ship around for people considering suicide.
    • TeMPOraL 11y ago
      > Isn't this the case in most countries? I don't think so. Personally, I only heard about it in Japan, because this particular method of suicide is so endemic there. About US, on the other hand, I read a different story. Gun-inflicted suicides are more common there, and there are reports that often, police officers purposefully misreport those as "gun-related accidents", so that the family can still get life insurance of the deceased person.
      • id 11y ago
        Many if not most life insurances actually do pay out if the suicide occurs a certain time period (often it's 2 years) after the policy is purchased.
    • 11y ago
• aianus 11y ago
  > It's a place where young mothers with strollers are given stinkeye on public transit. This happens everywhere. It's extremely rude (especially at rush hour) to take up 5x the space of everyone else just cause you have a kid. Either the kid is small enough to carry or big enough to stand.
  • icebraining 11y ago
    I don't agree. A 10 to 14-months old baby weights 8-10kg on average, and often can't stand reliably. For many people, carrying that kind of weight for any significant time can cause health issues, especially if they're older and/or the ride is long. As a son of a women with scoliosis (a chronic problem which affects 2-3% of the US population), I with people weren't so prone to assume laziness or selfishness.
• veidr 11y ago
  > [Tokyo is] a place where if a person jumps into the train to kill themselves, many will curse under their breaths about being late to work. That is true, but after having this happen to me upwards of 20 times over the years, I gradually became one of those people.
• ohbleek 11y ago
  Wow, Tokyo was nothing close to this for me. I only visited for two weeks but I was SURROUNDED by helpful people. For example, on my second day there, right after getting off at my stop, I realized that I lost my phone on the bus. I waited at the stop and asked the bus driver on the next bus how I could retreive it. I speak zero japanese and he spoke no english. He asked over the speaker if anybody spoke english. A young girl came to the front and interpreted. He gave me a number to call. Then I gave the number to the woman at the front desk of our hotel. She said that the driver would DELIVER MY PHONE TO ME in the morning, and what time would I like to get it. I was flabberghasted. sure enough it was delivered the next morning. That is only one example of the two weeks I spent in a city with the kindest and most helpful people I've ever met. I have so many examples of people going out of their way to help me in Tokyo. I lived in Finland for years and your description sounds closer to their culture, but even then they were not as cold as you describe, but just very hesitant to help.
• EliRivers 11y ago
  It's a place where if a person jumps into the train to kill themselves, many will curse under their breaths about being late to work. This is the UK, yes? And people won't be cursing under their breath. They'll be saying it loudly.
• jmadsen 11y ago
  Equally, Tokyo is not "the rest of the country", and much of the behavior you described would never happen even here in Osaka (IMHO)