Panic! Puns and trains

Let's try to live life from a new perspective here. It's nine in the afternoon and you want to get home from work, but oh no! There is no room on the train! This is the everyday life of most people in Japan believe it or not. Most people have to push and shove to get on the train. They all get crammed in there like pickles in a jar! They even hire people to push everyone in the train so the doors can close. When you look at these trains passing by you can only see people pushed up against the window. It almost looks like a cartoon you would watch as a kid, all the faces crammed up against a glass, but no this is totally real! I know for a fact that I would hate to ride the trains everyday. How about you? Would you ride on the trains everyday?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7kor5nHtZQ

Tour to the Pool

Today we are taking a trip to Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium pool. Now don’t be alarmed that when we enter it may be crowed. There is a possibility that we don’t even get to go in. Ok lets head in! Over here you can see the 50 person line for the slide. And to your left you can see the pool filled  with people. Try to get in as much sight seeing as possible. If we need to leave and can not find you, we will send out a search party into the pool (yes, they do this!) so do not be alarmed. Ok! Head out!

3 Hours Later

What did you do in the time?

Japan: Advanced, practical, annnd why the heck do they have that abomination?!

    When us students think of Japan, we think of that weird robotic velociraptor dressed in a suit acting as a front desk manager, or maybe Tokyo with its amazing skyline. However, there are also some really weird products, too. Try this one on for size (pun intended): for the guy who wants to see what feeding a newborn is like, they can put on a pair of baby bottles strapped to a pad. Want to get some underwear but simply don't have the time? Well in Japan there are vendors for some underwear on the go! Want to show off your pooch? Well at a local pet store you can buy your dear friend a nice little wig. Totally useful in everyday life! Tired of standing at a urinal all of the time? Well now there's a convenient little footstool you can kneel on so you don't have to stand! Spectacular! Too lazy to mop the floor but have to do it? Well you can stop worrying! Japan has a baby suit that has mop bristles at the  bottom of the suit, so your infant will do it for you (I've gotta say though, that's actually a cool idea)! However this object blows everything here out of the water it's a....... giant Swiss Army knife designed for farmers. One part is a pitchfork, another end is a shovel, and another is a till (also another cool idea). Amazingly practical! Anyhow, this wraps up my blog. If you have any other weird items, type them in the comments below.

Overpopulated Japan Vacation...

Have you ever been to a pool that was so full that you couldn’t even see the water? Or been really close to someone on the bus and complain you were “smashed”? Or even left a restaurant because there weren’t enough tables? Well you haven’t seen anything compared to to Japan.

Imagine you just got a new job in Japan, and you have to stay there for a year. Now you are getting off your plane and heading to your hotel. You’ve gotten your room key, but you’ve been looking all over the building for your room, and you still can’t find it. The only thing you have seen in the hotel are these strange capsules big enough to fit Max, your loyal Golden Retriever. When you go to the front desk you discover that the dog kennel is your room that you payed $100 for. Not only that but there is a 9 hour policy you must follow. They planned your day out to fit in 9 hours, and if you break your schedule then you run the risk of getting kicked out.

Now you decide to head to the pool for a quick swim and calm your nerves. When you get there, you think you must have made a wrong turn because it looks like you are at a concert and there isn’t a pool in sight. Then you realize that all those people you thought were jumping up and down and waving their arms were actually the people in the pool.

Okay so I think you’ve finally gotten my point about Japan being crowded. It is the 1st most populated country in the whole world. Personally I think that living there would be the most uncomfortable thing ever, but some people might actually enjoy it. If you get the chance, I think it could be a humbling experience and who knows you might even have fun! Would you ever consider LIVING here?  

You will Never Think of a Train Like THIS! 👍

Imagine you are trying to get to work. On top of that, you are late and the train is the fastest way to get there. Also, there are a bunch of people trying to get to work too. Trust me you wouldn’t want to get on a train. I saw it with my own eyes it is so crowded that people get hired to push people in so that the door would shut. That is how crowded it is. As you can see in the picture down below. There are two men pushing the people in. Behind them, there is also a huge line waiting to get on the train. You might think why can't they just wait for the train that comes by? Well, I thought about that too, but imagine people are hurrying to get to work and if you are even late you will be more eager too. In the train, it’s so squished. It’s like a 40 people capacity train, but people go in 60 people at a time. It’s that crowded. In the GIF down below too people are so eager that you can't even see the hired people because they got pushed around. It is like this because Japan has such a high population compared to how big their country is. What do you think about this?


  

OUCH MY FINGERS!

  Have you ever been on an airplane and complained about how crowded it was or maybe how uncomfortable it was? Sitting hours on a little seat with strangers all around you is torture, you say. Well, then imagine being stuffed in a train like little ants jammed together with almost no space to breathe in a small, rectangular box that you can't break through. Imagine someone adding more and more ants to the box and forcing them to stay in that box when it's already overflowing. Imagine being squished together like a giant sandwich, but it's now you in the middle along with many others. Are you complaining about how small and uncomfortable that airplane seat was now?

 
People get pushed around and squished together on trains in Tokyo, Japan, on morning rush days all the time. This mainly happens because the city is so crowded, and everyone needs to get to work. Because of this, there are people who actually get paid to push people on the train and make sure no passengers get stuck in between the closing doors. These workers were first called "passenger arrangement staff" but now they are called oshiya, which means "push" in Japanese. 

As you look around the train, you see this. Basically, a horrific sight of physical bullying and abuse to humans. Come on! People need to get their own space! This is literally human abuse! You see some people almost getting stuck in closing doors as the oshiya try and push every part of their body in. Watching that video I linked there reminds me of the movie "Tangled" and the part where Rapunzel tried to put....ouch.

Surprisingly, many people don't mind this whole "train sandwich" thing anymore. In fact, some don't even think this is that big of a problem. I guess they have gotten used to it by now. "There is a tolerance that if the person next to you falls asleep and their head kind of lands on your shoulder, people just put up with it. That happens a lot," Barren tells CNN. Yikes. You better not be picky in Tokyo, Japan! Anyway, since you have an idea about what I'm talking about now, I have a very important question for you. Honestly, I want to know why the people don't build more trains there. If you can tell me why that would be very helpful. Because, seriously, does the whole city only have ONE TRAIN that takes people to work in the mornings?

An Average Train Ride

I wake up in a rush to get to the morning train. I sprint out the door of my cramped apartment, and down the few crowded streets it takes me to get to the train station. I round the bend to the train station to realize in horror that I have arrived very late. My place in line is now at the very back. My feet reach the inside of the train, stepping on the feet of others, but the rest of me is sticking far out of the train. A few men of the staff come to my aid. They roughly shove me into the personal space other passengers. Then they try to jam the door closed. However my jacket, and a few of my fingers are in the way, getting crushed. Suddenly the train takes off, as I dread the over population, and the idea of having to go through this again when my work day ends.