Japan has been fighting a centuries old losing battle with fire. In the early days it's not that hard to see why, people lived in closely pack wood and straw houses with non-enclosed firs pits for cooking and warmth. All it would take is one wayward spark and half the city would be gone. Indeed Edo/Tokyo has been burnt down more times that anyone can count.
In some ways though nothing has really changed, though people are more aware now about the dangers of fire than in past decades. For example when I got here we went to the disaster center to practice for emergencies like earthquakes and fires by trying to navigate through a dark smokey room. Most of this was brought on after the Kobe earthquake in which more people died from the resulting fires than the quake itself.
This of course doesn't stop people from being stupid with fire. It's not uncommon to see people burning vines and leaves in their yard only 5 feet from their house, smoking is still a large problem and many people do it indoors. Many fires are caused by people smoking in bed and falling asleep. Smoke detectors are still a rarity as a sprinkler systems.
Interesting to see in a country in which the worst disaster is fire that there is very little done to curb it. But perhaps what makes it all the more worse it people do not know how to deal with it. Take for instance last night at my dorm:
Sometime at 1:00am in the morning the fire alarm goes off. For one it's not particularly loud, had I been sleeping I probably wouldn't have noticed right away. As nobody in Japan has any idea what to do, the first thing everybody does is go out into the hallway and stare at the flashing alarm. Unable to figure out why it's flashing everyone proceeds to the lobby where the master alarm control is. They want to turn it off so they can go back to sleep, so they investigate it while someone calls the dorm parents who apparently didn't hear it or just took their sweet time because they didn't come out for a good 10 or so minutes. The first thing instructed was to turn off the siren by pushing a button. The board indicates that the alarm on the 3rd floor was pulled.
So the dorm mother sends some guys up to the 3rd floor to investigate. 5 minutes later they don't come back so she decides to go herself. So she hops in the elevator and takes it up to the 3rd floor. Nobody knows why the alarm was pulled, maybe someone was smoking and the alarm went off or maybe somebody ran into it. Eitherway, after the quick investigation the master alarm which is still going is turned off.
At no time during this whole process was the fire department called. Nobody left the building and the whole process took about 20 minutes. I could only imagine what would happen in a real fire.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Japanese Trains
As part of my on going criticism of Japanese transportation system I suppose I should get to the big one. Trains are by far the most popular and used transportation system in Japan and the Tokyo train/subway system is the busiest in the world.
First one must explain why they use trains. Aside from the many issues brought up about cars in one of my earlier posts it's worth noting that Tokyo is urban-centric. This means everyone commutes into Tokyo and leaves in the evening to go back to their suburban homes. Tokyo suburbs are basically defined as the area within a 2 hour commute to the city This unfortunately isn't a joke. Many people make the journey everyday to the city. Just imagine your 8 hour work day with another 4 tacked on in commuting. It's only made worse by the fact that your day doesn't end when you get your work done, it ends when your boss leaves and if your work group decides to hit the bars your attendance is mandatory. This is why people don't have kids and if they do the wife is a stay at home mother.
Luckily for many this is a little bit extreme, in fact the average commute is "only" 1 hour. For me it takes about this long to commute from Minaminagareyama in Chiba prefecture to Yotsuya in the middle of Tokyo. This is about half the length of the Tsukuba Express train line and by the time the train gets to my stop it's already pretty packed.
As you might expect for not having the time for basic necessities like sleep at home the train is a wonderful place to catch some Z's. This of course makes it awesome trying to catch people sleeping in the most unique positions. Some are pretty amazing like putting one's whole head between their knees and slumped over (I didn't think most adult spines bend that much) or just head back with the mouth wide open. Occasionally you'll find the occasional asleep standing up, the somewhat sad part is those people would probably be working that job in a good economy. There's also those that fake sleep. Why you ask? So you can pretend not so see the little old Obaasan hunched over from all that work in the rice fields back in the day trying to kill you with a soul sucking death stare.
In fact given the conditions you can't blame people for doing it. I'm convinced to concept of heaven in Japan is a reserved seat on a train. If you start at the end point of any line there's an interesting game of musical chairs. Everyone waiting will burst through the doors knocking down and trampling anything in their path to get a seat. They killed 3 Obaasans just to get there, like hell they're gonna give it up.
Equally as violent is when the train is full. It's not uncommon during rush hour to see the doors slide open and about 200 people standing. Too full...if you're an American. The grim reality is that the next train will be just as packed, in fact all of them for the next 2 hours. The proper procedure is to turn your back, this is so that you can't see the unfortunate victims behind you that will be crushed to death, and push against the top of the door. The person behind you will do the same until you have 50 people crammed into the area around the door without enough room to even breathe. In fact that's the ideal situation, lest you get a whiff of the smelly, sweaty mass of people (pray they all took a shower) or the women with too much perfume. If you can't fit yourself there is often a nice man with white gloves who is payed do his darnedest to make you fit. Try on a hot day with 100% humidity for extra discomfort.
Travelers Tip: Stand next to the pole by the door seats or try to make your way between the seats for extra room.
Don't get used to your place though since at the next stop you will be forced off the train and have to do it again. The effect is like pushing your finger against a water spout, move or be moved.
The one good thing about the train is it will strengthen your sense of balance. The majority of people won't have enough hand holds to stay upright, you just have to balance. Whats amazing is watching some of the women in stiletto heels, if only they could harness this power they could form an army of world-class ballet dancers. It's not perfect though. Every so often the train will slam the breaks a little bit hard and the whole mass will shift 3 feet the other direction, nothing left to do but topple the person next to you in a domino effect, which to be honest is quite amusing in person.
The reason something like this would happen is that the train in front is late. Trains are on time in Japan 99% of the time (actual figure) but every so often some one decides to throw themselves in front of one (I can't imagine why). This of course makes everyone else late and occasionally have tosit stand in a claustrophobic death trap for as much as an hour. In fact this happens so much (read: more than once per day) that they've created a handy toll system. Depending on which train you decide to throw yourself under they will send the bill for the appropriate amount directly to your family. Unfortunately for me the Chuou is the least expensive and thus has the most suicides. I suppose that's why for the trains on that line the suspension sounds like the moans of the dead trying to crawl their way outta hell.
First one must explain why they use trains. Aside from the many issues brought up about cars in one of my earlier posts it's worth noting that Tokyo is urban-centric. This means everyone commutes into Tokyo and leaves in the evening to go back to their suburban homes. Tokyo suburbs are basically defined as the area within a 2 hour commute to the city This unfortunately isn't a joke. Many people make the journey everyday to the city. Just imagine your 8 hour work day with another 4 tacked on in commuting. It's only made worse by the fact that your day doesn't end when you get your work done, it ends when your boss leaves and if your work group decides to hit the bars your attendance is mandatory. This is why people don't have kids and if they do the wife is a stay at home mother.
Luckily for many this is a little bit extreme, in fact the average commute is "only" 1 hour. For me it takes about this long to commute from Minaminagareyama in Chiba prefecture to Yotsuya in the middle of Tokyo. This is about half the length of the Tsukuba Express train line and by the time the train gets to my stop it's already pretty packed.
As you might expect for not having the time for basic necessities like sleep at home the train is a wonderful place to catch some Z's. This of course makes it awesome trying to catch people sleeping in the most unique positions. Some are pretty amazing like putting one's whole head between their knees and slumped over (I didn't think most adult spines bend that much) or just head back with the mouth wide open. Occasionally you'll find the occasional asleep standing up, the somewhat sad part is those people would probably be working that job in a good economy. There's also those that fake sleep. Why you ask? So you can pretend not so see the little old Obaasan hunched over from all that work in the rice fields back in the day trying to kill you with a soul sucking death stare.
In fact given the conditions you can't blame people for doing it. I'm convinced to concept of heaven in Japan is a reserved seat on a train. If you start at the end point of any line there's an interesting game of musical chairs. Everyone waiting will burst through the doors knocking down and trampling anything in their path to get a seat. They killed 3 Obaasans just to get there, like hell they're gonna give it up.
Equally as violent is when the train is full. It's not uncommon during rush hour to see the doors slide open and about 200 people standing. Too full...if you're an American. The grim reality is that the next train will be just as packed, in fact all of them for the next 2 hours. The proper procedure is to turn your back, this is so that you can't see the unfortunate victims behind you that will be crushed to death, and push against the top of the door. The person behind you will do the same until you have 50 people crammed into the area around the door without enough room to even breathe. In fact that's the ideal situation, lest you get a whiff of the smelly, sweaty mass of people (pray they all took a shower) or the women with too much perfume. If you can't fit yourself there is often a nice man with white gloves who is payed do his darnedest to make you fit. Try on a hot day with 100% humidity for extra discomfort.
Travelers Tip: Stand next to the pole by the door seats or try to make your way between the seats for extra room.
Don't get used to your place though since at the next stop you will be forced off the train and have to do it again. The effect is like pushing your finger against a water spout, move or be moved.
The one good thing about the train is it will strengthen your sense of balance. The majority of people won't have enough hand holds to stay upright, you just have to balance. Whats amazing is watching some of the women in stiletto heels, if only they could harness this power they could form an army of world-class ballet dancers. It's not perfect though. Every so often the train will slam the breaks a little bit hard and the whole mass will shift 3 feet the other direction, nothing left to do but topple the person next to you in a domino effect, which to be honest is quite amusing in person.
The reason something like this would happen is that the train in front is late. Trains are on time in Japan 99% of the time (actual figure) but every so often some one decides to throw themselves in front of one (I can't imagine why). This of course makes everyone else late and occasionally have to
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Japanese Bikes
As one might expect for a country with not enough space for cars and long walking commutes Japan is a country of bicycles. Though as expected as this is much of their views seem to fly in the face of American sensibilities even though the potential risk is much greater.
The standard Japanese bike is a large and cumbersome town bike that usually contains only one gear (which Abi affectionately dubbed "Go!"). A bike with multiple gears is somewhat more rare, but what's odd is that Japan is not flat, as it sits on top of very active fault lines the vast majority of the country is uneven which just makes it a total pain to maneuver around. They will always contain a basket to put your purse (women ride just as much as men and in short skirts and heels to boot) and a little bell to warn others of your approach except that would be rude so they just try to stealthily sneak by like ninjas often narrowly missing people and sharp objects.
This wouldn't be as bad if they had absolutely no concept of safety. A bike in Japan is a 2 person vehicle. It's not uncommon to see to classmates share a bike with one riding on the back in a really uncomfortable and unstable position as the driver is weaving in and out of unsuspecting pedestrians. Even better though is that parents usually take their offspring with them on the bike, putting them in metal seats that are fastened to the back or handlebars (sometime both if you have 2). If the bike falls over the child is pretty much screwed, but that doesn't always stop parents from speeding out of a blind corner and nearly missing you with their infant meat-shield.
They also don't wear helmets, ever. There's no way a respectable Japanese would ruin their nicely gelled hair, or perhaps Japanese research has shown that common hairstyles incorporate enough product to make it rigid enough to withstand a tumble onto concrete, which would hardly be surprising. Regardless of how much bodily harm you may potentially succumb to it's very important not to get wet though, because then you'd look quite foolish in the eyes of others. Japanese don't wear raincoats. You can buy them in many varieties but they don't use them instead opting to take umbrellas (parasols too if you feel your skin isn't transparent enough). You then wind up with these same people compounding everything noted above by riding on wet streets with one hand holding an umbrella. Now if you factor in the fact that umbrellas tend to pull in windy Tokyo you realize that Japanese have balls of steel. I've often wondered what the statistics are for umbrella impalement look like here, it's gotta be a lot.
Despite this I've yet to see someone take a spill. It's been very close, many times though. Asian may suck at driving but when it comes to bicycles they are unmatched.
The standard Japanese bike is a large and cumbersome town bike that usually contains only one gear (which Abi affectionately dubbed "Go!"). A bike with multiple gears is somewhat more rare, but what's odd is that Japan is not flat, as it sits on top of very active fault lines the vast majority of the country is uneven which just makes it a total pain to maneuver around. They will always contain a basket to put your purse (women ride just as much as men and in short skirts and heels to boot) and a little bell to warn others of your approach except that would be rude so they just try to stealthily sneak by like ninjas often narrowly missing people and sharp objects.
This wouldn't be as bad if they had absolutely no concept of safety. A bike in Japan is a 2 person vehicle. It's not uncommon to see to classmates share a bike with one riding on the back in a really uncomfortable and unstable position as the driver is weaving in and out of unsuspecting pedestrians. Even better though is that parents usually take their offspring with them on the bike, putting them in metal seats that are fastened to the back or handlebars (sometime both if you have 2). If the bike falls over the child is pretty much screwed, but that doesn't always stop parents from speeding out of a blind corner and nearly missing you with their infant meat-shield.
They also don't wear helmets, ever. There's no way a respectable Japanese would ruin their nicely gelled hair, or perhaps Japanese research has shown that common hairstyles incorporate enough product to make it rigid enough to withstand a tumble onto concrete, which would hardly be surprising. Regardless of how much bodily harm you may potentially succumb to it's very important not to get wet though, because then you'd look quite foolish in the eyes of others. Japanese don't wear raincoats. You can buy them in many varieties but they don't use them instead opting to take umbrellas (parasols too if you feel your skin isn't transparent enough). You then wind up with these same people compounding everything noted above by riding on wet streets with one hand holding an umbrella. Now if you factor in the fact that umbrellas tend to pull in windy Tokyo you realize that Japanese have balls of steel. I've often wondered what the statistics are for umbrella impalement look like here, it's gotta be a lot.
Despite this I've yet to see someone take a spill. It's been very close, many times though. Asian may suck at driving but when it comes to bicycles they are unmatched.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A Lesson in Social Manners
Writing funny sarcastic remarks is tiring work so this time I'll go more natural:
A few days ago I was informed that a number of high ranking officials from my University were going to Japan to talk to their study abroad partners. These included the Associate Vice Chancellor of Graduate Education and Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Direct of the Center for Asian Studies and Director of the Office for International Education. They also wanted to meet with students who were currently doing study abroad.
On Wednesday I got to meet with them. We went out to a coffee shop where we talked about the program and about Japan in general. I had a some mint drink that tasted like liquid mentos (ie the most delicious thing ever), luckily for me they paid for it because it was $7, but to put it in perspective a Coke at this place was $5. It was actually quite nice to sit out sit while a bunch of pedals rained down from the trees overhead.
As it would turn out I'm an anomaly, since engineers pretty much don't do study abroad or take language courses. Apparently they are launching new programs to try and fix that. Also, I found out that not a lot of guys do study abroad either, probably because they are most likely in the sciences.
Later we were invited to the Japanese CU Alumni association dinner. This took place at a nice restaurant/bar. Apparently the head of the association is president and CEO of both the Chiyoda Rubber Company, and Takato Corporation. I got his business card along with the president of the Surugaya Trading Company. The meeting was very unusual to me but a common thing in Japan. Of course there was an open bar, and about 30 people from the Alumni association. The associate itself apparently has about 400+ members. Most are old Japanese businessmen, many quite wealthy. There were a few younger guys who were there mainly to network. The food was very nice and buffet style but this poses an interesting conundrum. In Japan is is rude to eat while others are speaking to you. So of course when I get a little bit of food and sit down everybody wants to talk to me. This is true of everyone else so in the end despite the fact that there is a ton of great food it must be disposed because nobody is socially allowed to eat it except a few quick bite here and there. Everyone gave a little speech about themselves and their relation to the university.
Despite the dues being $70 that they dropped for us, I still had to go home hungry.
A few days ago I was informed that a number of high ranking officials from my University were going to Japan to talk to their study abroad partners. These included the Associate Vice Chancellor of Graduate Education and Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Direct of the Center for Asian Studies and Director of the Office for International Education. They also wanted to meet with students who were currently doing study abroad.
On Wednesday I got to meet with them. We went out to a coffee shop where we talked about the program and about Japan in general. I had a some mint drink that tasted like liquid mentos (ie the most delicious thing ever), luckily for me they paid for it because it was $7, but to put it in perspective a Coke at this place was $5. It was actually quite nice to sit out sit while a bunch of pedals rained down from the trees overhead.
As it would turn out I'm an anomaly, since engineers pretty much don't do study abroad or take language courses. Apparently they are launching new programs to try and fix that. Also, I found out that not a lot of guys do study abroad either, probably because they are most likely in the sciences.
Later we were invited to the Japanese CU Alumni association dinner. This took place at a nice restaurant/bar. Apparently the head of the association is president and CEO of both the Chiyoda Rubber Company, and Takato Corporation. I got his business card along with the president of the Surugaya Trading Company. The meeting was very unusual to me but a common thing in Japan. Of course there was an open bar, and about 30 people from the Alumni association. The associate itself apparently has about 400+ members. Most are old Japanese businessmen, many quite wealthy. There were a few younger guys who were there mainly to network. The food was very nice and buffet style but this poses an interesting conundrum. In Japan is is rude to eat while others are speaking to you. So of course when I get a little bit of food and sit down everybody wants to talk to me. This is true of everyone else so in the end despite the fact that there is a ton of great food it must be disposed because nobody is socially allowed to eat it except a few quick bite here and there. Everyone gave a little speech about themselves and their relation to the university.
Despite the dues being $70 that they dropped for us, I still had to go home hungry.
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