It was friday night and a crowd of overenthusiastic teens and twens reminded me that I am in Germany. I was travelling with the local metro system to go to my brother’s place. I wasn’t surprised since it’s really normal to see young people getting drunk (call it preheating if you like) before going to a club.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind people drinking and I’m aware that buying alcohol strengthens the economy as well as governments budget due to taxation. But sitting next to people yelling and singing with bottles of different kind of beverages is totally annoying.

Whereas I don’t know if there are similar situations in your country I can tell I didn’t notice this in Japan.

The Japanese railway systems, talking about train and metro as I haven’t tried the Shinkansen are an out of world experience:

The Commuter Army:

Tokyo and surroundings has over 30 million inhabitants so it’s logical that most people use metro and train services to get around. You will see scholars, students and every kind of clerk and manager going to their respective places of labour. You will recognise them because they wear uniforms. Between 6.00-8.00 am it’s rush hour, you will prefer to stay at home or anywhere else, but not in the train if you can avoid.

The Forbidden Wagon:

It’s not forbidden to enter any wagons (unless it’s rush hour, then the first wagon is often a “ladies only” wagon to prevent sexual abuse and embarassing situations for men that get stuck between many women). But you won’t drink alcohol while on the train! To be honest you won’t drink or eat anything at all while on the train. You won’t use your mobile as a Ghettoblaster – What a relief, it’s really annoying in Germany these days. By the way, your PDA, Smartphone, mobile, pager, whatever you have, will be quiet as a baby while sleeping. The Magic words: Manner Mode.

Cemetary Express:

Most of people are silent, nobody is calling or getting calls and if you dare to be the exception you will attract the looks of other passengers, while you are talking to friends or family you will turn around because you have the feeling you are the only one speaking in the carriage, well, you might be. And even when you think there are far too many people there will always be enough space for another human body. Some of these situations might be familiar to you if you have visited a cemetary, but I am talking about my experience of Japanese Railway Systems.

The Secret Garbage:

It’s clean! The train, the seats, the flooring of the wagons, yes, even the stations! Must be because everybody throws away their trash on the rubbish bins, right? Hmmm, nope. In fact, I have neither seen rubbish bins in trains nor on all train stations. But you will find vending machines to produce your own garbage after you had your drink or food. You can’t find any place to throw it away? Carry it around until you can, don’t you dare to throw it on the floor!

The Magic Line:

I don’t know how they do it, but it works. Whether at 10.00 am or 6.00 pm, in Akihabara or Shinjuku; you will always find the passengers cueing to get into the train after they let out those who arrived at their destination. I mean, I thought Germany was kind of a civilized country, but as soon as the doors of the train open chaos emerges of the darkness: A bunch of people (like at markets) will try to get in, sometimes not even waiting until those who want to get out left the wagon!

The Japanese Dreamer:

When you think about people working sometimes 70-90 hours a week one is likely to think that people don’t have time to dream or pursue any fantastic thoughts. However, get on a train after 9.00 pm and you will see something completely different: Some of the commuters are reading every different kind of Manga and those whose eyes are tired fall asleep on any of the empty seats and will amazingly wake up when they need to get out.

I want to go somewhere else!

Have you ever bought a ticket for train or subway and already on the line you change plans and would like to go somewhere else but remember you already bought a ticket which is only valid for the distance purchased? That’s one of my favourite features of Tokyo railway systems: You can buy any ticket as cheap as you want and before leaving your destination you just have to use a “fare-adaption-machine” to pay the difference from the ticket you paid and the one you would have had to buy!

The Truth about Henry Ford’s T-Model:

Most people knows Ford’s T-Model was the first car mass produced on assembly lines, a revolution that changed the way cars are produced for over one hundred years now. In my humble opinion, however, Henry Ford went to Tokyo and travelled by train, saw the highly reliable train system which is unlikely to be late, transporting thousands of people daily (back in the early 20th century; over 3 million people daily!!)  and had his great idea! Railway systems in Tokyo indeed look like a great assembly line where all parts (in our case people) will be supplied in different stations. He thought nobody would buy a “Ford Tokyo-Model” so he simply used the short form. The T-Model was born and rewrote history!

Now let’s get back to reality.

Japan – role model for public transport

I made this experience, not only in central Tokyo, but also in smaller cities in Saitama Prefecture on all busses, trains and metro lines. It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily same all over Japan, but if it works in the Tokyo, area with 20 million commuters a day it is likely to be similar in other cities as well. Once, I had to wait for a bus in Sayama City (less than 150.000 inhabitants) and I was rather relaxed despite the blizzering cold, because it’s hell of a job to be punctual on every single station!

I wished more companies in other countries would have a close look on Japanese public transport to find possibilities to improve the service and quality of their own systems. I do believe that it would make a big difference to many people who are still using their cars if they knew they can rely on public transport in terms of time and aesthetics. Moreover, it’s a great possibility to make our streets a bit cleaner by reducing air pollution and stress!

Best regards,

Andrés