Friday, March 21, 2008   1:24 PM

Commuting Scenes

Mutant Garden Dwarf, Osaki

Typical view from the train window.

Train delays in Tokyo

Wrong kind of wind. Also, those exotic characters above the word "accident" actually spell "車両点検", which translates as "rolling stock inspection", which is usually an euphemism for "whoops, the train broke down. Something "lost in translation" there, methinks.

Transfer JR - Keikyu lines at Shinagawa

Changing trains. The big red characters say "THIS IS NOT AN EXIT". On the other side of the automatic ticket gates is the Keikyu Line, a private and completely separate entity to JR (the former state railway), from whose "territory" this photo was taken.

Late-running trains at Shinagawa

Through the barrier, the consequences of the above-mentioned "accident" become painfully visible. Note the discrepancy between departure times displayed on the board and the actual time displayed on the clock. Yes, Japanese trains can be up to 10 minutes late!


Posted in Life in Japan
Comments
or from what I've experienced, an hour and a half late! Gasp!
Posted by: lina | 2008-03-21 14:56
1.5 hours! Wow. It might have been something to do with the weather, high winds can really make a mess of things. Mind you, when stuff starts getting messed up, they keep you pretty-well informed (albeit mainly in Japanese) and do their best to set things right (unlike say in the UK, where the chances are high you'd be dumped at some provincial station with nary a hint of an explanation).
Posted by: ThePenguin | 2008-03-22 02:19
if in my country, whatever the reason for a train delay, be it heavy rain, flood, malfunction, accident... the reason announce will always be : technical problem.

there were announcements, the only word I could catch was taihen. not much help for us. lucky I was able to pick up the announcement that our next train will also be delayed and the new time it'll leave the station so we don't sweat that much thinking we might need to look for a hotel room in the middle of the night.
Posted by: lina | 2008-03-22 11:18