Yesterday I returned to Shinjuku and Shibuya to fill some shopping requests. I set out to arrive when the shops opened, which meant rush hour on Tokyo trains!
When we first came to Japan train pushers (men that pushed people onto trains) were still a thing, but these days the trains are more frequent so they’re not required. However at rush hour the trains still fill to near-bursting, and you can tell from the above pic why I waited for the next one.
When it came it filled up very quickly, and then the compression began. The strategy is to back onto a full train, pushing your way forcefully inwards compressing those behind you. For such a polite society people can be rather extreme in the way the push themselves onto trains, but I suppose Tokyo commuters get used to it. I was a human sardine for a few stations, until we reached Tokyo station and most got off.
There were heat warnings all over the news and even in the trains yesterday. The ambient temperature wasn’t too high (about 85F) but the humidity was incredible and walking outside for even short distances was draining. It was a day of shuffling from air conditioning to air conditioning 🙂
My shopping was a great success, although some of the things I purchased were heavy so my arm was tired when I got back over seven hours later!
Naturally I spent a few hours in Akihabara shops and arcades as well. In Hirose arcade I put ¥100 in the Ultraman shooter and it didn’t work so I asked an employee to check. One thing led to another, escalating up the chain with each employee getting older until this:
It turns out the coin got stuck somewhere in the machine and he had to almost get inside to free it! While he was doing this, I saw a bee fly out from behind the machine! I didn’t want to alarm him so I said nothing and hoped there wasn’t a nest in there somewhere. He fixed things, gave me my ¥100 back, and gave me 4 credits for my patience 🙂
