the wonders of train stations
April 1st, 2006just a foreword notifying you that pepsi nex is out! i guess they are just trying to be like coke in bringing out a new zero sugar drink… tencho says it tastes sweet. i’m not up to trying it myself :p
today i set off to my next and final destination in japan – himeji. ill be studying here for quite a while and won’t be doing any major travel.
shinkansen is my vehicle of choice – also my first time on a non-hikari shinkansen. unfortunately this one seemed like it was older than hikari 
ok. i found a few interesting things at tokyo station in the hour i had waiting for my shinkansen. first is this “switch”, which looks more like a dial. they are located on every shinkansen platform. now what could this be used for, i hear you asking yourself. the notice below reads that it should be used in the case of emergency to stop incoming trains. they shouldve just put a sign saying “suicide switch” or something.
speaking of suiciding – i was speaking with mao about the suicide rate in japan. he said rail services are often stopped because of such cases, often delaying whole train lines for many hours at a time. the funniest part is, if someone happens to suicide, their family is made to pay a *large* sum of money to JR to cover the loss of service. lol.
ok. there’s this tiny door, about half the height that would be required for even a japanese person to fit through. its located halfway up the stairs. and then you see these girls dressed in pink crawling out of it… only in japan! even a few of the japanese were laughing as they watched.
finally, this guy was the 駅員 in charge of this platform. he may not look it, but he is carrying a wireless microphone with the power to do a lot of stuff… like turn on all those cool sounds and boom his voice over the system. in front of him is a control panel thats opened by a digital pad, which allows him to tell the train when to go. so he stands there with his uber mic and red baton/flag thing doing these hand signals in all 4 directions to make sure the train is ready to go or something, then hes like yosh! gogogo. and the train leaves. looks like a fun job :d
himeji is nice. the house i’m staying in is huuuge (for a japanese house anyway) and i have a stable net connection and a room to myself 
. life is good. more to come
That guy in the last pic looks really dodgy.
i want to see what’s behind that tiny door..
don’t you know, its that world thats inside guu’s mouth