Sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka? - Pushing people into the crowded trains

On an average, three to four visitors of this blog comes from a google search for “Pushing people into the train in Japan”. The google analytics gave this statistical data of visitors from different parts of the world to this blog. It was interesting to know that people from 79 countries out of 167 countries searched for “Pushing people into train in Japan”. This shows the popularity of this “pushing” in Japan in the outside world.

It took around 10 months after reaching to Japan for me to realize this phenomenon and on November 2008 for the first time I noticed one such pushing. I might have come across similar scenes but could not have noticed while rushing for own entry into the train. As many things are unique for Japan, it seems, this pushing people into the train is one the unique phenomena to Japan. I like to call it ‘phenomenon’ irrespective of the creation of this action. It might have formed as part of the subway journey requirements over a period of time.

Unlike in many other countries, the subway discipline is much stronger and strictly followed in Japan. Even if the trains are late due to some unexpected reason, passengers keep their patience. Japanese people generally would not deviate from their disciplined behavior and they follow the beeline into the trains too even if they know that they are going to be late if not rushed to the crowded trains. Trains towards Tokyo are terribly crowded in the morning hours. For almost all, it is a rush holding the time in hand. If any of the connecting train is missed or becomes late, reaching at the office will be delayed. Being late to the office is considered a shame in Japanese companies, where work is given the topmost priority.

What prompted me to write this blog post with a heading like ‘Sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ is one of the interesting conversation heard recently in the crowded Toei Shinjuku train, which I could managed to board from Higashi Ojima to Morishita. There was snow in the morning and due to troubles in the Keisei line, the trains in the Shinjuku line were also got delayed. I think, this was the reason for delay, if my understanding of the announcement in Japanese language made on the platform was correct! I have to frankly admit my inability to catch Japanese words.

When the train stopped at Nishi Ojima station, two stations from Higashi Ojima, and the doors opened, I could see many ‘heads’ waiting outside that were eager to enter to the train. Hardly there was space for them enter. The people inside the train were already crammed that entry of some more people into the train was almost impossible. It was hard for the closed door to open at the Nishi-Ojima station as the crowd inside was sticking to the doors. The time was almost 9:00 and everybody knew that they were going to be late in the office. That might had been the same feeling of people waiting at the platform too.

I was sure, only one or two managed to put their legs into the train, but with them in that position the doors could not be closed. It was then the driver appeared on the scene. The two passengers who managed to put their legs inside the train were struggling to get their body inside when the doors tried to close. It was impossible to close the doors with their body almost outside!

I could see the ‘heads’ and hear some sounds. I could hear a male voice asking ‘Sumimasen, Oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ and then a female voice ‘onegaishimasu’. Then the crowd inside felt a ‘Push’ from outside. The pressure from outside might have pushed the owner of the female voice inside the train! We were almost squeezed and there were grudges and exhaling sounds inside. The doors were closed and the train moved.

For me, the incident was an opportunity for revision and practice of one of the often used Japanese words ‘Oshimasu’. Oshimasu is one of the Japanese words I learned in lesson 16 of Minna no Nihongo I book. Oshimasu is the polite form for pushing or pressing. Minna no nihongo have examples of sentences using oshimasu and osu to. Osu is the dictionary form of Oshimasu. We learned the oshimasu, oshite, oshita, osanai and osu form to make sentences where we need to press or push any kind of button or keys.

Use of Oshimasu in subway trains to push the people into the train was a new knowledge for me. I went skeptic on what I might have heard. When confirmed from friends and sensei, I got an idea of the usage of oshimasu in subway trains also. The meaning of the conversation ‘sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ is ‘excuse me, is it OK if I push you?’ and the female voice replied politely ‘Yes, please (do)’.

This is not really an extraordinary or odd incident to write a blog post, but being a foreigner having no such experiences in the past, it stimulated me to think of the discipline, obedience, politeness and after all the compassion in the society where I do live. Is it not the manifestation of ‘compassion’ in Japanese society that I have heard through the words ‘sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ I mean the compassion in the sense of consideration, care, concern and kindness. I do not intend to use compassion in the meaning of ‘sympathy’ or ‘empathy’ here. Pushing people into train is a form of that consideration from the side of the person who pushes passengers into the crowded train. He helps them to reach their offices in time!

When the castles of good images of Japan falls down in the mind…..

Some of my preconceived notions were getting jolts when encountered with an incident of discrimination though not directed at me. I saw it happened at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station while waiting for train towards Higashi Ojima. Though I tried to convince myself that the acts of racism were not due to the skin color of the victim, I could hardly succeed in convincing myself. There were no other reasons to believe it was not due to skin color. If I could guess correctly, probably it was due to the hate towards a particular race.

And Japan is known for it as many of the personal bloggers declare with their own experiences. I defended many of the negative opinions expressed about Japanese people through this blog.

In acts of discrimination there are always three parties involved. The one who shows the hate feelings, the victim of discrimination towards whom the acts of the racists are expressed publicly and the third one are the witnesses. I was at the third position of witness and was watching the discriminator’s actions as he walked through the plat-form from where the victim was standing in the queue.

At first I thought of not writing about this incident as it may project Japan and its majority good and kind people in a detrimental manner. The discriminator here may be an exception from the vast majority of friendly Japanese people. Though an odd event, I could observe contrary to what I have been telling to my friends that I have never seen any kind of discrimination in Japan. This one of course was pure racist comments he spat on the plat-form with his antagonistic foul mouth.

Let me come out openly with what happened. I was coming down to the plat-form in the escalator at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station. The time was around 6:40 in the evening. The pink car is no more reserved for women. I used to board into the first compartment/car since it will reach first at the Komatsugawa exit by the time the train reaches Higashi Ojima.

There was standing a person who might be from one of the many countries of African continent. The physical characteristics of people including the skin color gives sufficient clue to guess the region and race of them. The person in black was gentle in his position, dress and looks. The moment he entered in a queue, I could see the Japanese young man who was already standing in the front looked at the guy in black and uttered some words in Japanese. The J-man walked away with an angry face and he showed as if he spit on the plat-form. This was to show his unlikeness to the person in black.

We, the witnesses could not see any reason for the J-man’s anger except the one that the B-man stood in his back of queue. They had to travel together once they enter inside the train. The J-man might have dislike towards the B-man’s race. There were no other reason I could guess in mind.

The witnesses of the J-man’s venomous words were just witnessing and did not show any surprise at his action. That is the great thing with Japanese people I have observed. Japanese people have an expressionless face towards many of the events in public.

What was the reaction of the B-man? He was engaged in eating chewing gum as if nothing new has happened. Some of the people walking were looking at his reaction, but he was not looking at anybody. He was gentle in his stand and the J-man was the ugly one showed up his foul mouth at the public place. Who is the winner here!

This one event looks different and dirty among other pages of life in Japan so far. Though not a victim of Japanese racism and discrimination towards foreigners, it hurts my feelings. At many incidents, some witnesses bear deep wounds than the victims. Still I bear the wounds and remember the moment I get down to the plat-form. That plat-form was the place where the castles of flatter on Japan built from the images of beautiful and kind people fell down in my mind. Still I like to believe this is an odd incident.

A trip to Asakusa - City of temples in Tokyo

It was from Morishita sensei that I heard about Asakusa first time while I was attending Japanese language class at OVTA. She mentioned about Asakusa while referring the Japanese word ‘Omiyage’. Omiyage in Japanese means gift or presentation. She told, there are plenty of traditional Japanese Omiyage shops in Asakusa.

Asakusa is a tourist spot both for people visiting in Tokyo from other parts of Japan and for foreigners. Today I got that opportunity to go to Asakusa. In fact, I was thinking to visit Asakusa for quite sometime after hearing about this place from Morishita sensei. I made the trip with a friend who was also wishing to visit Asakusa.

Asakusa is famous for its Sensoji temple. It is a Buddhist temple. Asakusa is a district in Taito Tokyo. There are several more temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals. Asakusa is a traditional Japanese city famous for its temples and festivals.

Coming out of the A4 exit of Asakusa line (Tokyo metro), we asked the way to a Japanese girl standing in front of the exit. She could partly understand our broken Japanese, but she could manage to direct us to the desired location. We walked to the location to where she pointed her finger.

There were many foreign people on the road. I was surprised by seeing the man pulling rickshaws on the road. There are still these kind of old traditional vehicles seen in Tokyo! I could not resist taking photos of those rickshaws on the Asakusa road. I had a wrong notion that rickshaws are popular in India only. Now I realized that was my biggest mistake. I have seen a plenty of human powered rickshaws in India’s Northern states. Still those are bicycle connected. Human pulling rickshaws are considered a human rights violation.

In Asakusa, these rickshaws are maintained as part of tourism. Nobody really want to travel long distances in rickshaws. Sitting and travelling in human pulling rickshaws bring back memories of past mode of transportation. Later I learned that in Japan also rickshaws were popular. Probably I made a big mistake before realizing now that the word rickshaw have its origin in Japanese word Jinrikisha.

In Jinrikisha, we can see a combination of three words like Jin, riki, and sha. The word ‘Jin’ means human or person, ‘riki’ means power or force, and the word ‘sha’ is for vehicle. So, the word ‘Jinrikisha’ is human-powered vehicle! It was a new knowledge for me when my friend explained the concept of Rickshaw. Moreover, my wrong concepts of origin of human powered vehicles were being rewritten when I visited Asakusa. English people called human-powered vehicles ‘Pedicabs’.

Asakusa is famous for its ‘Omiyage’ shops. The street that leads to the Sensoji temple and the nearest area are full of Omiyage shops. We could see many women dressed in Traditional Japanese kimono. Asakusa is famous for geisha population also, I heard.

Asakusa was the center of entertainment in Tokyo for a most part of 20th century Japanese life. Now the attraction for entertainment has shifted to Shinjuku from Asakusa. Still Asakusa is famous for its classical Japanese films as many of the tourists are elderly Japanese who visit Buddhist and Shinto temples of Asakusa.