ShawnRoe

Exiting the speed train from Narita International airport, we transferred to the local line that would take us from the busy Shinjuku Station three stops over to where my friend grew up: the more residential area of Tokyo known as Nakano (not to be confused with Nagano where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held).

The first cultural difference I was taught on this subway/train was that it is against the rules to talk. Yes, that’s right: no talking on Tokyo trains on weekdays. Hundreds of commuters on public transportation heading home from work, out to shop, over to a friend’s house, etc. and one must respect the rules of a library. Coming from America, this surprised and somewhat perplexed me.

Don’t get me wrong: I get it. It makes sense. Nobody wants to hear high school kids chatting on their cell phones, or old men and women discussing whatever it is they discuss. Nobody wants to hear how drunk some college kid plans to get this weekend. I get it. But, I thought this idea to be a bit like communism: good on paper but practically impossible to put into practice. Not so in Tokyo. Library silence at 5:00 pm on a subway in Tokyo; the kind where if you talk, you feel awkward because you’re the only one and you sound disproportionately loud.

The caveat is that this only holds for Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday on a subway/train is what you would expect (if you come from New York, D.C., or Chicago). People are chatting at average volumes on the subways on Sunday and you wonder if you’re in the same city. But if it’s Thursday, hold your tongue.

The story goes that older businessmen get easily angered by others talking on the train. Public transportation is their chauffeur to and from work, and they don’t want others annoying them while in route. Legend holds that when somebody would talk on the subway, older men would yell at the person to be quiet. With the culture of respect, if the younger person didn’t quiet down, the older man would feel justified to start a scene or even get in a fight. The train conductor would be called upon to take care of the matter and this would sometimes delay the train. With the sometimes robotic-like culture of punctuality in Japan, nobody wants a late train, especially during rush hour, so the (unwritten?) rule was put into effect: Monday to Friday there’s no talking on the train.

Just as this story doesn’t do the experience justice, neither does the video below. But watching it won’t hurt.