I glance over the Japanese News everyday. Usually there isn't much going on. We don't have stuff like the Martin - Zimmerman trial going on here.
Here is something that I saw in this mornings news that made me go "WTF?"
It seems that a 30-year-old girl fell down in between the opening on the train platform and the train (looks like the Keihin Kyuko going to Isogo - towards Yokohama way from Tokyo. I don't know what station this is). And, in order to get her out, the station workers had to ask for and enlist the help of passengers to push the train far enough away from the platform so that the girl could get out!
Like I said, "What the....?"
"Heave ho!"
Anyway, this impressed me for two reasons. One; how in the hell does a 30-year-old woman actually fall through the crack between the train and the platform??? Now, I've seen some places where the gap was pretty wide, maybe 7 or 8 inches... But an adult falling through to the ground? I know lots of Japanese girls are really skinny, but that's ridiculous! (I have, in many drunken stupors feared falling through the cracks, though!)
The other thing that impresses me is that, in 30 years in Japan, I have never seen or heard of such a thing. Now, I don't mean that I've never heard, "Don't fall through the cracks!" But that's like something your mom would tell you that never happens (like when you are playing with a stick or a plastic sword) ala; "Be careful with that or you'll poke someone's eye out!"
Uh, no mom. That never happens, OK?
But this girl actually did fall through! And THE KICKER, in this internet and smartphone age, is that people were there to take photos of it and upload them to the Internet immediately.... So now, it's not just hearsay that someone fells through the cracks; there's photographic proof...
Maybe I will be more careful walking on the train platform and maybe I won't be swinging around my umbrella next time like Luke Skywalker...
Might fall through the cracks,... but not before, of course, poking somebody's eye out!
1 comment:
This is just incredibly silly and dangerous. I mean, was there an official, government-certified train-pusher on the scene? This is unbelievably irresponsible! Anything might have happened! Someone ELSE might have fallen through the cracks! Or the train could have been pushed right over! And did the train line go through the proper channels to request permission to tilt the train!
This just goes to show how spontaneously, sweetly kind and sensible human beings can be when other human beings are in trouble. This must be stopped!
(It's called sarcasm, folks!)
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