It does happen in Japan - 15....

‘Inside the train fun’ factor in Japan.....


Ok. Here comes more on HUMAN-READING of Japanese people (‘Jappus’) which, of late, has become my prime hobby that catches the top spot on my priority list, not intentionally but on reflex. Though the title looks a bit awkward, I somehow like the way it has been named. The awkwardness is crisp.

In Japan, trains are the primary means of transport showing exemplary punctuality unlike Indian Railways where trains, even if there being an easy possibility for reaching on time, always reach late just for one simple reason. “It’s INDIA and that is why”.

Since trains being the primary transport here in Japan, for any trip that you set-out for, you get to spend atleast about 20% of your trip-time on trains. There have been trips where train-travel –time has constituted to about 60% of the total time too. So, for HUMAN-READERS, this can be their best time. Trains in Japan are one of the few places where one gets less bored. I am talking of people-readers here. But, if any particular compartment has got a good variety in it in terms of men, girls, cute girls (An intentional ‘stress’), lovers, drunkard (very less though), silent bystanders, mentally retarded, soul mates, book-readers, cell-phone lovers (almost all), make-up kit possessors (almost all girls), make-up kit users (90% of the girls) so on and so forth, then even the non-people-readers (a new word, this one) get allured and enticed to the minute happenings that take place, which, infact, get really interesting at times.

If you are on a 4-hour journey, for instance, and have decided to take a good nap during this train journey, kindly forget having such bad notions and assumptions. Kindly sleep well the previous night, because taking a good nap in trains is less possible for the reason that, even in the quietest of compartments having almost no variety in them, you will have frequent announcements battering your ears informing you on the approaching station, no smoking rules, cell-phone rules, vote of thanks for choosing that particular train to travel, as though you chose that intentionally, so on and so forth, all of them in Japanese language too. But there is always one good way-out to escape this. I-POD on to your ears. Though, this way-out is closed for me since from the day, when I had put my I-POD earphones in washing machine for a thorough rinse.

Coming to the ‘variety’ compartment, if it’s about 7:30 am in the morning, one can find a lot of fresh young school girls, with their natural beauty tarnished to an extent that is directly proportional to the amount of money their parents can afford, for a make-up kit. While in India, parents spend their morning time packing our lunch boxes, filling water-bottles, tying shoe laces (which in anyway, is going to un-tie automatically in a few minutes), in Japan kids do all these on their own, probably and the only thing their parents do is apply a variety of make-up on to them, in short, ‘spoil’ them. So, you’ll find a lot of young girls yelling to the peak of their voices, bursting into laughter, showing all sorts of expressions that are in a current-day dictionary. Oops!! Yes. There were boys too, sitting quiet without uttering a word. Sorry, I forgot to notice them.

Though lovers cuddling each other, mentally retarded doing some odd actions can all rarely be seen, if by chance, they are present, you must make sure that none of the group sits besides you else you are tossed. You shall reach the height of uneasiness and shall be forced to change your place. But, if you are far from them, you can have a good time noticing their mischievous acts. If it is about evening and you are in a variety compartment, four major things that you can notice are book-reading, cell-phone gaming, sleeping with head-tilted downwards, hairs completely hiding their faces & making-up using make-up kits. Though the first three acts are quite normal in any country, this ‘make-up’ act in trains is really strange.

It’s all an algorithm flow here. A typical process flow would be, a girl [girl-A] gets into the train, takes a seat, settles herself down, takes a good look at the compartment to check, if there is a better girl. No one. Takes another good look around the compartment to check, if at-least some 3 to 4 boys are looking at her, admiring her so-called ‘beauty’. YES. OK. They are. She gets satisfied for the moment, takes out a good book and starts reading. The next station, another girl [girl-B] gets in, happens to be better than this girl-A, while girl-B repeats the complete process flow explained above, girl-A does an extra process, she checks if those 4 boys have turned their heads towards girl-B. If yes, she hurriedly opens-up her make-up kit, enhances her ‘beauty’ and re-checks once again. 2 boys turn back to her again. She gets 50% satisfied. At this point girl-C enters and this ‘silent beauty fight’ continues and the intensity is directly proportional to the number of the girls present inside the train at any given time. It would all be real-fun to notice these minute things. But this is no exaggerated version. It all happens and HUMAN-READERS shall be having the best of their times, silently.