Yesterday I experienced something crazy and I must share...
Let me preface this story by saying...It was Friday night and I left work around 6:00pm ish to take the train down to Maihama (aka Tokyo Disneyland) to meet up with my two friends, Gina and Caroline. We grabbed some dinner (I had a BTL yummmm) and then bought tickets to watch the 9:15pm showing of Pan, a cute movie about Peter Pan that was in English!
We enjoyed the movie and around 11:30pm we got out of there and I thought to myself...okay cool, I still have time to get back home.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Trains in Japan are NOT 24/7. The last train comes at around 12:30am or so depending on what station you're at and where you're going. Usually the first train isn't until 4:30am or 5:00am...so be careful!
Okay back to the story...so I say bye to Gina and Caroline and head to my designated track only to find that my train wasn't going to arrive for another 30 minutes. It's coming at 11:53pm. Okay. So I chill out for a while and when the train comes I immediately think to myself... uhhh ohh. bad idea.
SARDINES. Thats the only word I can think of. The train was PACKED. Like sardines in a can. It was crazy. I stepped in hesitantly...and wiggled my way to the back door to try and lean again the wall or something. We took the train one stop over and just when I thought you couldn't possibly get any closer to a stranger...the train doors open and 20 more people are standing there begging to get in.
I said a little prayer, closed my eyes, and endured the squeeeeeeeze as the train became more packed than I ever imagined. A business man on my left squished between me and the door, the end of the benches behind me, the man sitting on the bench's leg jabbing into my knee, a woman's armpit directly in my right eyeball, and two people about five inches from my face. You think I'm exaggerating...I'm not!
We rode like this for a few station and honestly, I was holding in a giggle the entire time. It was one of those moment in life when you're like...this is too crazy to be true, right? Like...are my eyes really seeing this right now?? I laughed to myself and just let it happen. Thankfully, after a few stations (a few too many if you ask me) most of the people got off and I was relinquished from my terribly uncomfortable position between 7 strangers.
Phew.
Good news is, I made it back on one of the last trains to come through my station and learned a valuable lesson - see an earlier movie.
*photos from another day taking the trains in Tokyo...I didn't take any from the sardine train because my arms were to squished to reach for my phone..but you get the idea.