Bonus: Yamanote at rush hour

Dave, my muse for my Tokyo adventures, suggested in one of his emails to me that I should “somehow” get to Shinjuku station on a weekday morning and try to get on the JR Yamanote line bound for Shibuya somewhere just before 8. In fact, I think his instructions are worth quoting: “The first challenge is to somehow get on the rush-hour Yamanote train between 7:50am and 8:00am. HA! The second challenge is to somehow get off at Shibuya (about three stations from Shinjuku). HA HA!!”

Well, I didn’t quite pull it off. But, it happens that returning from Tsukiji did put me on the Yamanote line right at 7:40. I was on the opposite side of the loop, though, so I wasn’t quite able to take up Dave’s challenge. I don’t think I’ll be trying it tomorrow with luggage, either. HA HA HAH!! Plus, of course, this is golden week, so I suspect that the trains were not as busy as a normal day.

Still, it was definitely the most crowded I’ve seen any of the trains. The pic above was snapped after I got on at Shimbashi, and it is much less crowded than it was immediately before I got on.

It dawned on me after a few minutes that they actually seem to use different rolling stock in the morning rush. These trains have seats, but they fold up and out of the way. There were absolutely no seats deployed in my car — standing room only. I’m also reasonably sure that these aren’t just seats-folded versions of the same cars as I’ve been riding in my other trips, because the railing and hand-hold layout is also different.

The passenger complement was interesting. It was split almost 50-50 between businessmen and school boys in uniform. Anyway, I wish I could somehow buy stock in dark blue suits in Tokyo. Wow.

This, most likely, will be my last update from Japan. I leave tomorrow early afternoon, so the morning will be spent checking out and heading for Narita. I was hoping to go to Harajuku this afternoon, but even after a nap on returning from Tsukiji, I’m beat. Plus, it’s cold and raining. So, I’ve spent a quiet afternoon around the hotel, and I think I’m going to call it quits. There’s a restaurant here that advertises that they have Kobe beef, so perhaps that will be dinner.

Farewell, Japan!