As I often write, Japanese are the most polite and considerate people in the world, an important thing when you’ve got a little under half the population of the United States living on four islands with the combined area the size of Montana. When you get on a train here you know that it’ll be a pleasant train ride, with people switching their phones into “manner mode” (vibration mode) and generally making sure to avoid causing inconvenience to people around them. There are exceptions of course, like the occasional disturbed individual who thinks that a crowded train is a great place to start raging against Japanese society. Also, for some reason the ultra-tanned fashion-rebels called gyaru who appear in each issue of Egg are usually okay with breaking the taboo of having a phone conversation on a train — it’s as if smashing through one barrier of conformity made it easier to break through others as well. But for the most part, traveling inside Japan is a pleasure.
Random train etiquette wisdom from Australia.
