I went to a barbecue party with people from work yesterday (great party, lots of fun), and to get there, I took the train and had four transfers–quite a few escalators and staircases along the way. Not to mention a few new train lines. One of them was the Tsukuba Express Line, which had an interesting feature common to most new train lines: a platform guard wall, pictured below.

When the train stops, the gate doors open with the train doors. Japanese trains have always stopped at exact locations relative to the platforms (locations marked on the floor of the platforms for waiting passengers to line up at), which is necessary anyway for this to work.

Considering the tendency of many Japanese suicides to use jumping off railroad platforms as a tool for demise, this seems a prudent measure–though I suppose someone determined enough, and in good enough shape, could easily vault the fence anyway. However, this being Japan, I wouldn’t be too surprised if even suicides decided that it would be too uncouth to do so.

One other feature of the train line is, from what I could determine without my computer along to test it, is an on-train wireless Internet connection. Most of the articles I read seemed a bit unclear about whether it was free or not, but a few said it was only available to DoCoMo users. Still, it seems a new thing, and if it spreads and is opened up to anyone for free, it’d be a big new reason to take the train–if you can get a seat, of course.

Right now, however, I don’t take the train much for a few different reasons. First, I have never been comfortable with the sanitation of being crammed together in those cars with so many people with god alone knows what viruses and so forth. I’d wear a surgical mask, but they don’t make one here that works effectively with a nose as big as mine, not that I think it’d make that much of a difference. And on cold days, one can see the windows not just fogged, but dripping with precipitation–which, when one considers it, is really saliva exhaled in mist form from all the passengers on the train, dripping down the sides of all the glass surfaces. Ewww.

Second, there’s the footwork involved. I live in a place where I have to walk five minutes to a bus station, then take a seven minute ride to the train station, then walk for about 400 meters up and down several levels to transfer to the subway line to get to my school, and then walk from the station. The wait between the bus and the train is usually long, as the bus arrives at the station just as the every-20-minutes express train leaves; it’s a choice between taking the local and transferring to a crowded express halfway there, or waiting almost 20 minutes for an express I can sit down on. Coming home, I can get a seat–if I am willing to stand in line an extra 10-15 minutes to get on a subsequent train.

Relative to that, taking my scooter has too many advantages to give it up. A guaranteed seat, door-to-door transport, and taking into consideration the walking, buses, and transfers, it’s actually quite a bit faster than taking the train. Disadvantages include inclement weather (though the scooter is lovely in hot weather), and the dangers of driving in Tokyo. But for the time being, at least, I’ll take the bike. At 35 kpl (83 mpg), gas doesn’t cost too much–but then there’s one last disincentive: my school only reimburses travel by train and bus. Despite it being cheaper by about half, even with wear-and-tear costs factored in, they don’t pick up that particular tab. Ah well. Who said life was perfect?