Tetsudou Now!

Want to see where all the trains in Japan are at once? Here's the map for that. I'm not a big fan of trains, but I think I've been spending too much time just watching this today. Try it now!
 →→　鉄道Now

Escaping from reality - One day trip to Naoshima

Two weeks ago, I visited Naoshima island with four of my friends. We all got hired  in the same year but since we five got assigned to each different station in our area we've been having different irregular work shifts, so except when we have business training at the branch office or at headquarters on the same day, we usually have little chance to get together.

So this time it was some kind of miracle that we all got the same day off  without asking for the paid holidays. We were like, why not? Let's go somewhere together and escape from real life!

Naoshima is a small island of Kagawa district, and is located in the Seto inland sea. We first took shinkansen to Okayama, and after making a quick inspection of the huge station, we took the Marine Liner, which links Okayama and the Shikoku island. At Chayamachi station we switched to the Uno line, then after 20 mins train ride we arrived at Uno station.

JR Uno station

Here we had almost 1 hour til the next boat for Naoshima, so we had lunch at a Udon restaurant and it was very good! 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

People's manner in the train

Despite being an employee at a railway company, there's nothing I hate more than riding trains in rush hours. Since I commute westbound it's not as crowded as the eastbound trains such as for big cities like Osaka and Kyoto, but still, being packed into an iron rectangular box for almost 1 hour is just unbearable. 

One more thing that bothers me on the train is people's bad manners. Some people talk so loud on the phone, ladies without eyebrows start putting on make-up without any hesitation, uni students are playing music really loudly so I can hear it clearly through their headphones. KY, abbreviated from Kuuki Yomenai, literally meaning people who can't read the air, is the word that got quite popular in Japan a few years ago. I think there are too many KY people in public places.

By the way, there is a group of bunch of high school students that I see every morning in my commute train. I'm not going to say which school they are from, but the school is one of the highest - ranked private school in my area(or maybe even in Japan) and a great many talented people have been produced from the school. I guess they must have made every effort to enter the school, they all do look so smart and intelligent. BUT, their manner in rush hour train is unacceptable. They occupy the space on the floor with their big heavy bags no matter how crowded it is, talk about difficult things with their textbooks really loudly . The worst thing is, they don't try to move a bit more inside to make a space for others who are crammed at the door. They don't even notice that they are blocking the way to the more vacant space. This really annoys me. If I were in uniform I would shout at them. 

Probably they will be big hopes with many talents in the future, but no matter how good they are at studying, lack of caring for other people won't make them humanly bigger. In public places, I think we need to be aware that we're always 'seen' by others, and need to be more sensitive about it. 

Kobe Venus Bridge

7 Years

Ceremony marks 7th anniversary of deadly Amagasaki derailment - The Mainichi Shinbun

7 years ago yesterday.
I was in the chemistry class of my high school, and our teacher told us that it seemed like a big rail accident just occurred in Amagasaki, where is not so far from our place. As soon as I got home, I turned on my TV and what I saw was just like one scene from a movie - a lot of ambulances & police cars, rescue workers with helmets carrying numbers of injured people, and hundreds of people just standing and watching what's going on. And, just among them, there was something like a huge train car which was crushed flat like a piece of paper and winding around a nearby building. It made me feel like I was dreaming.

Who expected that I would start working for the company that caused this dreadful accident?

I am pretty satisfied with and proud of my current job, but at the same time, even though I'm not a driver, I feel some kind of responsibility of our service that can sometimes threaten people's lives. Every morning at the meeting, we pray for the victims, and I think of them. It really hurts me that some scandals by employees are still happening against the bereaved families' wishes. Yesterday, I headed to the crash site, and prayed for those who lost their lives and had to give up their dreams. Also, I thought about why I dared to choose this company and what I can do now for them.

We must not forget the fact that many people still cannot even ride a train because of the fear from the accident.
But we also must not forget that, there are also many people who are trying their best to overcome their sorrow, and they are waiting for the day to come when they can use our service in the near future, without any fear.

Cherry Blossom Viewing in Kyoto

Last weekend my family and I went to Kyoto to see cherry blossoms. They seemed a little past their peak, but even so they were really beautiful and we enjoyed viewing them a lot. 

Cherry blossoms in full bloom

At a nearby park. They are just now at their best in my place!