Definitely could have done without it, but this evening I got to experience the quintessential urban Japanese experience-- the sardine-packed train. Actually, sardines have it better than I had tonight in the train back from Kyoto. Had a full day of exam marking. What an exercise in futility that is. But after 4 years I understand the criteria now and don't really have to experience too much anguish during it. It's a lot of nonsense-- bud gus is in the air polluted. Some of it is so random in gammar and syntax yet it manages to convey a general sense of what the writer is trying to say, so you can't say it's total gibberish, but to try to grade it is painful.
Yeah, so after a day of THAT, followed by a standing crowded bus ride from one end of Kyoto to the other in rush hour, I get to Kyoto Station, go up, over and down to my platform and there's a whole lot of people standing around waiting. I stood and waited too and the board just kept showing how many minutes late the trains already were. Then they announced the delay was due to a jinshin jiko at Yamashina, the next station down the line. Jinshin jiko literally means individual accident. Could be an actual accident, but it often means someone has committed or tried to commit suicide on the tracks and they have to get the situation cleaned up so the trains can start runnning again. I saw on the news last week that around Osaka they are installing motion sensor lights at certain spots along the rail as a deterrent.
Anyway, I can't help but wonder if this particular jinshin jiko was making a final statement to us all by timing it for 5pm on a Monday night before a national holiday when everyone was just trying to get home. We jumped on the first train that came through and that thing was pack to the gills. It then proceeded to get worse at each successive station. Everyone was all smushed together at odd angles and people push and brace to try to claim some personal space but it's futile. You can feel the press of bodies around you as you draw in a breath. Human beings should not have to spend any part of their day like that. I can't believe people spend a lifetime doing that.