Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

While there are tons of decorations in Tokyo, Christmas isn't actually a holiday in Japan. As such, I had to work on Christmas. While I wasn't able to spend Christmas with my real family, I did spend some quality time with the people who, over the course of the past year, I've come to be pretty close to.

Yep, I'm hijacking a light-hearted Christmas post to talk about trains in Tokyo.

I didn't actually take this picture, but it is pretty representative of how I spend 2 and half hours of my day, five days a week (Christmas included). Occasionally, especially in the evenings, it is so crowded I can't move or, worse, can't even stand over my own center-of-balance (meaning I'm just propped up by the surrounding crowd).

While I'm getting used to it, this was quite the contrast to the comfort of CalTrain, where I could almost always get a seat even when it was crowded. I've always been a big proponent of mass transit, but I now have I new appreciation for the comfort of one's own car. Even if you are stuck in traffic, at least you still have some personal space to call your own.

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