Day 9: Tuesday, Aug 31, 2004: It was a hot and windy day... ... and also an early day. {gasp!} I had to wake up at 7:30am. So I could be out the door by 8:30am so I could meet Gemini Suzuki-san at 9:00am. I don't have my clothes out of hock ... er, um ... from the dry cleaner yet, so I'm wearing the same stuff that I was wearing yesterday. Fortunately, I don't look or smell that bad. I'm not really awake and out of bed until 8am. But, in a stroke of caffiene-deprived luck, I'm actually out the hotel door at 8:27am. The devil on my left shoulder says, "Hey, you've got three extra minutes. You could stop by a convenience store and get a snack for breakfast." The angel on my right shoulder says, "If you arrive at your destination early, you can find a store there instead." So, I go to the now-very-familiar Monzen-nakacho subway station. Unlike my previous morning/early afternoon trips, I'm travelling *into* downtown. At 8:30am. On the Tozai Line, which I've been told (and have come to believe) is one of the most crowded lines in the city. But my commute has almost always been in the opposite direction from the business rush hours. And the times that I have been sandwiched into a Tozai car has been during the all-subways-are-about- to-stop-running-for-the-night-so-jump-on-or-be-forced-to-take-a-taxi rush. A train pulls in just as I reach the westbound platform. Every car is packed. Completely packed. Packed with more people than I've ever seen during the late night rush. There are several hundred people on the platform who want to get into or across downtown. I'm one of them. There's space on the luggage racks above the seats. Hrm. Most Americans have seen the Metro employees, complete with white gloves, helping to push people into Tokyo subway cars. (As far as I can tell, they're wearing those gloves all day. As do most (all?) police officers. Just part of the uniform.) I've assumed that they're the "people pushers". Ah, I was wrong. As I witnessed, people getting onto the train have enough tools to help pack themselves into the car. Pushing against the outer door frame gives you plenty of leverage. At least compared to everyone else. The Metro guys are *really* there to pry the doors open when the subway first stops at the station. There's enough pressure from people inside the car to keep the doors from sliding sideways. Those guys are acting like flesh-and-blood "jaws of life". "Jaws of life" is a little dramatic ... but you really do need someone on the outside to force the doors open. Once open, about 9 or 10 people spill out. They're not stopping here, but someone has got to make enough space to let other people off the train. A few do get out. Three of the four people ahead of me manage to cram their way into the car. Beep! Doors are closing. Perhaps the next train will have more room. Bzzt! We have some lovely parting gifts for you, Scott. Too bad that you cannot get to Shibuya to claim them. Better luck next time. I did make it onto the next train. My briefcase, which almost completely incompressible (except for maybe the rain jacket inside), is waaaaaaaayyyy too thick to hang on my shoulder or hang from my hands. I'd put it on the luggage rack, but I can't turn around to reach it. Beep! Doors are closing. Oh well, I guess I hold the bag over my head. Uff da, that's not going to work well once the train starts moving. I drop it down to my shoulder, boom box-style. I'm tall enough that this doesn't bother anyone. ... Oh, that's *me* blocking the door? Sure enough. Rotate about 10 degrees so that my hip doesn't block the door. Doors close. I relax, then becoming part of the problem that the Metro jaws guys have to deal with. Gomen nasai, please forgive me. Lunch was at an Italian restaurant almost next door to the Gemini Shibuya office. I had penne pasta with tuna and spinach in a cream sauce. It strikes me that this is the first cheese that I've seen, much less eaten, in over a week. On the way back to the hotel, I decide to take a different route. I've heard two things about the Oedo Line (pink/fusha/whatever you call it): 1. It's the newest subway line in the entire Tokyo Metro system. Because there are so many other subway tunnels under the city, the Oedo had to dig much deeper to avoid them. 2. The Oedo uses narrower cars because the tunnels are narrower in order to lower construction costs. The new photos at http://www.snookles.com/scott/images/japan-04-08/, in "set3", include: * Ginza Line train, empty! Well, Shibuya *is* the start of the start of the line, and this train pulled in about 10 seconds before the photo was taken. * A sign telling you to keep your tail/hip/yeah! out of the train doors. * Two shots of the interior of a Ginza Line car. * One shot of the interior of an Oedo Line car. If an Oedo Line car is narrower than the other lines, it's tough to tell by someone like me. {shrug} The one thing I did notice (visible in the last photo, if you look closely) that's different about the Oedo cars is that there are advertisements on each of the hand rings (just above the ring, on the strap). But perhaps that's because the Oedo is run by a different company than the Ginza & Tozai Lines? Tokyo has two (three?) different companies that built and run the various Metro lines. Until very recently, they had completely separate fare systems. So, you had to know which company's line you were on and use the appropriate pass/ticket/whatever. Now there's a unified ticket & pass system. My 5,000 yen pass is down to 340 yen, after a week of running around the city. Typhoon Chaba was still making about a 30 miles/hour wind this morning. The typical weather pattern is that it gets hotter and more humid after a typhoon blows north over Japan. Today was in the mid or perhaps upper 80s and very humid. But sunny. It was odd to see this city in bright sunlight: first time for me. Tsurumi-san recommends Kyoto for seeing the autumn leaves. http://www43.tok2.com/home/kyoto/ has photos of the area during various times in the fall. Louise is teaching two courses at the University of Minnesota this fall. With classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it doesn't sound practical to go to Kyoto without arranging for a substitute instructor. Oh well. The trees in Minneapolis will be quite nice in 5-7 weeks. A friend of Minnesota, Rob Atendido, is now in Tokyo. He's between jobs. For the last few years, he has been teaching English in Kagoshima City, at the far southern end of the southernmost of the three main islands, Kyushu. He starts a new job in a few days, in a new town: Sakaiminato. Since his work visa isn't ready yet, he should have a few free days on his hands. So, the big question is: do I go visit Rob after I'm done here in Tokyo? Sakaiminato is about 900 kilometers west of Tokyo. That's farther than Minneapolis to Omaha or Minneapolis to Chicago. What are the logistics of that? When would I come back? Would Northwest have a seat for me if I try to come back on Labor Day? Stay tuned.