By Claytonian
I'm from nowhere, USA. By the time I arrived in Japan, I had a train riding tally of one: some in-state ride that made one stop about every three hours. So when I realized my primary means of transport out of my first town in Japan was trains, I was a bit scared to be honest. I remember my first ride in Japan quite clearly.
I needed to go to a gathering of ALTs in some nearby town. My handler took me to the station and ordered a ticket for me. Then she started to just walk away after passing it to me. "Wait!" I choked. "Where do i get off?" I couldn't remember city names at that point, let alone stations. We conferred with the station master, and I was told to get off at the fifth stop down.
I was quite jumpy for the whole ride. Not only was it an alien feeling to ride the train, but I couldn't understand the announcements and was paranoid about my ability to merely count to five reliably. Luckily, another ALT got on the train at one of the stops because he was going to the same meeting. We exchanged tales of how weird life had been since we'd arrived in Japan a week before to relieve our mutual stress until we got to our final destination. In a way, I had dodged my first test by encountering the other ALT. But there were plenty of chances to fail at trainsmanship over the coming months and years.
I make mistakes, even today. Even with my magical ability to read those funny characters and tons of experience on the rails. It's kind of amazing that I still can't get trains right, but I take heart that even Japanese people make mistakes at this. One trick that does help is to ask the golden question: [station name]で止まりますか (~de tomarimasu ka, which means: does this train stop at station x?). That phrase has saved me countless times.
Unfortunately, since I moved to the much busier area that is East Japan, I don't get to see the train staff as often (the trains are too long and the staff are in the ends usually). They will direct you, using their encyclopedic train knowledge, to the correct train platform if the one in question is not right. If staff is not immediately available, sometimes I resort to asking civilians. But that can freak them out--yes, some people freak out when approached by a foreigner no matter what language said foreigner is using--, so I loathe doing so.
Lately I have been relying on my smart phone to find the simplest-possible route between places. If I have to do a 乗り換え (norikae, switching trains at a stop), that multiplies my error margin by about 10%, so the phone is a life-saver. But even the phone will sometimes make a mistake! I got to feel smug one night when I noticed that the phone was giving me bad advice. Take that, "smart" phone! I snickered to myself. It retaliated a few days later by running out of battery power in the middle of Shinjuku Station.
I'm from nowhere, USA. By the time I arrived in Japan, I had a train riding tally of one: some in-state ride that made one stop about every three hours. So when I realized my primary means of transport out of my first town in Japan was trains, I was a bit scared to be honest. I remember my first ride in Japan quite clearly.
I needed to go to a gathering of ALTs in some nearby town. My handler took me to the station and ordered a ticket for me. Then she started to just walk away after passing it to me. "Wait!" I choked. "Where do i get off?" I couldn't remember city names at that point, let alone stations. We conferred with the station master, and I was told to get off at the fifth stop down.
I was quite jumpy for the whole ride. Not only was it an alien feeling to ride the train, but I couldn't understand the announcements and was paranoid about my ability to merely count to five reliably. Luckily, another ALT got on the train at one of the stops because he was going to the same meeting. We exchanged tales of how weird life had been since we'd arrived in Japan a week before to relieve our mutual stress until we got to our final destination. In a way, I had dodged my first test by encountering the other ALT. But there were plenty of chances to fail at trainsmanship over the coming months and years.
I make mistakes, even today. Even with my magical ability to read those funny characters and tons of experience on the rails. It's kind of amazing that I still can't get trains right, but I take heart that even Japanese people make mistakes at this. One trick that does help is to ask the golden question: [station name]で止まりますか (~de tomarimasu ka, which means: does this train stop at station x?). That phrase has saved me countless times.
Unfortunately, since I moved to the much busier area that is East Japan, I don't get to see the train staff as often (the trains are too long and the staff are in the ends usually). They will direct you, using their encyclopedic train knowledge, to the correct train platform if the one in question is not right. If staff is not immediately available, sometimes I resort to asking civilians. But that can freak them out--yes, some people freak out when approached by a foreigner no matter what language said foreigner is using--, so I loathe doing so.
Lately I have been relying on my smart phone to find the simplest-possible route between places. If I have to do a 乗り換え (norikae, switching trains at a stop), that multiplies my error margin by about 10%, so the phone is a life-saver. But even the phone will sometimes make a mistake! I got to feel smug one night when I noticed that the phone was giving me bad advice. Take that, "smart" phone! I snickered to myself. It retaliated a few days later by running out of battery power in the middle of Shinjuku Station.
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