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Today was the first day of classes here for Sophia University students which meant I had to wake up far earlier than I wanted to at around 7 am. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night actually, with far too many things on my mind. This morning was an adventure though, as I’ve heard many things about the rush hour commutes but I’ve never gotten to experience them first hand. I was amazed to discover just how truly crowded the subways can get in the morning. I mean, honestly, can’t the Japanese government do something about this? Run more trains? Create some more lines? Some incentives for people to work outside of central Tokyo? Something? You’d think after putting up with this for years and years they would get fed up with it and do something…

When we got onto the subway at our station we already had a difficult time cramming in and finding spots (in fact, one person waited for the next train), and it just got worse and worse as more Japanese expertly pack in for the next 5 or so stations (20 minutes?) until we unloaded everybody at Ikebukuro. No matter how full you think the train is, it can always get more full. You certainly can’t move because of the people crushing you from all sides, you hardly have room to put your feet on the floor, and it’s ridiculously hot with the insane amounts of body heat. Your feet are more than likely both turned in different directions so they can fit. It’s pretty much impossible to do anything except wait for Ikebukuro when things get better. Whenever there is a quick turn or acceleration the whole crowd of people sways together. You don’t have to worry about hanging onto anything, it’s impossible to fall down. So yeah, needless to say it’s not my favorite part about Tokyo.

It’s only going to be 20 or so minutes everyday, and despite all the unpleasantness, I think it’s kind of funny in a really awkward way.

I’ll write more about my classes later… more pictures for now!

These are from when I went to Akihabara my first week.

More pictures on Flickr

There’s a sole picture of me buried in that Flickr slideshow but it’s difficult to explain how to use my camera to other people, especially if English is not their native language.