A Crushing Experience

8:15 a.m. Morning Commute in Tokyo

This morning's visit to a high school required a trip on two subway lines.  The first subway ride was just terrifying.  I boarded nearest my home at Station #2 for the ride through Midtown Tokyo toward transfer Station #7.  Upon entering the car,  I stayed fairly near the sliding door so as to keep an eye on the scrolling electronic signboard and not miss my destination.  But I had a crushing experience that I will never forget and hope never to repeat.  

The car began to fill with more and more and more and more people until we were completely wedged together, intimately touching places that are highly improper for any society, especially one where PDAs are taboo.   Pushing, shoving and heaving were so powerful that I began to fall onto the laps of people beneath me.  I grabbed the overhead bar and a strap, and hung on with all my might, trying to withstand the force and avoid crushing those below.  I was the tallest person around and could look over this swaying, rocking, massive brick of humanity.   The crush was becoming physically painful but it did not stop.   How shocking that no one pushed back or yelled!  Rather, people silently heaved back and forth until the train abruptly halted.  Then people began jostling.  They scrambled over, around, and under one another toward the exit.  Passengers remaining on the train went into a sort of limp-body-state, allowing their torsos and limbs to flow with the waves of other torsos and limbs.   For my part, it took such great effort not to scream in panic that I shook frightfully as I exited at Station #7.  

White-gloved, blue-uniformed "pushers"/ announcers stand on the platform and keep the traffic flowing by shouting instructions and shoving passengers onto cars.  

The second leg of the journey was calm because I jumped onto a "Women's Only" car where men are not allowed before 9:20 a.m. (although two male riders ignored the directive.)   This is a place where women can ride without perverts who, in tightly-packed conditions, press themselves against female passengers in scurrilous ways.