Paul Hartrick dot com

I’ve been meaning to comment on this for a while now and it’s after 4 years of living in Japan that I can say I have experience each one of the following behaviors’ enough now to know it’s not a one off incident.

Waiting for the bus: Every morning I have line up for the bus to my office (actually I catch Taxis now). Standard process, line up, wait for bus, catch bus to office, get off, job done…. Well except for the people that decide not to get on the bus because they didn’t get a seat. Now I can understand this if it’s a ½ hour bus ride and 5 minutes waiting but this particular bus has a 15 minute waiting period with about a 7 minute bus ride.  Why would you stand up for an additional 15 minutes when you could stand on the bus for about 7 minutes and be in the office?

Standing in the wrong place: Catch some busy trains in Tokyo and you will understand this little mystery. Why would you stand in the middle of the train doorway when you are neither exiting nor entering the train? There is a pretty good chance that at least 1 person will exit or enter the train at Shinjuku Station (world’s busiest station). If you happen to luck out and be blocking my way you will get an 85kg hip and shoulder, everyday there is somebody new to teach. This also applies to people fiddling around for their commuter pass in front of the ticket gate… get prepared or get out of the way.

Why did the Taxi give way: I catch my fair share of taxis every week and this behavior never ceases to amaze me. You will be riding in a Taxi, driving on a main road and clearly with the right of way and the suddenly the Taxi driver decides to stop and give way to somebody facing a give way or stop sign. WTF? To get an extra 90 yen? To be polite?  Who knows… To me it’s downright dangerous as the people texting or chatting on their cell phones driving behind you aren’t expecting you to stop. These drivers are supposed to be professional drivers (I’m using professional very loosely here), actually they are just dangerous.

I’m know this behavior is not limited to Japan, I just see a lot more of it here. I just don’t understand some peoples way of thinking (or lack of thinking).

Before you comment and leave “If you don’t like it Leave” style comments, this has nothing to do with me not loving life in Japan. It’s commenting on quirky behavior that makes up the charm of living in Japan.

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This post is tagged Stupid Behaviour, WTF