Man Ers

The following is a post on manners:

In today's class, our guest speaker Julian Worrall gave us an breif yet indepth presentation on urban/public space, focusing on the Tokyo Subway System, the largest and most complex train system in the world. He touched on different topics where he explored the meanings behind station plaza monuments, the system as a whole, and the space and life within the individual train carriage. Here and toward the end we got into the disscussion of manners; manner posters promoting social virtue to prevent disturbance as well as the respect each person has for rules and manners. Every individual lives their life under the rules and regulations posted which provide for a obedient, non-violent, non-criminal society where each member police the actions of those around them. We sited the example of the un-sorted trash and how often times, neighbors will knock on your door telling you that it is unacceptable and must be sorted, because those are simply the rules. Very little social interaction takes place between strangers, especially within the subway system.

But it's interesting that we talked about manners and self-inforcement because on my way home after class, I witnessed my first examples of civilian police action. While standing on the platform in Ookayama wating for my Ikegami train to arrive, I took notice to a young hooligan throwing a piece of trash on the ground, attemping to throw it onto the tracks. Now I have not seen a single piece of trash on the ground let alone witness the young scuttlebutt throw something on the ground. 15 seconds later, an business man in his 50s went up to the young yahoo and told him to pick it up. With rosy cheeks like that of a freshly spanken babe, he shamefully picked up the piece of garbage and put it into his pocket.

Another instance was while I was standing near the courtesy area, where cell phones are to be turned off, and some young criminal was playing on his cell phone, ear buds in his ears. The lady next to him aggressively tapped him on the arm and pointed at the sign reading "Cell Phone=OFF" he didn't understand what she meant because he wasn't talking on it. She tapped him again and pointed at the sign. And like the milk soaken young ankle-biter, he took his ear buds out and closed his phone. For the rest of the ride he stared off to the seat in front of him, looking real sad. He has been removed from the internal space which many communters turn towards when they read their manga, listen to their music, or text on their keitai. He has been awaken from this fastasy world and been placed into the reality of the physical external world, a boy sitting on the train waiting for his stop. More shocking than the rule enforcing citizens was the look on his face when transfering from the internal space that makes one feel happy and safe into a reality that many daily communters do not wish to face. It's the constant reminder of where they are. That they do this everyday. It's a routine for this student, going to school in the morning, coming home at night, on the same train, everyday. And it scares the beejeezus out of him...not really, he's just is real pissed at this lady.