Things You Can Do To Pass the Time on a Train in Japan (That Doesn’t Involve Staring at Your Phone)

You can play a game of “Guess Which Side of the Doors Will Open” before the train’s PA system announces the answer. You can count the stitches on salary men and women’s business suits during the morning rush hour. You can dance your own version of the Macarena when you forget where you put your tickets or IC card. You can listen to announcements on the train. On rare occasions, you might hear the train drivers stumbling across their words or saying the name of a station wrong. You can expect profuse apologies immediately afterwards. You can marvel at a world turned pink when it’s sakura season. As the train stops at different stations, you can look out for signs of seasonal change in the menus of udon shops on the platforms. You can close your eyes and eavesdrop on other people’s conversations if your Japanese is good enough. If not, it’s more exciting because you can try to catch familiar words and construct context and meaning out of guesswork. You can throw disapproving looks at people who sit with their legs wide open and take up two seats. On rainy nights, you can gaze out the train window while listening to sad songs about heartbreak and betrayal. For an extra dose of drama, you can trace the path of raindrops outside the window and sigh, while it may be just that he hasn’t replied to your text in 20 minutes. You can discreetly read other people’s text messages over their shoulders on a crowded train. Again, if your Japanese is good enough, you can read the advertisements on the walls while hanging onto the handrails. The contents of the ads can range from informing the general public about new art exhibitions in town to encouraging them to buy a poop-themed kanji drill book. You never know what kind of ads you might come across on a Japanese train. You can challenge yourself to remember all the names of the stations in order. You can make faces at small kids when their parents are not looking. You can engage in a staring contest with someone (which is more likely to happen if you are a foreigner). Or if eye contact is weird for you, you can try to look at anywhere and everywhere except directly at the person sitting in front of you. You can watch the disappointment and frustration in people’s eyes when the train doors shut in front of their faces. You can question your life choices while you sit on the pull-out seat of the train. You can talk and laugh with another human being if you are traveling with someone you know. In winter, you can sit at a window seat and try to catch the warm sunshine in the palm of your hand. You may feel the warmth spill through the cracks of your fingers and onto your thighs. You can see lives in motion and marvel at how the seasons change. These are some of the things you can do when you are on a train.