Please refrain from drunken behavior.
It's bounenkai 忘年会 season, when end-of-the-year company parties pile up. Drinking with coworkers can be part of the job description any time of year, but you are especially likely to see (or be) an unfortunate overindulger in December. There's no guarantee that these parties will help you "forget the year," as the name promises, but they do seem likely to make you forget the night.
We saw these two poor guys get dragged off the train at its last stop in Shinagawa the other night as the train was going out of service. In Shibuya, as the last Yamanote train was sweeping through its last loop for the night, the opposite maneuver: station cops working in pairs roused heavy sleepers from the platform floor and tossed them into the full train. You have to wonder where they get shuffled off to when they get to the end of the line. I think for both directions on the Yamanote, that's Ikebukuro. Anyone gotten off the last train at the end of a line and seen what happens?
Last December's do it at home poster, also about passing out drunk.
11 comments:
At last these posters are back to making sense. Drunken sods passed out in trains or on the platform are essential to the Tokyo experience, so I would be slightly sad if these posters eliminated them.
Ben says:
how the bejesus do you get publicly drunk on a train at home?
Imagine the expense of building a reconstruction of a Yamanote Line train and hiring actors to be indifferent passengers as you loll drunkenly on the floor of the reconstructed train in your apartment...ridiculous...what will they think of next?
Like, I can see myself doing this in high school and my early 20s, but I'm always surprised to see the paradox of people completely smashed, but dressed up in a suit and tie.
Funny stuff.
I have had this happen to me several times when I first arrived.
The worst case is "oyaji-gari" and having some punks take your wallet as they go up and down robbing old sararimen after the second to last stop.
When I got to the end of the Chuo Line in Takao on the last train of the night, one hour outside of Tokyo, I awoke, seemingly just moments after leaving Shinjuku in my own mind, to have a worried looking station master shaking me to wake me up telling me "okyakusama, I'm afraid you're in Takao..."
No problem of course.
I happened to live in Takao at the time. Nothing like Japanese service.
Peace
You left out the fact that the gent in the photo is kneeling in his own vomit after being unable to get a footing in it and sliding around for about 30 seconds. -Jim
Totally transported into this dingy train car and feeling the vomit as if it were happening on a NYC subway. Yours feels so anonymous, though.
Interesting story you've got going on here, even more so that you write via a crappy phone? Wow!
In any event, I'm glad I discovered you! What's your next post looking like?
The depot for Yamanote line trains is Osaki where they normally go out of service during the day.
I assume the final ones at the end of the night terminate there too, but I've never got that drunk to end up on one to find out.
Catching the last train home from Shibuya is feat I've managed a couple of times. It saves a huge taxi fare, or a very long walk home!
I see guys like this on my Chuo-line train when kaisoku from Tokyo pulls into Ome station, the last stop, at 11:30 pm every weeknight. They usually meant to go to Takao, so thy have a 1/2 hour ride back to Tachikawa, then another 1/2 hour outbound. At least one or two in every carriage.
I love those two zombie looking people they have in all the posters. This time I think those to zombies want to join the party.
Hey, I linked you in one of my featured articles: http://giagantor.com/2010/01/10/japanese-metros-do-it-at-home-posters/
thank you for posting this!
You guys are all awesome. Never heard of oyaji-hunting. How depressing!
Thanks, Dexton. Gigantor.com looks pretty cool.
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