What's Shaking?

Back when I was living in Pennsylvania, we lived near a coal mine and a railroad track. Large trucks full of coal would go rumbling down the dirt road next to us and large mining machinery would excavate from not too far away. The railroad was extremely close and my childhood was spent at times exploring the rails for discarded ties. If you don't know what a tie is, it looks like a nail with a serious thyroid problem. It's huge and heavy and for some reason, I though picking these big, dirty, rusty, heavy nails up and carrying them home was really cool.

On a few rare occasions the trucks would go around the turns of the road too quickly and turn over. This resulted in quite the racket as this massively heavy truck and all of its sooty cargo thumped to the ground. It wasn't unusual for the trucks or equipment to send shock waves through the ground as they did their thing. This would result in some small shaking in our house from time to time. Also, no small amount of dust was kicked up on the road, particularly in the summer. The dust would come in through our open windows and leave a film all over our furniture on a regular basis.

An office affiliated with the mining operation was about a mile or so behind our property and the people who worked there would sometimes fly in helicopters over our house. Because the approach was relatively near, the helicopters often came in or went out low and we could hear them loudly overhead. Despite growing up in a rural area and in relative isolation from other people, we heard our fair share of noise from the loud train whistles and engines to the rumbling trucks to the sound of distant explosions on occasion from mining operations. And even though we lived in an area where there were no earthquakes, it wasn't uncommon for our house to shake.

Now, I live in a place about as far removed from my rural upbringing as possible. I've gone from living in a house where visiting the nearest neighbor required a 15 minute walk or a hop in the car to a place where my neighbors are so close that their conversations in front of their homes sound like they're taking place in my living room. I don't even need a car for life in a metropolis. While I used to live with a huge lawn both in front and behind my house and woods nearby, I now see nothing but concrete punctuated by the odd gingko or osmanthus tree.

Despite all of these differences, some things apparently remain the same. I don't know why, but low-flying helicopters seem to pass over my apartment. Sometimes, they are low enough that they cause my building to vibrate and the glass doors in the living room to rattle. Also, Tokyo smog and my proximity to a major road seem to leave my apartment coated with dust on a near hourly basis just like the dust from dirt roads did back when I was a kid. Lately, there has also been construction going on not too far from my apartment. I can hear the banging of heavy machinery in the distance and my kitchen scale, which rattles a little when shaken, seems to be rattling on a regular basis these days. If I lived a little closer to JR and could hear the train, it'd be just like growing up all over again.

The Fukutoshin Line

The Fukutoshin line opened up on June 14, 2008. My husband took pictures and explored the line on June 17, 2008.

Tokyo is notorious for overcrowded trains. By now, anyone who isn't familiar with the fact that part of the job of a rush hour train conductor is to cram people into cars like sardines has not been paying attention. In fact, the way in which people allow themselves to be crammed in would be considered cruelty to animals if it were done with any animal other than a human.

Every station has a cheesy stained glass window design. This one appears to be abstract rabbits.

The Fukutoshin line is a new subway meant to relieve some of the congestion of one of the major lines, the Yamanote line. It starts in Saitama, which can be considered a suburb of Tokyo in terms of being a cheaper place to live which isn't so far away from the central areas that a commute is still possible. It leads into some the most heavily-trafficked shopping and work districts in Tokyo.


The line has both "local" (stopping at all stations) and "express" (stopping at only the most popular stops and bypassing others) trains. This is nothing new, but the uncommon thing is that the express trains are 10 cars long and the local ones only 8 cars in length. I'm guessing that the express trains stops are the only stations with platforms long enough to accommodate the longer trains. There are signs specifically explaining the car length issue and messages flashing at regular intervals on the displays in the stations.

Clear plastic chairs with flower designs in one of the stations.

New stations like these are always a fascinating contrast to the older ones. They are pristine, clean, and their designs appear fresh and cutting edge. This week's shiny new station is next year's dingy, dirty, and dated look.

There are two aspects to every train line in Tokyo. One is how you go and the other is where you go. My husband bought a day pass for about $7 (¥740) and took the camera and investigated the lines, stations, and the areas that the stops lead to. Sometimes, they opened into vast shopping areas. At others, they opened into a whole lot of nothing. He took nearly 200 pictures and you can view them in a Picasa album here. Be forewarned though that the pictures are not picked over and some may not be all that interesting or recognizable.