Attention, Rude People With White Canes!
Stop hitting people’s luggage when you’re trying to make your way down the subway platform!
OK, not really. But if I didn’t read Japanese, I might think this new campaign on the part of the Manners Police was aimed at sight-challenged individuals. In fact, it’s admonishing clueless commuters not to block the strip of yellow bumps that guide blind people from one place to the other.
Posters nagging subway riders about etiquette are a fixture of Tokyo subways, frowning on everything from using an eyelash crimper on a moving train to passing out dead drunk on the floor. Until I saw this series though, they all depicted young people making old people put on their mad faces. Just once I’d like to see posters showing a clueless grandma in too-loud earphones blasting the teenager sitting next to her with vintage enka tunes…
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Tokyo
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Jonelle Patrick View All
Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!
Ha ha, saw that one as well when I was in Tokyo.
I was catching up on your blog over the weekend and I saw you’d been in town! I loved seeing the places you went while you were here!
Happy to hear that. I am a big fan of your “Only in Japan” posts:)
Nice! When was this photo taken? I didn’t see these in my time…
I took this one about two weeks ago in Roppongi station. It’s the only station with the cool subway posters. The other ones all still feature teenagers assaulting grandmas with their eyelash crimpers and shopping bags!