Tokyo Rush

I have lived in New York, Hong Kong, and now Singapore, and have visited just about every major city in the western world with a respectable rush hour. Ladies and gentlemen, Tokyo takes the cake in just about every category. Here are the categories:

• Sheer crowdedness 
• Expanse
• Concentration of rush
• Orderliness 
• Ubiquity of dress
• Peacefulness 
• The Yamanote Line (explanation to follow)

Ok so these categories may have been created specially for Tokyo, but it deserves the special attention and accolades. 

Let's start with Sheer Crowdedness. The crowds are massive, ever flowing, and they mean business. At times you cannot see the floor. This is Shinagawa. The crowds never stopped. 

Here is the Shinagawa outpouring of people from the station to the street:

Expanse

Then there's the number of stations. Spiderweb, or 1/2 of the Tokyo metro?:

I say one half because that's exactly what it is. There is an entirely separate system (these were built as separate concessions) that is of similar size and serves different parts of Tokyo. 

Concentration of Rush

When you talk about rush hour in New York, you could in theory say that rush lasts all day. Sure, there are lulls in ridership, but generally the subways are packed from 7:30-10:30 and 3-7. Tokyo's rush certainly has a beginning and end. Like New York, it is crowded nearly always, but their rush is basically 200% crowded, whereas the rest of the time is 70% crowded. I blame the Japanese culture of timeliness. Apparently Tokyo had to run public service ads encouraging people to not kill themselves trying to get to work. It's not the end of the world to be 2 minutes late, it says. 

Observe the proverbial river of workers heading to the same place at the same time. It's basically a one way bridge at this point. 

Orderliness 

Everyone queues up to get on the train, but before they do, they patiently wait for the current riders to detrain. It's a common spectacle in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, but Japan just does it best. Everything they do is orderly, from swiping in and out of the metro system to the lines they make as they rush like cattle toward their office buildings. Here is the boarding/alighting anomaly I referred to:

Here they are lined up in the train itself waiting to alight in an orderly manner:

Ubiquity of Dress

I have never seen a more monochromatic society of people. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was wearing a black, dark grey, or dark blue suit. And nearly everyone was wearing a suit in the first pace. I don't think they have casual Fridays. 

Observe:

Comb the photos I have uploaded. You can count the number of bright colored outfits on two fingers. 

Peacefulness

This is me enjoying one of the rush hour cars. Me taking this picture was the loudest sound on the entire train. 

Seriously, you can hear a pin drop. It's almost uncomfortable. 

The Yamanote Line 

The "circle line," as we referred to it before we knew its proper name, serves every neighborhood that a visitor to Tokyo would want to see. Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Rippongi, Harajuku, Akihabara, etc. Apparently, it also serves every neighborhood the residents of Tokyo live in as well. This line single-handedly moves more people than the London Underground in a day. Let me put that in perspective - the London Underground moves approximately 1.4 million people per day, or the population of Estonia. The Yamanote Line moves 3.7 million people, or the population of Bosnia and Herzogovena. The best part of the line, besides the alluring destinations, is the frequency of trains - they come literally every 2-3 minutes, and each is packed. Evidence:

Here is the entrance to one of them. We were fighting the tide at this particular station. They adjust the direction of their fare gates based on time of day to enable the flow. 

Round and round it goes, constantly serving the people of Tokyo. What a mensch. 

The Yamanote line is the feather in the cap of the most expansive, convenient, and busiest metro in the world. Kudos to you, Tokyo for your fantastic trains!