The Horns Kicked In: Rail Rest

Japanese people like to sleep on the train a lot. I mean a lot. I'd say about 25% or more. The others either read or play on one of many different handheld electronic devices.

The strangest part is that they always seem to pop up whenever it's their stop. How do they know? I often ask my students and friends about this, and I always get the same answer: they don't actually sleep, they just rest their eyes. I never fully accepted this answer, as I have seen people hit their heads on stuff while sleeping. Tonight, I've officially confirmed that people do indeed konk out completely.

First, allow me to diverge onto a different track for a moment. My rail ride back from training in Nagoya started with an old woman crouched in front of me puking into a plastic bag. Perhaps she was drunk, perhaps she was sick, or perhaps she was motion sick. More likely she was just old. So old that she was puking up her dying organs. She had to be like 90. And that's in Japanese years, so she was probably actually around 104. Of course, being a subway in Japan, I was unable to move. (I was recently pushed onto a train so the doors could close.)

Later on as we ascended from the tunnels and subway turned to train, I was able to get a seat. I sat next to a sleeping dude. I was leaning forward in my seat texting Yayoi that trains are boring when I felt a light tap on my back. I knew it was the dude's head and chose not to react. This happened about five more times as the people across from me smirked (which is rare), noticing what was going on. He would just kinda drift until his head hit me, then bounce back.

At some point he stopped bouncing back.

His head rested on my back for about three full minutes before he finally pulled away. That's when I decided to sit back in my seat—and that's when the rapid bobbing began. About every four seconds his head would hit my shoulder.

Once again, the dude stopped bobbing, this time resting his head on my shoulder for another few minutes. Now, I'm a nice guy and it wasn't really bothering me, so I just let him sleep. Plus it was quite humorous. While his head was on my shoulder, I got an email from Yayoi saying:

oh, I like [riding the train]. I usually listen to music or sleep on the train zzZZ. But watch out for sleeping too much. if you can't wake up at toyota st, you'll go back to nagoya and have to join training again (Toyota is at the end of the line). Maybe you can make your favorite poem or make a plan for how the swimming man can pass the lobby without using the bell

Okay, so that last part probably didn't make sense to you. Moving down the line...

Finally, the guy sat up, still sleeping, just as the person next to me was getting off the train. I took this opportunity to slide down a seat. This didn't really help. He just slowly drifted lower and lower toward me until his head came to rest just above my elbow.

Just about this time, we pulled into Toyotashi Station. The true test. I stood up, waited for everyone to get off the train, and contemplated waking the dude to tell him we were at the end of the line. But then I figured he probably missed his stop long ago and had to head back anyway. In hindsight, I probably should've woken him to prevent him from missing his stop again.

So I walked off the train, and my buddy headed back to Nagoya to join training again. The final verdict: at least some of them definitely sleep for real, though some also miss their stops. All in all, I'm happy with the outcome.