On Thursday morning I left Akihiro’s parents’ house early to take the train to the ladies’ meeting at Tokyo church. This was rush hour time, so I knew the train would be packed. I have watched people’s technique of smashing themselves on a train before and actually practiced my technique once in Detroit airport—much to the chagrin of another rider of the tram. This technique goes something like this --pushing one hip in first—against the wall of bodies, then once you’ve made a place for your feet to stand, you use your arms to push against the inside of the train above the door to push your body into the train. Well, sure enough, the train pulled up and people were smashed against the windows on their doors, contorting their faces. I took a brave step forward, hoping that an awful lot of people would be getting off at this stop. Well, a few of them burst out of the train door when it opened—almost like a balloon that popped. But, there were probably equal as many people who wanted to get on the train and I was the last in line. Those in front found their places and I bravely stepped up. I got my feet spot and reached my hands up, but then I chickened out—or maybe I was just trying to keep my Springerli from getting crushed (I guess I could have put them on my head as that was the only space!—perhaps some entrepreneur can invent some sort of bag that sits on your head for these situations!) Well, as I stepped back onto the platform with a red face, I looked up and down the long train and noted that there were various body parts, coats, purses, bags still hanging out of the doors. I just unashamedly watched—as probably many of the smooshed people were watching the poor foreigner. The doors indeed started to shut and it was as if everyone took a deep breath in and off they went! Well, I thought, it is a good thing I am early. Now I am the first in line for the next packed train. Sure enough—4 minutes later, it came and wasn’t quite so crowded. I was able to board fairly easy, and was congratulating myself on that fact when I noticed ( a bit too late) that the girl next to me had fallen asleep while standing up and had her head hanging out the door. Well, she got woke up soon—the door smacked her in the head! She just kinda moaned and leaned against my Springerli bag to continue her nap. So here I am smooshed on this train and what is my luck—there is a stop in the middle of the subway—something about a person on the train in front of us needing help. So we are stopped for about 5 minutes. I did manage to get my book out and hold it about 2 inches in front of my face to read. Thankfully we arrived at Shinjuku pretty soon and most people got off—ahh, space! I am so thankful that I don’t have to battle this too often!