Etiquette

Bill and I were in Osaka this weekend. While I will leave the details to him, I do need to blog about two distinct etiquette differences I noticed. First: escalators. In Tokyo, if you are on an escalator wide enough to hold two people on one step, the left side is the "standing" side and the right side is the "walking" side. In Osaka, it is the opposite.

Second: babies and toddlers. In the 5 months that we have been in Tokyo, we've rode on the Shinkasen (bullet train) four times and use the subway almost on a daily basis. Until today, I have not noticed how quiet babies and toddlers are in public transportation. Since we don't have any kids, I think we've taken this for granted. Well, we had quite the rude awakening today. On our ride back to Tokyo from Osaka, a large American tour group boarded our section of the train. How do I know they were American? Men were in polo shirt and cargo shorts (a staple outfit of American men) and everyone had huge pieces of luggage. In addition, some were carting bags of McDonald's. 10 minutes into the 3 hour ride, one of the baby/toddlers started to cry. It wasn't a "I don't feel good" or "I'm hungry" cry - it was a whining, hi-pitched yelping which would diminish when his/her Mom held him/her or gave him/ her a toy/food. We were sitting half way down the car so I didnt' have great viewing for details. What I did know was that no matter how high I turned up my I-pod, it wasn't drowning out the noise. Mom only left the car into the middle section for about 5 minutes during the whole trip. Thanks Mom - we really appreciated those 5 minutes. Everyone in the car was looking at them but Mom and Dad decided to maintain no eye-contact.

I know, I know, everyone with kids are saying "Just wait until you have kids". Trust me, I will definitely make sure I'm standing in the middle section for 3 hours to give the 100 other people in the car some peace & quiet. :)