Warning signs are rife in Tokyo, and I’ve taken on a curious fascination with them. They’re an indicator of how society (or at least authority) expects people to behave, and what behaviour is perceived to require addressing! In Tokyo, the Do’s and Don’t’s are everywhere, whether it’s to save you from yourself, or to stop you causing meiwaku (discomfort) to others. (I think if I had a motto for living in Tokyo, it would be 迷惑をかけないように！or “Don’t cause meiwaku!”)
I’ve already posted here and here about the Tokyo Metro manners campaign poster series. The subway is a good place to find lots of other signs telling you how to behave and how not to interfere with the comfort of others. This is on the sliding platform gates on the Mita Line, which line up perfectly with the train doors when it pulls in. I thought these gates were meant to make the station safer, but, going by the dire warning signs, they’re very very dangerous! (Imagine trying to get an Australian train to stop at the right place on the platform for its doors to line up with platform gates – what an endless debacle that would be.)
This is the sign on the platform doors of the Nanboku Line. They’re not so worried about fingers being caught, but instead about your bag getting caught outside when the owner is inside an overcrowded train. The heading at the top of the sign says, loosely translated, “Don’t get on a train when it’s impossible”.
I’ve never seen anyone try to take a bicycle on the subway that’s not properly dissassembled and in a special bag – especially a mama-chari like this poster. People must have read the poster.
Whilst on the topic of bicycles on trains, it is ok to put them in a special bag like the one below. Your bike would want to be easily disassembled, and light! But it’s certainly not ok to just wheel them on and off.
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