What I have found since coming to America is that I don't tend to encounter much in the way of escalators at all. There is the rare two-story mall with an underused escalator, but most of the time, I'm dealing with short sequences of steps or just operating on the first floor. Perhaps the reason this is so is that I'm in California, but thinking back on my time in Pennsylvania, I can't say that I recall using escalators much there outside of the very rare trip to an airport. In fact, the experience was so rare in my birthplace that, when my mother had to use one, she was afraid and couldn't manage to time her steps onto the machine to ride one. It just visually confused her.
It turns out that, the good manners I appreciated so much on escalators in Tokyo don't really need to be exercised in the places I've been in America. I can't miss what I'm finding I don't need.
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Being a California resident, the only escalator we have in town is at our 2-story mall. And it drives me to no end when people stand side by side on it. Or use stairs side by side. So I am trapped behind people because they lack the courtesy to let others pass.
ReplyDeleteI will extend this to groups of people walking on the street that will not make room for people walking in the opposite direction. I have ended up in the street or off on someones lawn. I even say excuse me. Apparently there is no excuse for me. Have you run into this at all now that you are back states side?
I have, on occasion, had to step off the curb into the street to go around people who block it, but generally find it less of a problem here than in Tokyo because there are fewer pedestrians and the sidewalks are wider.
DeleteIronically, just yesterday, I did find myself annoyed at having to step off the curb onto a heavily trafficked street to go around someone standing at a choke point (due to tree growth overhang) in the sidewalk. She was standing in the middle of the limited space, back turned to me, and staring at her cell phone. Coincidentally, she was Asian, so it was absolutely a moment that transported me back to life in Japan (though, obviously, she may or may not have actually been Japanese)!
Funny thing about escalators: in Osaka, they stand on the right, and walk on the left. I've never been able to work out why there's a difference...
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that it was different in Osaka. That is peculiar, and I'm sure confuses some visitors!
DeleteI wonder if it has something to do with the bigger Western influence there. In the U.S., people walk on the right, and I'm still not used to that!
The way it was explained to me is that because people in Tokyo (and Japan in general) stand on the left, Osaka folks, traditional rivals to Tokyo, will stand on the right to buck conformity. I've heard it from quite a few people from different parts of Japan, but never from someone actually from Osaka so I don't know how truthful that really is.
DeleteI've heard several theories, from the "Edo samurai, Osaka merchant" theory (keep swords accessible vs. keep purses protected) to the "Osaka Expo" theory (when Expo '70 was held in Osaka, natives were asked to stand on the right to make their foreign guests feel comfortable). Who can say what's really behind it? Although it's one (small) reason this American feels very much at home in Osaka and environs.
DeleteIn London we stand on the right and walk on the left so using the escalators in Tokyo always felt like I was doing it wrong. Although the rest of the U.K. doesn't seem to follow this system, only London.
ReplyDeleteAustralia is stand on the left, walk on the right. (As for cars: we drive on the left.) Also, basically this is how pedestrians behave on pavements, too. But pedestrians aren't always too particular. And it does get confusing in very touristy or multi-cultural areas (I live in Sydney), because on-coming pedestrians are using the code for their country (usually, walk on the right), while I'm doing it the Australian way. Japan was easy to get used to 'tho ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd, coming back, I noted that although Australians won't line up for trains (trains stop at random spots on the platform, unlike Tokyo), Sydney-siders will line up for buses (and give you dirty looks if you try to cut into the line).
The tendency not to line up to try and cut around lines (or behavior which strongly looks like cutting) really bugs me. In fact, people have sometimes anticipated that we will try to cut and been a bit snotty toward us when we're attempting merely to look around an area. When we were at Seatac (Seattle's airport), we were trying to see around the people at the counter to read the signs and some woman who thought we were trying to jump the line said rather nastily, "I'm next!" I think people expect law attempts to cut so they get defensive.
DeleteWell, a Japanese woman in a Tokyo Station bathroom recently did the same thing to me - there was only a small line for the stalls, her and maybe one other person, and I bypassed it to go straight for the sinks to try and wash out some (ramen!) stains on my shirt. She actually reached out and grabbed me, thinking I hadn't seen the line! I'm sure she felt stupid as I just pointed to the sinks and continued on my way. Even if I was headed for the stalls and somehow missed the line, I would have noticed they were all full, noticed the people waiting, and gone to join. I'm not sure why she felt she had to school me - probably because I'm foreign, I guess.
DeleteWhere I live in Toronto, the public transportation system used to remind patrons to "stand right, walk left" either in announcements or on posters located near the escalators. It seemed to work really well.
ReplyDeleteThen, suddenly, this system was abandoned. I have never heard officially (granted, I actually haven't looked) why this was so. However, someone commented that it was a legal issue. If someone were to fall while complying they could sue. I never thought Canadians were that letigious, but...... My general feeling is that if you can't use an escalator, or fall doing so, you are the one to blame. (of course if it should suddenly speed up, or grind to a halt, I could make an exception)
I'm not even sure if people actually have to sue for such things to change. All that really has to happen is that a lawyer mentions the possibility and then they change. It's like all of the warnings on packages telling you not to eat things which are clearly not edible or saying don't cram this in your maw directly from the microwave because it's going to be hot and you'll burn yourself.
DeleteI'm pretty sure that in most countries, a lot of those things are prophylactic and not necessarily the result of law suits. Well, maybe I just hope that is the case. ;-)
General escalator etiquette is definitely something I appreciate a lot when I am in Japan!
ReplyDeleteI live in Boston right now, and every day my commute to work involves going in and out of two subway stations with very long escalators. And at least 90% of the time there are people blocking the entire width of the escalator. It's not even always because there are multiple people who stand side-by-side so they can talk (irritating, but at least understandable) - I often see people who are totally alone yet plant themselves RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the escalator so nobody can get by. It drives me absolutely nuts. I just don't understand how people can be so self-absorbed and unaware of their surroundings.
My commute also involves having walk through a very touristy area (the subway station by Harvard)....don't even get me started on the unbearably slow-walking groups blocking up the sidewalks, ugh.
So weird b/c I was JUST thinking about a similar issue earlier today. Someone on the radio mentioned their puzzlement at the fact that people drive 'right' in China, but still drive 'left' in Hong Kong (due to the British history). Likewise many other former British colonies drive left too, Australia, India, etc.
ReplyDeleteYet in the US (former colony) we drive 'right'. Why?
I don't think there's a simple answer. The customs stem from many pre-car tradions - pedestrian footpath habits, expedient ways to drive animal carts, agricultural practices, etc.
But an article I read did mention that most pedestrians tend to naturally walk 'right', b/c most people are right handed. So in many places this has trickled down thru history to driving habits.
Made sense to me.
So I was (stupidly) shocked to read here that there are places where people walk left? And even in places that drive right? Really??? I guess the assumption that walking on the right is 'natural' for humans stems from Western cultural bias?
And does that mean the times I've been in the UK I was an oblivious, ugly American, lurching down the wrong side of the sidewalk? LOL!! I don't recall any issues??
As to escalator etiquette, I think it's a matter of population density / verticality of cities. In NY people were pretty darn good at behaving (standing to the right). Especially the subway commuters, where the escalators can be long and numerous. And NYers are not shy about loudly chastising rule breakers!
Where I live now in the midwest, people have no frikken clue how to use an escalator in a mall. They set their bags down on the other half of the stair, or stand side-by-side, or stand right in the middle, drooling at their phone... I get worse 'road' rage in pedestrian situations like that than on the actual roadway. Which, since almost everyone here drives everywhere, means they probably know how to drive better than how to walk properly. Scary.
Oops. I know, tldr....lol!