We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Japanese train sign

· How very odd!

One interpretation is that it is meant to indicate, from left to right, priority of the seats should go to any person with a broken arm, a person with a child, a pregnant woman or a person with an injured leg…

Japanese... inscrutable
February 5th, 2004 |

19 comments to Japanese train sign

  • MarkUSA
    February 5, 2004 at 1:17 am

    Off topic:

    I appreciate what you all are trying to do. With the world, as always, going to Hell in a handbasket, sometimes it helps to gain some perspective, stop feeling angry and powerless, and step back a bit. In the words of R. L. Stevenson:

    “The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

    God bless.

  • Andy
    February 5, 2004 at 1:21 am

    As a user of the Tokyo subway system (I’m headed back for my 3rd visit next week), the sign isn’t that odd at all. All of these are people, who for obvious reasons, would make lousy “strap hangers.”
    Your observation of the people who should get the priority seats is correct, though.

    PS: Looks like this was taken on the Ginza line at the Asakusa station.

  • David
    February 5, 2004 at 1:37 am

    I understand the middle two… but the first one looks like a man with an erection and the last one looks like a pregnant woman giving birth. =P

  • samkit
    February 5, 2004 at 2:57 am

    that just looks so wrong.

  • Alex Forshaw
    February 5, 2004 at 3:45 am

    pssst david: the second one looks like a parent having sex with his/her kid.

    come now, use your head

  • Dave
    February 5, 2004 at 4:00 am

    Hate to break it to you, but it’s a joke.

  • cecile
    February 5, 2004 at 4:03 am

    I think the signs indicate a person about to give birth, a woman clutching child, a pregnant woman and the last one, as an earlier one mentioned, looks like a woman giving birth.

  • Andy
    February 5, 2004 at 4:59 am

    Jeez, I gotta be semi-sober when I post here. At least I got the station right 🙂

    Maybe I will have some more scotch now.

  • Matano
    February 5, 2004 at 6:19 am

    I’m a Japanese.
    I’m glad that you are interested in Japanese unique culture.

  • naz
    February 5, 2004 at 9:04 am

    You guys got it all wrong: that woman ain’t giving birth, she’s just taking a dump.

  • Eamon Brennan
    February 5, 2004 at 9:19 am

    Perhaps its a timeline. Tumesence, coitus, gravid, birth.

    Eamon

  • Gabriel Syme
    February 5, 2004 at 9:30 am

    Dave: You are not really breaking anything to us… we kinda knew. It’s just much more fun this way.

  • Verity
    February 5, 2004 at 9:54 am

    MarkUSA – thanks for the Kumbaya mood music but I believe one of the key points about Samizdata is its unsentimental rational perspective. What helpless anger are you referring to? And “powerless”? The place is a positive riot of confident people elbowing their way in and demanding to be heard stat. Are you sure you came to the right address?

  • MichaelW
    February 5, 2004 at 3:12 pm

    My guess is:

    Viagra overdose, Pedophiliac, Glutton, and Hemmorhoid/Aliens/Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers Sufferer.

    I’m really curious if there is a rule, like in the gym, that you have to wipe down the seat after you’re done. Maybe that’s just a cultural thing … >;}

  • Cecile
    February 5, 2004 at 5:23 pm

    Okay–I’m on a school computer. I believe it is cleaner than hemmorhoids.

  • Richard Thomas
    February 5, 2004 at 6:31 pm

    I like this one (which is apparently real) which I fond from a link on the “this is broken” website linked by Dave earlier.

    Elderly and handicapped prepare to be abducted and anally probed

    Rich

  • Peter
    February 5, 2004 at 8:36 pm

    It is obvious its tos how where the best place for your cellphone signal.

  • mike
    February 8, 2004 at 4:07 am

    Looks like Michael Jackson aroused, violating a child and then in some wierd querk of science, becoming pregnant and having an abortion.. I just want to know where is Janices boob?

  • yidaki
    November 13, 2005 at 8:08 pm

    I agree about the timeline theory.
    First you get an erection, then you have sex, then you get pregnant, then you get a kid.
    The funny thing is, does all this take place on this line in the subway?
    I think I’ll avoid the lunchtrain 😀

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