Splat!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

So tonight I finally joined the ranks of the truly traumatised...saw a salaryman suited guy swan dive in front of an oncoming train in a busy friday night commute.

two words for it...fucking horrific.

anyone else had the experience?

[plaid_knight]

The train I was riding plowed into a jumper in front of us. Poor guy.

[omae mona]

I saw a pigeon plow headfirst into the Yamanote line as it was pulling into a station. Made quite a thud as it hit the driver's window. They stopped the train right there while a station employee came out to retrieve the corpse.

[Bucky]

So tonight I finally joined the ranks of the truly traumatised...saw a salaryman suited guy swan dive in front of an oncoming train in a busy friday night commute.

two words for it...fucking horrific.

anyone else had the experience?

So this was an intentional Swan Dive? I presume he did not survive.

Sorry you had to witness it.

[Taro Toporific]

anyone else had the experience?

Twice.
And, I had a box seat for viewing both splats.
That is, on Saturdays my 3F office faced the Komagome train platform of the Yamamote-sen.
The first jumper was a mundane salaryman completing the Nitrogen Cycle, yawn. However, the second splat was an Olympic quality, 2-for-1 special. A mother and daughter jumped off a 10-story building, bounced off the top a truck, and then fell onto the tracks.
All that performance needed was a sound track.
[boo2]c1rd010oi_r[/boo2]

[Cyka UchuuJin]

So this was an intentional Swan Dive? I presume he did not survive.

Sorry you had to witness it.

yes, it was intentional. i don't think there was any way he could have survived, as he waited for one of those trains that don't stop at the station, so it was travelling at a pretty decent speed when he threw himself off. the train i was waiting for arrived pretty quickly and the station people herded us into it so they could clear the platform.

really had a hard time sleeping last night, every time i thought about it it made me creeped out. i'd written about it on facebook and a friend replied with 'was it JR? they have the lowest fine'. that just brought on a whole new set of 'just how fucked really is japan??' (btw, yes, it was JR) people routinely driven to suicide, one of the most selfish acts there is. yet they consider WHICH TRAIN LINE WILL FINE THEIR FAMILIES THE LEAST???

i dread to think what this financial crisis is going to do to the suicide rate.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Twice.
And, I had a box seat for viewing both splats.
That is, on Saturdays my 3F office faced the Komagome train platform of the Yamamote-sen.
The first jumper was a mundane salaryman completing the Nitrogen Cycle, yawn. However, the second splat was an Olympic quality, 2-for-1 special. A mother and daughter jumped off a 10-story building, bounced off the top a truck, and then fell onto the tracks.
All that performance needed was a sound track.
[boo2]c1rd010oi_r[/boo2]

taro, that's terrible.
the worst is that it probably doesn't deter the people who saw it from considering the same at some point in their life.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Anybody seen that documentary "The Bridge" about the people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge? That fucked me up enough. I definitely don't want to see anything like that live and in person.

[alicia454]

As long as there are people willing to kill themselves in horrible horrific ways that have injured, killed, and traumatized many innocent bystanders, maybe we should push for a saner more human alternative:

Suicide Booth

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Anybody seen that documentary "The Bridge" about the people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge? That fucked me up enough. I definitely don't want to see anything like that live and in person.

haven't seen it, but i can only imagine. it's like that show 'america's most amazing home videos' that they show on fox...why in hell would anyone find that entertaining? same with jackass or any of these other shows where people do stupid things just because it gets them 15 seconds of fame.

we are a very sad species. very, very sad...

[Mike Oxlong]

really had a hard time sleeping last night, every time i thought about it it made me creeped out. i'd written about it on facebook and a friend replied with 'was it JR? they have the lowest fine'. that just brought on a whole new set of 'just how fucked really is japan??' (btw, yes, it was JR) people routinely driven to suicide, one of the most selfish acts there is. yet they consider WHICH TRAIN LINE WILL FINE THEIR FAMILIES THE LEAST???

i dread to think what this financial crisis is going to do to the suicide rate.

I read somewhere that the fine thing is an urban legend...but can't for the life of me remember where? Anyone else heard/read that?

[Catoneinutica]

Anybody seen that documentary "The Bridge" about the people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge? That fucked me up enough. I definitely don't want to see anything like that live and in person.

Agreed. That was one seriously depressing documentary. Exploitative too.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Agreed. That was one seriously depressing documentary. Exploitative too.

I watched it at a friends place. Neither one of us knew what is was about so I was totally unprepared. Wish I had never seen it.

[Catoneinutica]

haven't seen it, but i can only imagine. it's like that show 'america's most amazing home videos' that they show on fox...why in hell would anyone find that entertaining? same with jackass or any of these other shows where people do stupid things just because it gets them 15 seconds of fame.

we are a very sad species. very, very sad...

Talk about melancholy: when you're flying from Japan to Europe, try to catch a glimpse of Siberia below. Stalin turned it into a massive death camp, from Magadan to Murmansk. Just finished a book called "The Forsaken" about Americans who immigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 30s. Some of them were idealistic leftists, some of them were looking for work - and nearly all of them died in gulags after Stalin got down to work in 1937. There are obvious parallels with the Japanese spouses of NK Japanese who moved to NK - though they at least don't all seem to have been murdered (never thought NK could look good by comparison with anything).

-catone
-Stalin killed something like 60 million all told between collectivization-created famine and his purges. He really seems to have fatally wounded Russia - at least the great Russia of Turgenev, Pushkin, and Prokofiev. Now that's sad. And a lot of Russians still admire the bastard. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I read somewhere that the fine thing is an urban legend...but can't for the life of me remember where? Anyone else heard/read that?

i haven't heard that, but it would be nice to hear that it is legend only. however, this being japan, someone has to be designated responsible and i imagine that the cleanup and disruption in schedules gets pretty expensive. that and maybe the fine imposed on the family would potentially deter people from going through with it.

anyone see the bbc report this week about the suicide spot overlooking the ocean? they reported that the suicide rate in japan is twice what it is in america and 3 times that of what it is in the uk. they also said that 90 people per day take their life here. truly tragic.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Talk about melancholy: when you're flying from Japan to Europe, try to catch a glimpse of Siberia below. Stalin turned it into a massive death camp, from Magadan to Murmansk. Just finished a book called "The Forsaken" about Americans who immigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 30s. Some of them were idealistic leftists, some of them were looking for work - and nearly all of them died in gulags after Stalin got down to work in 1937. There are obvious parallels with the Japanese spouses of NK Japanese who moved to NK - though they at least don't all seem to have been murdered (never thought NK could look good by comparison with anything).

-catone
-Stalin killed something like 60 million all told between collectivization-created famine and his purges. He really seems to have fatally wounded Russia - at least the great Russia of Turgenev, Pushkin, and Prokofiev. Now that's sad. And a lot of Russians still admire the bastard. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome.

in school we had to do the trans-siberia express trip. although it was during gorbachev era, they didn't have the monuments up yet, but as we passed through parts of it, we knew what had happened there and it was pretty sobering, even for a bunch of rowdy 16 year olds.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Agreed. That was one seriously depressing documentary. Exploitative too.

christ, i've just read the imdb entry for it. that guy who made it should be made to answer for it. how the hell did he manage to get the thing released?

from the 'trivia' section:

The documentary caused significant controversy when Eric Steel revealed that he had tricked the Golden Gate Bridge committee into allowing him to film the bridge for months and had captured 23 suicides which took place during the filming phase of the project. In his permit application to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Steel said he intended "to capture the powerful, spectacular intersection of monument and nature that takes place every day at the Golden Gate Bridge."

Steel interviewed relatives of the suicide victims, not informing them that he had footage of their loved ones' deaths. Later, he claimed that "the family members now, at this point, have seen the film, [and are] glad that they participated in it."

The filmmakers captured 23 of the 24 known Golden Gate suicides in 2004.


fucking asshole. i really hate people that use other people's pain for their own benefit.

[Catoneinutica]

Sorry for my thread hijack above, but this has turned into a good early-Halloween-spooooky thread, and "The Forsaken" was the spookiest book I've read recently. One poor bastard, an unemployed auto mechanic from Minnesota, stowed away on a freighter from Richmond, California, to Vladivostok in 1932. Big mistake: a few years later his mom received letters begging her to help get him out. She pleaded with the State Dept to help, but they were unsympathetic: after all, her son was just some working-class communist sympathizer. He was never heard from again.

The handful of prisoners who did escape described their guards eating Campbell's Soup and Dinty Moore Stew, food that was supplied as aid by the credulous American gov't.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Sorry for my thread hijack above, but this has turned into a good early-Halloween-spooooky thread, and "The Forsaken" was the spookiest book I've read recently. One poor bastard, an unemployed auto mechanic from Minnesota, stowed away on a freighter from Richmond, California, to Vladivostok in 1932. Big mistake: a few years later his mom received letters begging her to help get him out. She pleaded with the State Dept to help, but they were unsympathetic: after all, her son was just some working-class communist sympathizer. He was never heard from again.

The handful of prisoners who did escape described their guards eating Campbell's Soup and Dinty Moore Stew, food that was supplied as aid by the credulous American gov't.

last night was creepy enough for me, i think i've had my fill of visually disturbing images for the rest of the year!

[Mike Oxlong]

According to this, families are indeed billed. The method of offing oneself even has a catchy name...chuicide.

http://blogd.com/wp/?s=chuicide

[Cyka UchuuJin]

According to this, families are indeed billed. The method of offing oneself even has a catchy name...chuicide.

http://blogd.com/wp/?s=chuicide

Another interesting trend related to train suicide is to wear a brightly colored cap (orange) to help shield your face. This is done out of concern for the train conductors, so that they may not be caused any trauma by seeing the face of the person about to be hit. It is also useful as a sign that the person is indeed intending to commit suicide, and that no one should risk their life in order to save them.

that paragraph just leaves me speechless.

[Phantom]

When I was 12 or 13 a long time ago, there was one high-school class where they made us watch a film of a skyscraper on fire, and there were people leaping to their deaths (this was way way before 9/11 and it was actual flickering film, not a video). What got me was the ones who hit ladders on the way down at a tremendous speed and their bodies were flung like rag dolls spinning from the impact. That $%#$% scarred me for life. Seriously why would they show young kids that?

[Cyka UchuuJin]

When I was 12 or 13 a long time ago, there was one high-school class where they made us watch a film of a skyscraper on fire, and there were people leaping to their deaths (this was way way before 9/11 and it was actual flickering film, not a video). What got me was the ones who hit ladders on the way down at a tremendous speed and their bodies were flung like rag dolls spinning from the impact. That $%#$% scarred me for life. Seriously why would they show young kids that?

what country was this in? and WHY?

[Phantom]

what country was this in? and WHY?

Australia, early 80's. I can't remember exactly why, altough it was a documentary of some sort the clas watched in the library.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Australia, early 80's. I can't remember exactly why, altough it was a documentary of some sort the clas watched in the library.

that's really awful. kids have enough to deal with already without being subjected to that. sorry that you were made to watch such a thing.

[yakitori]

The families do get billed by JR but none of the famlies have ever actually attempted to pay...accoding to my friend who works for JR

[Cyka UchuuJin]

The families do get billed by JR but none of the famlies have ever actually attempted to pay...accoding to my friend who works for JR

does JR or the other companies every tried to pursue it through the courts or lawyers?

[Taro Toporific]

...high-school class where they made us watch a film of a skyscraper on fire, and there were people leaping to their deaths....

Hard economic times in Marunouchi ...

[pheyton]

Cyka, it's PTSD. I saw 2 16 year old kids get blown away by shotgun blasts to the head in San Diego. Still chokes me 15 years later. It's as vivid as the night it happened and definitely changed my outlook on life.

I arrived at my local station just after a jumper. They were cleaning him up and I was surprised that they didn't close the station down while cleaning. It was a small station past Chofu on the Keio sen.

Simple solution, barriers like they put up on one of the Tokyu lines? The plexiglass barriers with gates that won't open until the train stops. But then maybe the jumpers would grab a knife, a truck and go to Akihabara?