Racist JR Staff

[maninjapan]

Sorry for the title but there is and will be no other way to say it...

Ok so let's set the scene..


Been working today and a different location as usual, Kawasaki. Now, being the partially sensible person that I am, I bought the return and there ticket at Fujisawa station. Now, I know some of you are gonna say

"Why not use the JR Suica card?"

Simple fact of the matter - I don't often use JR Rail enough to warrant it.

Anyway, on the homeward journey, got the return ticket out and passed through the barriers and got down to the platform.
Waited patiently in the queue for the Tokaido line and got on.

Whacked on the psp and boom before you know it back at Fujisawa.

Now where the hell is my ticket?

I know I normally put it in the front compartment of my wallet in front of registration card. Always put it there. ALWAYS.

Now it's gone...

bugger.

So....thought let's go to the ticket office and be honest and say I have lost my ticket from Kawasaki to Fujisawa. Up I go, the man looks miffed:

"what?"

"excuse me, but I have lost my ticket"

"where?"

"I came from Kawasaki, it cost 570 yen"

"All you gaijins, always doing this to jump the fare"

"WHAT?!!!!! Once more please!"

"Nothing"

Personally I wanted to jump through the window and pummel his face in, but I thought no can't have said that, but nonetheless, took his name anyway because of his attitude.

Walking home, met a friend and she said she had met this dude before and was rude to her.

Now if I complain what should I do about it?

[kunitachi]

Not exactly enlightened, is he? It's hardly a surprise though -- similar thing happened to me yesterday at a JR station, although it was more of the "not wanting to understand a Westerner, even though he's speaking Japanese fluently (it was a simple question) and without an accent" variety. Makes you feel so small and powerless in the face of ignorance, doesn't it?

[maninjapan]

Man - I was shocked - never experienced it directly over here, and have been here for 3 1/2 years.

BUT DIRECTLY?!

Christ that made me feel so furious inside that if it happens again I might just smack someone. His whole mannerisms were completely different to me, than when he served someone after me....

[Jack]

Maybe many gaijins do use that excuse to jump the fare. Racism or not maybe he is right.

[maninjapan]

So if i turn around and flip this to using blacks or Spanish people I can get away with saying it?

[Taro Toporific]

"excuse me, but I have lost my ticket"
"where?"
"I came from Kawasaki, it cost 570 yen"
"All you gaijins, always doing this to jump the fare"

Gee, sorry. I guess I did this too many times at Kawasaki.


(Seriously, I'm shocked that the JR guys believe my whatever my story is when I loose my ticket ---every couple years or so.)

[Jack]

So if i turn around and flip this to using blacks or Spanish people I can get away with saying it?

Here's the deal: Mexicans illegally cross into the U.S. so when U.S. immigration agents see a Mexican looking person in the U.S. they ask for an ID. They don't ask me, a white Canadian, but they ask the brown Mexican. Sometimes it's racism. You just have to put up with it.

[FG Lurker]

Here's the deal [...] You just have to put up with it.

It's easy to say when it's not you. Guess you don't mind being considered guilty of anything until you prove yourself to be innocent?

Man In Japan: Technically if you lose your ticket you do need to pay the fare again. How I have handled it in the past is to say to them, "Look, I lost my ticket. I got on in Sannomiya, and that is 380yen. Here, I'll pay the fare cause I know I fucked up." It's happened a couple of times to me over the years and after explaining things like that they just waved me through.

[Tsuru]

You just have to put up with it.

Welcome to Jack's world.

[JustInJapan]

Put up with it huh? Yeah i do that all the time in White America!:rolleyes:

[Neo-Rio]

You were just lucky you didn't lose a shinkansen ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo.
You really DON'T want to pay double for losing that one.

But yeah, there are always a few hooligans that enter Japan and cheat the train system by trying to squeeze two people thorugh the gate (seen it done), and everybody avoids suica because you can seriously cheat the fare with a standard teiki.

Example: You have a teiki from Yokohama to Shinjuku, but you want to go to Tokyo, Chiba and all the way up the country. You ignore your teiki, and pay your way to your destination. On the way back, you get the cheapest ticket possible (about 130) yen, and on arrival at Yokohama again, you just use your teiki - which works because it thinks you're going in for the first time when in fact you are going out. Suica doesn't let you pull that one.

Some other gaijin I know have teikis, and put names like "Gautama buddha" and "Queen elizabeth" on them.

[Mulboyne]

It's worth pointing out that fare dodging on trains almost has the status of a national sport for some Japanese commuters. Given the received opinion about law-abiding Japanese, I remember being surprised to see long queues at the fare adjustment machines when I first saw ticket inspectors making an appearance at the gates.

[FG Lurker]

Example: You have a teiki from Yokohama to Shinjuku, but you want to go to Tokyo, Chiba and all the way up the country. You ignore your teiki, and pay your way to your destination. On the way back, you get the cheapest ticket possible (about 130) yen, and on arrival at Yokohama again, you just use your teiki - which works because it thinks you're going in for the first time when in fact you are going out.

I don't know about Tokyo, but this is no longer possible in Osaka. If you don't use your teiki to get on the train, you can't use it when you exit either, or for fare adjustment.

[GomiGirl]

I don't know about Tokyo, but this is no longer possible in Osaka. If you don't use your teiki to get on the train, you can't use it when you exit either, or for fare adjustment.

This has started to happen in the Big Mikan too.

I do remember the old days of the clicker clacker men who stood at the gates cutting the edge off your ticket with a cool little chopper thing. (that was on my first trip to Japan in 1987)

Then the guards used to roam through the carriages and it was a voluntary thing for you to upgrade your ticket. In Australia they were more interested in checking everybody for fare evasion.

[FG Lurker]

I do remember the old days of the clicker clacker men who stood at the gates cutting the edge off your ticket with a cool little chopper thing. (that was on my first trip to Japan in 1987)

Yes, I remember that from Osaka too! And then there would be guys at the exit gates collecting tickets from the flood of passengers leaving the station.

In Osaka JR was still using these guys at the gates long after the subways and railways went to automatic systems, but JR was one of the earliest to stop the "use your teiki to exit" scams.

[Catoneinutica]

I "lost" my ticket many-a time back in the day, particularly when I was annoyed with JR for some reason - for example, for having refused to give me a refund when I'd overpaid for a ticket. Still, I was impressed from the get-go with how relatively airtight their system was vis-a-vis those of other countries. Even Germany relies on what is essentially an honor system, and even if your got caught "schwarzfahren"-ing, you only have to pay a fine three times the ticket price (at least as of c. 2000).

JR's officiousness really strikes me as a reflection of J-society a whole: mercilessly punctilious about small things (go to jail for shoplifting a 100-yen something), completely limp about big things ("suspended" sentences for multibillion-grade white-collar criminals).

[American Oyaji]

JR's officiousness really strikes me as a reflection of J-society a whole: mercilessly punctilious about small things (go to jail for shoplifting a 100-yen something), completely limp about big things ("suspended" sentences for multibillion-grade white-collar criminals).

Shit man, that happens everywhere. Look at the U.S.

[Korrito]

Follow him home then beat him to death with a bike iron; sell your story first so people in the West knows what a bike iron is; I don't know either way: a bike iron could be a Jtoofbrush with batteries that wiggles and cleanses your gums at the same time.

The major point is, don't get drunk and post on message boards, but if you do, talk loud and carry a good tune when you pretend to be Barry Bonds.

Upsides:downsides; every story man.

[Jack]

Shit man, that happens everywhere. Look at the U.S.

That's acceptable because the U.S. is dominated by white folks.

[Jack]

[quote="Korrito"]Follow him home then beat him to death with a bike iron]

Can you repeat this please? I don't understand it.

[Catoneinutica]

That's acceptable because the U.S. is dominated by white folks.

Sure this shit happens everywhere - "Every great fortune is based on a crime," as Stendhal said - but this is a J-centric board, is it not? Plus, major-league white-collar criminals do seem to get off pretty damn easy here. Even Michael Milkin, Ivan Boesky, Martha Stewart, et al, spent time in the slammer. In J-land, only Horie-man is being singled out.

-catone
-I'd say the US is dominated by rich folks, many, but not all, of whom are white. OJ's lucre certainly helped him game the system.

[Kuang_Grade]

Shit man, that happens everywhere. Look at the U.S.

Well, occasionally some do go to jail in the US...
Former Enron CEO Skilling gets 24 years
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15389150/

Although I'm still annoyed that Frank Quattrone isn't jail with him.

[Catoneinutica]

Well, occasionally some do go to jail in the US...
Former Enron CEO Skilling gets 24 years
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15389150/

Although I'm still annoyed that Frank Quattrone isn't jail with him.

My point exactly. Japan has had any number of Enron-sized implosions, and the execs always walk away with "suspended" sentences. Tsusumi Yoshiaki's helicopter is flying above our house as I write - he's dropping in to visit his mistress at his Karuizawa love-shack. It's owned by his company, and it comes with 50,000 TSUBO in el primo Karuizawa land. The company "rents" it to her for 40,000 yen/mo.

[sublight]

I used to do this all the time back when I was scraping for money and my gf lived two prefectures away. I'd take the Tokaido local from Shinagawa to Hamamatsu, then buy a 10-pack of tickets from Hamamatsu to the next station (which were good for three months). That way, not only could I return home for 180 yen (with the teiki trick), I could go there for only 180 yen as well. Even if I only used it once, I was still paying only 1800 yen vs. 3000 yen.

The most audacious one I ever pulled was going to Hamamatsu from Tokyo, then going over to the transfer gate for the Shinkansen and buying an 'observation pass' (140 yen to go up on the platform and see someone off). I waited around 10 minutes for the next train to come in, then followed the crowd out the main Shinkansen gate, handing back my pass. The next time I went through the transfer gate to by an observation pass (legit this time; I was taking the Shink home and my gf was going with me to the platform to say goodbye), the guy wanted to see our tickets first. If he'd asked that last time, I'd have been busted.

Nowadays, I don't bother. Most of the gates have been upgraded to catch the teiki trick, and the amounts involved are too small to be worth the hassle. Besides, I'm a homeowner in the suburbs now instead of a random teacher downtown: people here actually recognize me, so I have to confine my mischief to other neighborhoods.