Gobbling girls

[thomas]

First make-up, now gobbling: J-schoolgirls make headlines:

Gobbling girls scoff at traditional train ethos

Scandalous behaviour:

"I saw four young women about 20 together and all scoffing down a Chinese meal," one train eater witness tells Shukan Bunshun. "There were only seats for two of them, so the other two sat down beside the carriage door to eat."

As if that wouldn't be enough:

"My friend really hates the cold, so when she rides the train home at night, she always drinks hard liquor to warm it up," another watcher of commuter consumers says. "Mind you, she puts the booze into a soda container just in case anybody thinks she's a drunk."

=> http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0212/021208scoff.html

Tokyo Metro Manner Poster:

[chlorph]

Now, why is the article focusing on women? I'm not a feminist, but come on, men and women alike are known to eat on trains!

Barbecuing is another story. LMAO!

Okay, I'll come clean -- I've never eaten on a train, but I drink on the train nearly every night. And while I'm not the only doing it, I seem to be the only Ozeki-One-Cup-clutching FEMALE de-stressing in this way on my commute home.

Tell me you do it, too! (*v*)

[thomas]

Hehe, you're right, didn't notice that they only mention girls. Salarymen... I've never seen them eating on the train. Aren't they supposed to read adult manga or sleep on their neighbour's shoulder, lolol?

Seriously, these waiwai stories are like chewing gum: juicy and a bit tasteless.

[samuraitora]

Originally posted by thomas
juicy and a bit tasteless.

too funny thomas!!!

[Twisted]

Is it strange to eat on a train?
I regularly hop into the Burgerking at Amsterdam Central to order a bag full of grease for on the road... er... rails and i can assure you that i'm not the only one.

[Maciamo]

Well, what's wrong in eating on a train ? I wouldn't bring a sushi box with shouyu bottles or a burger pissing sauce on the sides, but I admit consuming a few pretzels or chocolates on the train 'cause I was starving. After all, they do sell food and drinks on the platform (both underground and JR), so I guess that's to eat them there. What I don't like is people living there empty cans rolling on the floor afterwards.

[thomas]

I was brought up not to eat or drink on the street, later smoking was added to that list (among other things I won't mention, lol). Well, actually nothing's wrong with eating on the street. The same applies to trains. I just can't stand crossing someone who eats garlicky stuff like a Hungarian langos at 9.00 in the morning, yuck.

What I don't like is people living there empty cans rolling on the floor afterwards.

Leaving behind traces is definitely a big no-no.

[Twisted]

If i sit in a train and smell or see somebody is eating a snack i always regret not having bought something myself.

[Kathie Hawkins]

The next time that I get on a train, I'm gonna bring along something really loud & crunchy, like barbacued potato chips. I'll gobble t hem up like a starving conceentration camp inmate, making as much noise as possible. Then when I get everybody's attention, I'm gonna pause in my voracious chewing, roll my eyes up to lock onto theirs, bare my teeth, & growl, a ragged, lowpitched, long, drawn out growl like a furious German Shepherd guarding its food. Everybody'll be so terrified of being brutally maules & bitten that they won't give me any trouble. I might even give then a few loud dog barks, as if t osay, go ahead, piss me off, & I'll eat YOU when I'm through with this bag of potato chips. Freaking out people is a sport that I picked up when I was a motorcycle gang girl, long ago.

[doudesuka]

I would love to see the reactions of half-sleeping japanese. ha ha!

[doudesuka]

I don't see any problem eating on the train but a lot of people don't know what a trash can is and how it is used, that's the problem. It's horrible if you run across a person who has just eaten gyouza.

[CFP]

On the train from Tokyo to Yamagata they have a cart they sell food from. Whats the problem?

[Video-Link Japan]

Originally posted by Kathie Hawkins
The next time that I get on a train, I'm gonna bring along something really loud & crunchy, like barbacued potato chips. I'll gobble t hem up like a starving conceentration camp inmate, making as much noise as possible. Then when I get everybody's attention, I'm gonna pause in my voracious chewing, roll my eyes up to lock onto theirs, bare my teeth, & growl, a ragged, lowpitched, long, drawn out growl like a furious German Shepherd guarding its food. Everybody'll be so terrified of being brutally maules & bitten that they won't give me any trouble. I might even give then a few loud dog barks, as if t osay, go ahead, piss me off, & I'll eat YOU when I'm through with this bag of potato chips. Freaking out people is a sport that I picked up when I was a motorcycle gang girl, long ago.

Katie.. Sweeet.. thats just what the morning commute needs.. a little gaijin scooter trash action to give the locals something to talk about all day at the office.. +_+

[Hachiko]

If you're hungry, you gotta do what you gotta do.

[Proto]

Hachiko right. I'm gonna start eating anywhere if i'm hungry!!!!

[Rich303]

Originally Posted by thomas

The same applies to trains. I just can't stand crossing someone who eats garlicky stuff like a Hungarian langos at 9.00 in the morning, yuck.

I don't understand people who eat Salt and Vineger crisps for breakfast (they smell like tear gas) - or any other crisps for that matter.
You can usually see the same people washing their crisps down with a nice can of fizzy pop. For breakfast! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

This is just my opinion.
Anyway, I don't like to eat on the underground or when I am walking around.(although I did have a Bento box on the bullet train to Kyoto)

I think the French have views similar to those of the Japanese, when it comes to making meal times more 'sacred'. I think it's a cool idea.

[Minty]

~bump~

Originally Posted by thomas

I was brought up not to eat or drink on the street, later smoking was added to that list (among other things I won't mention, lol). Well, actually nothing's wrong with eating on the street. The same applies to trains. I just can't stand crossing someone who eats garlicky stuff like a Hungarian langos at 9.00 in the morning, yuck.
Leaving behind traces is definitely a big no-no.

Same here I don't eat on the streets or on public transportations, but I think it is ok for others who do, I just hope they don't spill their drinks or foods cause it could be messy if you just so happened to be near by.

[cawaibaby]

maybe i am the only here.. but i would never eat in a train.
and it is really not a sign of good manner to eat in publicity
in japan. so why does everybody absolutely want to eat in train?
if you care for your image, wait just a bit..
also it would be really regardless to the other persons who are sitting beside you...

of course this is applies also to drinking..
drinking in public is also bad manner..
for example: My school even forbides me to drink juice in publicity
so if you care about your image .. dont do that

but i had never had a problem to must not eat in train because..
i think eating in publicity is really not attractive !!
just a few sentences to my opinion to this topic

[yukio_michael]

Originally Posted by thomas

"My friend really hates the cold, so when she rides the train home at night, she always drinks hard liquor to warm it up," another watcher of commuter consumers says. "Mind you, she puts the booze into a soda container just in case anybody thinks she's a drunk."

It's easy to tell the drunks, just wait for them to stagger through the train station once they try to get on or off a train!

I have seen someone walk down the street in several different places holding a whole plate of food they were eating... fork & knife included, as if they were sitting at a dinner table--- yikes!

[ArmandV]

If it is "bad manners" to eat on a train, then why do they sell food on them? I bought myself a sandwich on the Shinkansen from Sendai to Tokyo last month. I thought nothing of it. In fact, on the train trip from Tokyo to Sendai, I sat with a senior citizen tour group and the tour group leader handed out box lunches to them. Since I ate before I got on the train, I had no problem them eating.

[Kinsao]

Wow - this was quite an old thread!
Eating in public is something that my grandmother thought was not nice to do... in the UK now I think that's now become a more old-fashioned view, as most people don't mind eating in public. I have no problem with that personally as long as people don't throw litter down. -_-

As for the train... I mostly use the train for journeys of 1.5 hours or more, and often the people on my train, with it being a main line that I usually travel, are on there for a longer journey, so it's not uncommon to see people snacking or sometimes eating what I would consider to be a whole meal (i.e. sandwiches + fruit, or something similar). Again, I don't have a problem with it as long as they don't eat in an obnoxious, noisy way, spill their food or drop litter. A lot of times, when people travel quite long distances for their work, they have to travel over meal times in order to save time.

Also, food is sold on the train; mainly snack foods with the most substantial being sandwiches. I have never seen someone with a whole takeaway (a curry or Chinese or fish and chips or something similar) on a train; IMO this is because it would be a hassle to get your takeaway through the platforms and onto the train at the same time as your luggage; even if you have no luggage the chances are your food would have gone cold by the time you get on the train. And railway stations of any size abound with (over priced) places where you can buy things to eat, so people don't take in takeaway foods from 'non-station' shops as a rule.

Personally I don't eat on the train, but that's only because I never feel the need to. I usually take something to drink though.

[DoctorP]

Originally Posted by Kinsao

Wow - this was quite an old thread!
Eating in public is something that my grandmother thought was not nice to do... in the UK now I think that's now become a more old-fashioned view, as most people don't mind eating in public. I have no problem with that

I really have no problem with people eating in public, as long as they are clean about it...but eventually if they begin doing it, then they begin leaving their trash all over. People in general are just lazy.

But again, on eating in public...what's the big deal? I mean if you go to a resturant aren't you just eating in public anyway?

[gaijinalways]

Well, you might not want to do it, but why stop others who maybe don't have time to eat in the restaurant (overloaded schedule, anyone?) and eat on the train, killing two birds at one time (moving and eating). I drink beer and eat small meals/snacks on the train from time to time. Of course, one must be careful, and I'm not one of the ones eating/drinking while standing (always sitting, I do draw the line there).

[Kinsao]

Originally Posted by CC1

But again, on eating in public...what's the big deal? I mean if you go to a resturant aren't you just eating in public anyway?

Yeah I think that. ^^
One of my grandfathers, he even hated eating at a restaurant. He was self-conscious about being looked at and would always ask for a seat right at the back in the corner. As he got older, he mellowed a bit, though.

I also used to work for a woman who's husband would never eat in public except at a restaurant. It was because he was a snob - she admitted it in her own words and even said that she too was a snob (O___o)! and he thought eating in the street or otherwise public was somehow not 'class'. To the extent that he wouldn't even buy an ice cream from a van. -_-

[Pachipro]

Originally Posted by Armand V

If it is "bad manners" to eat on a train, then why do they sell food on them?

Originally Posted by Kinsao

Also, food is sold on the train; mainly snack foods with the most substantial being sandwiches. I have never seen someone with a whole takeaway (a curry or Chinese or fish and chips or something similar) on a train;

The story is no longer available to read, but I think the distinction being made is eating on a commuter train vs. eating on a long distance train as you mentioned.

It is quite common to eat and drink on a long distance train as I often do when traveling in Japan. Bento box lunches, sandwiches, etc. are sold at the station and on the train for this specific purpose and it is perfectably acceptable to eat a complete meal if one chooses to do so and no one will think twice about it.

Eating on a commuter train is a different story though. One almost never sees anyone eating a bento or a hamburger on a commuter train and it is considered rude. The occasional snacks, soft drinks, a beer, or One Cup Ozeki sake though are quite acceptable.