What are the buses like in your city?
There are a lot of buses running throughout Tokorozawa. I was riding this Seibu bus the other day. Most of the buses here don't have any steps and the button you press when you want to get off at the next bus-stop is just about everywhere.
I'm always afraid I'll lean on it and press it by mistake. And am I the only one who gets nervous about pressing that button? I'm always relieved when someone gets off at the same stop, so I won't have to press it :)
10 comments:
It looks like one of those buses that spits out numbered tickets when you get on board. At least you can tell when to get off by the verbal announcements and the bus stops listed on the illuminated board up front with a running tabulation of bus fares.
Japanese friends here in So-Cal have complained about how we have to know the correct bus stop somehow without being informed at all. How confusing, especially if you haven’t been someplace before.
I agree with you. Why is there the hesitation to push that button? And definitely an inaudible but distinct sigh of relief when the red lights go on signifying a requested stop up next.
So why was the woman interrupting her reading to look back in your direction? Oh, you took more than one photo. Maybe she wondered what all the commotion was.
You gave me some ideas for a future post ;)As you i 'm a little stressed when i don't know the bus line :)
No bus today, but I posted something alike. Nice pictures and a good idea for future posts.
The busses in Los Angeles have a string you pull which rings a bell. (At least they did a few years ago, which is the last time I rode one.)
People are shy here. They'll pull the string three, four time for their stop. Even though, clearly, everyone heard them the first time.
We live in a small town so there is no bus service but when we lived in Auckland which is the city I use to get the bus to work every day and home.
Even the natives? I thought I was the only shy gaijin guy who felt that way :). Relieved relieved. You don't know how awful it was my first time being on a Japan bus , hehe...
Problem is when you press the button and the driver forgets to stop
Tall Gary, yes they do spit out tickets. Although a lot of people now use the electronic Suica card, which you can charge money ahead of time, instead so you don't have to dig for change. No announcements? I'd probably end up taking that bus back and forth :)
Babzy, yay! Always glad to give out new ideas :D
Thanks, VP! I'm sure you'll find a very interesting bus related post for Livorno :)
Altadenahiker, people of LA obviously need to learn to be bold ;D If it were me, I'd probably end up pulling that string everytime the bus hit a bump.
Amy, I think one of the reasons we have so many buses here is because people don't have cars :)
Henny, I know exactly how you feel. When the bus is crowded you can't see the sign up front and the announcement is muffled, so you end up constantly looking out the window :)
Mo, when I was in high school we all wore uniforms, and since we all get off at the same station, you'd think that someone already pushed the button...and sometimes nobody did and mean bus drivers would just pass our bus stop, even though they KNOW where we get off!
Thanks for the nod.
The Suica card came out towards the end of my stay in Japan and I never used it. If anyone is interested in this high-technology payment system they can read about it here at Wikipedia.
That’s funny about the mean bus drivers. Although not at all funny to you guys at the time. Maybe the bus drivers could get punished for stopping when no one pushed the button. It is so stupid. I don’t care for that "Rules are rules and you must always obey the rules" business.
Gary, I lived up north in Sapporo at the time, so I don't think the rules were that strict. Probably had more to do with the fact that we were a very noisy obnoxious bunch of high schoolers ;D
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