Category: transportation

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Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles observation rant transportation

Ignorant people on the bus.

Today I felt very irritated in the morning while I was riding on the bus. Around Columbus and Union, three men got on the bus and were being so very rude. From the way they dressed and acted, I could tell they were from a very rural area in the US, and it really infuriated me to hear them being so openly ignorant. They were making fun of a Hispanic woman talking on her cell phone, and kept making snide remarks about the minorities in San Francisco.

Um, excuse me? You want to talk about being racist/ignorant in a city where diversity rules? I was so seriously pissed off when I got off the bus, because it just angered me: why were these men here in San Francisco and badmouthing minorities? I felt like they were completely out-of-place and that they were just here to cause trouble. Really, when we were all on the bus, they were probably the minority on the bus…yet they insisted on being bigots and being rude about Chinese and Hispanics.

Yes, please, just go back to where you came from, because we don’t need people like you in San Francisco.

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Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles observation transportation

Woman with the bobbed hair.

Ever since last autumn, I have noticed this bobbed brownheaded elder woman taking the #10 bus with me every morning to the Financial District. I guess she amuses me every time because of how perfect her hair looks all the time: neatly bobbed and curled under, including the bangs. I noticed her all those times when I worked down in the Financial District. After I stopped working there, I did not see her again.

Well, recently, seems like we are running into each other again. One day after work last week, I took the 9x back home and she was also taking the bus. We both got off at the same stop, which made me feel a little weird since it looked like I was following her (which, I really wasn’t; it was my stop, too, after all). We even went into Safeway at the same time, which made things much more creepier for me.

This morning, we met again, taking the 9x downtown. I wonder if she lives in the same building as me? And I wonder if she also recognises me every time, too? It’s kind of strange; I feel like we should at least introduce ourselves to each other so things would not feel so awkward. Then again, I don’t want to come off as being a creepy Asian girl (is there such a thing?), so maybe I should just let her be for now.

So, I guess I will continue to amuse myself with her perfectly coifed hair when we meet again.

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Japan Life Decisions transportation

Fire incident on the JR.

It was one of those days where I pretty much felt that Fate/Destiny was telling me to not go through with my plans for the day. Originally, today I was supposed to go to an interview session for an English-teaching company. The emails bounced twice when I tried to reply to the company confirming my attendance, but I decided I would still go to the session to notify them of this situation. I hoped that they would still let me attend the session since the bounced emails is a problem with their system, not mine.

Ah, but then an acquaintance notified me of the chaos ensuing within the train lines; apparently, there was a fire along one of the train lines (perhaps, Chuo), and many of the lines were either stopped or severely delayed. I became a little worried since I had to take the Chuo and Yamanote lines to get to where I needed to go (Osaki). I thought maybe the train situation would be fixed by the time I reached the ticket gates, though…..

Arriving at the Tachikawa station, I approach the ticket gates and notice the swarm of people going in and out of the Nambu line entrance. It looked massively insane and headache-inducing. Since the Chuo was the main line towards Tokyo from Tachikawa, everyone had to resort to taking the Nambu line and finding alternate routes to get to central Tokyo. I sat outside of the ticket gates, watching the madness for a few minutes, until I finally decided, “I can’t go to the session. I’d probably show up late if I went through Nambu; plus, there’s no confirmation that I ever made it onto the list–why bother with all the trouble to arrive at the office when there’s no real confirmation?”

I took a risk and decided I would not deal with the matter. The Chuo line was supposed to start back up at noon, which was when the interview session would begin anyway. I decided I would save myself some money (1200 yen for a round trip to Osaki from Tachikawa! Whoa.) and trouble.

It was probably the best decision I made for the day. After all, I then had the day to relax and reflect on the busy week I have had.

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Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles observation transportation

Smelly bus.

Someone had the bright idea of letting out a fart on the crowded bus today. I was pretty annoyed with how things were going on; the bus was already pretty crowded, but these rebellious guys were being obnoxious, and I think it was one of them who decided to relieve his gas. It was a really smelly one: I watched as a lot of people in front of me on the bus were quickly opening the windows and grimacing at the stench.

How rude, really. But at the same time, how amusing the scene was, too. I tried my best to keep a straight face and not show my discomfort since I think the guys were definitely looking for reactions (maybe they felt attention hungry?). I minded my own business the whole time and listened to my music. Luckily the windows were all open so the bus was able to clear out the smell a little bit…but too bad, it was indeed crowded, so the smell lingered a little longer than we all would have liked (too many bodies keeping the smell in).

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Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles rant transportation

Riding the F Line.

There are a few things that annoy me about public transportation. Although I love the diverse groups of people who board the buses/trains here, some of them just plain smell.

I know I ranted about that woman who was being royally rude about the smell of a Chinese woman beside her. The thing that really angered me about that situation was just how blatantly obvious the woman was being. Seriously, she could have removed herself from the situation.

But I digress.

Today I was sitting on the F Line, on my way back to my apartment from checking my mail downtown. At first the other passengers and I were kind of spread out because there weren’t many people on the train, but as we got closer to Fisherman’s Wharf, we all had to crowd into the seats more. I felt like I was suffocating between these two rather smelly people. I couldn’t really remove myself from the situation though since there were a lot of other people on the train at that point. Plus, I tried to distract my senses by focusing on finishing my book. That didn’t work too well though; still ended up feeling sick from the smell.

I know some people can’t afford to be super clean here in the city, but it’s rather irritating to have to smell the people on a crowded train/bus. The least they could do is put on some deodorant or do something to cover up the stench! Maybe go find a flower and rub it upon themselves. Anything is better than smelling human B.O.