Thursday, July 15, 2004

Stupid Logic

I was in Nagoya the last two days for a seminar. We came back tonight on the shinkansen (bullet train) and I got to experience stupid logic. Saving 5 minutes is a big deal in Japan - this is why you see 'express' trains that only save 10 minutes on a two hour journey costing twice as much. Well, today the person who bought our tickets wanted to save some time.

We weren't actually in Nagoya - we were about 30 minutes by train towards Tokyo at a shinkansen stop. However, this was not an express stop, so we backtracked to Nagoya arriving 7 minutes before our express shinkansen left. This was so we could take the faster train. Let's add in a few more details. We're travelling at 5 o'clock so the local train is jammed. The a/c doesn't work. It is smelly. And it is late. So when we arrive in Nagoya, which is wall to wall people on the platform, we only have 3 minutes to get to the shinkansen - which is four platforms over, thru a ticket gate and up to another platform... rushing through thousands of people. We run - in 40 degree heat mind you - and luckily just make it. And, for the price of 30 minutes of discomfort and nearly having a heart attack, we saved a grand total of... are you ready?... 10 minutes.

Oh, and for those that are confused about 'express bullet trains' - some bullet trains only stop at like 4 stops the whole length of Japan. Others stop at 20. They are still much faster than the regular trains, but when the shinkansen only stops 4 times it hits maximum speed between stations.

Now wouldn't it have made much more sense to stay at the original station, find a restaurant and have a beer and some dinner, then leisurely walk to the platform and have a relaxing ride home??? But we arrived 10 minutes earlier than if we had done that. This is just silly to me. Even if we arrived 30 minutes after the express train, it would have been worth not having to run all over the place. All that running and stress is definitely not worth 10 minutes.



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