Anyway, about a month ago, I visited my parents' house in Osaka. It had been more than one year since I last went there.This time, I discovered some things I had never noticed before. I'll talk about the most surprising one. First of all, please see the attached pictures. Can you guess what these signs are for? I took the first picture at a platform of JR Osaka station, a central terminal train station at Osaka. When I found the sign in the second picture at another train station, my eyes were glued to it and wondered exactly what it indicated. I bet that the confusing sign shows JR, a large train company, has been having difficulties educating Osaka people. As you can guess, these signs are explaining how to queue for trains.
I was raised mainly in Osaka. I would say that Osaka culture had a lot of influence on creating my character, although it's been many years since I left Osaka and I'm currently living in the Tokyo area. Because of my background, I assumed that I was familiar to Osaka culture and custom. When I went to Osaka about a month ago, however, I was surprised to see how Osaka people got on a train. Every time I waited for a train at the station in Osaka, I did try to stand in line as I do in the Tokyo area, but it was hard to see which line was one to wait for a train. Some passengers tried to queue up, but some (sometimes many) didn't care about the line. Since some were eager to rush into a train while others were getting off, a peaceful station inevitably turned into a sort of battleground. In the Tokyo area, this seldom happens. Actually, Osaka people are notorious for bad manners in Japan, although I often hear that people from other countries say they like Osaka more than Tokyo mainly because Osaka people are more friendly and good at expressing themselves among Japanese.
What do you think about these signs on the platform?
