My SO and I made a 12-day trip to Japan last week. The incident happened during a train ride from Otsuki to Shinjuku. We rushed to get to the earliest possible train and we did not reserve a seat (we used to but this time we missed it). We went inside Car 12 and all seats were reserved (reserved seats have green lights above them). We ended up standing inside the compartment between car no. 12 and 11, where the toilet and the garbage bin are located.
We were standing with 3 other people. Another foreign couple around our age and a local man around 60-70 y/o. My bf was holding all our luggage while I volunteered to check the other carriage if there were vacant seats (seats with red lights above them). I made it to car 10 when the ride got bumpy. I rushed to the nearest compartment and stayed there for a while. All seats were reserved from car 11 to 10. I just headed back because I was getting dizzy.
When I got back to my bf, the other foreign couple were gone. He said they found and sat on two empty reserved seats on car 11. I saw those chairs earlier too but did not attempt to sit there because afaik, you can’t sit on a reserved seat that is not yours. He turned to car 12 and saw that there was an empty aisle seat on the front row. He convinced me to sit there. I refused at first but finally went with it. I tried to look first if there were other unoccupied seats for my bf but there were none.
As I sat on empty seat, I looked at my bf through the glass door. He nodded and gave me a thumbs up. 2 seconds in then the lady on the aisle seat to my left leaned towards me and started pointing at the green light and said in her thick Japanese accent “No, no, no, no sit … Reserved! reserved!… (said something in Japanese)” I was dumbfounded and I stared at her for a few seconds as if I was listening and trying to figure out what she was saying while in my head it was all “Oh no, I messed up.. it’s happening” (I probably look so stupid). Then she started to raise her voice saying “dame! dame! dame!…” while doing strong shooing motion with both hands. I nodded nervously, stood up, and walked away unsteadily with my head down feeling the weight of the stares I might be getting.
I went back to my boyfriend shaking and trying to calm down my anxiety. I said “I told you I don’t want to sit there, the lady kicked me out” He said sorry for pushing me to sit there and added that the lady was just being nosy and she had no business NOT letting me sit on an empty chair and that the person next to me did not even complain about it. I digressed and kept silent for the rest of the ride to process what happened. I felt better when we reached our hotel. I told my bf everything that happened back there and he was pissed. Later on, we had an interesting conversation about what happened.
His take was that the lady was in the wrong for treating me like that. It makes no sense to not sit on an empty chair. Yes, it is reserved but it was empty! Anyone who reserved it had already missed the train. I argued that what if the lady bought and reserved the seat? He said it was very unlikely since the seat was across her, not beside her. She was just being nosy and tried to discriminate because I’m a gaijin (foreigner). We paid for a 7 day unlimited JR pass, we were already inside the train on time, other passengers reserved but did not make it on time. Why do you need to suffer standing next to a garbage bin, if there are empty seats all over?
My take: I should not have sat there in the first place. We’re not sure about the rules. The local old man standing with us did not do it, so why would we? even if it doesn’t make sense to us, we are not on our turf. There might or might not be written rules about it, but if it’s in their culture, we should abide because we’re just visitors. I don’t agree with how the lady approached me, but there is also a language barrier so idk how else should she communicate. What if it’s a stoplight? There are times when there are no cars anywhere but we still wait for the GO signal before crossing because we observed that, that is how they do it.
HIM: It’s a different situation and you risked getting hit by a car crossing the street with the STOP signal on.
ME: Then in this case, I took the risk and got hit by a car (got called out by a local).
HIM: “She’s lucky it was you. If it was me I would’ve stood next to her with our luggage while there was turbulence to see how she would react. Technically, I am not sitting on the reserved seat. lol ”
(This would be so funny but we both can never pull it off personally. lol)
We did research later on and found out that it’s allowed to sit on a reserved seat until the one who reserved it arrived. The only time you can’t do this is if you’re in a “Green Car” (equivalent to first-class seats). Unfortunately, we can’t remember if it’s actually a green car. Based on the internet, Azusa’s green cars are on car no. 8 or 9.
It did affect me as this was my first time in Japan. I went from a smiley tourist to a gloomy gaijin (avoiding eye contact at all costs lol). I still love Japan though and we still plan to visit again.
My question is, how would you react when confronted/ called-out by a local?
If you are a Japanese, would you have done the same? or would you have waited for the conductor to confront me instead?