Really made me laugh to read this exchange! My story is from the first day of the first train to start using the ladies only cars, back in 2003. I was coming home very late from work one night, and just managed to catch the last train of the Keio line. I ran down the stairs from the ticket gate, saw that the last car was nearly empty, and jumped right on… only to be confronted by a woman, who curiously had a microphone in her hand, and promptly shoved me out the door of the car. Incensed I turned to shout at her and found myself face-to-face with a television camera, Fuji Television, no less. The woman was reporter! With my face filling the camera lens all twisted with rage, the reporter burbled in Japanese into the microphone, "Ah, yes. This is how we can expect the average male passenger to react to this new development in the fight against sexual harrassment. Quite a firghtening visage, wouldn't you say?" So far, I hadn't spoken a word or understood what wsa going on, but a moment looking around me made me realize I had stepped onto one of the new Ladies Only cars. The next evening, in my English class my female students kidded with me, "My, teacher, you certainly can get very angry! We didn't know! You always seem so nice here in the class!"
From speaking to my women friends, however, many of them really don't like riding the women only cars.
By the way, for anyone out there who'd like MontBell or other Japanese goods, you can ask me, too. Poor Brett with those mounds of MontBell packages!
