Sign indicating that trash can has been sealed as a counter-terrorism measure.
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by Hugh Cook |
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Section 101 Entry 0001. Date: 2004 March 24 Wednesday.
(diary) (previous) (top) (bottom) (next) (topics) (contents) Yesterday, on the Yurakuchō line, a subway line which runs through the heart of Tokyo, an announcement came over the intercom (in Japanese, of course) warning us (I think) to be on the alert for terrorist threats. The announcement definitely made specific reference to the recent bombings in Madrid, Spain. Later, at Ikebukuro station, I saw either a security guard or a policeman (I was in too much of a hurry to stop to see which) standing on a little wooden platform scanning the crowds flowing in through the JR (Japan Rail) ticket gates. The same day, yesterday, when I changed trains at Nakameguro, on the Tōyoko line, I saw the trash cans on the platform had been sealed, and bore signs indicating that this had been done as a counter-terrorism measure. That caught my interest, and I decided I wanted a photo. So today I took along my digital camera when I set off from home, but I was almost too late to get the shot I wanted. The trash cans were being removed from all the stations up and down the Tōyoko line (one of the railway lines which connects Tokyo with Yokohama.) However, I did succeed in photographing the "this trash can sealed as a counter-terrorism measure," sign, and I also got a snapshot of workers wheeling away a set of trash cans at Shibuya station. |
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Sign indicating that trash can has been sealed as a counter-terrorism measure. |
 railway workers removing trash cans from Shibuya railway station, Tokyo, Japan, 2004 March 24 Wednesday (about 11:45). |
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Later in the day, I used a couple of JR lines, and found that the trash cans were still open for business as usual on JR stations. Some homeless people use these trash cans as a source of cash income. They scoop magazines out of the trash cans, and these magazines get sold later by people selling direct to the public from the sidewalk. (Someone just spreads out an array of magazines on the sidewalk and they're in business.) On a JR platform I saw a fairly familiar site: a bag of magazines left by a magazine-retriever who would undoubtedly come back for them later. I took a photo, thinking there was a human interest point here, and it was only a couple of hours later that I realised that, hey, if we're going to get serious about this security thing, that familiar bag is actually (potentially) every bit as dangerous as, say, an unexploded dead dog lying in the streets of Baghdad. But, although people are starting to go through the motions, I don't think we're serious about this counter-terrorism stuff. Yet. |
 An unexploded bag: magazine-gatherer's unattended bag on a JR railway platfrom, 2004 March 24 Wednesday. The thing on top of the bag is either a magazine or else a big fat Japanese comic book. |
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