The Osaka - Tokyo Escalator Difference
If you go from Osaka to Tokyo, you will be changing sides from left to right somewhere along the way. On the escalator.
The first escalator in Japan was installed in the Mitsukoshi department store in 1914, but it was destroyed when the store burned down during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923.
Escalators gradually became more common in both Tokyo and Osaka as the cities were rebuilt after the war, but it was not until the middle of the 1960’s that signs and speaker announcements started telling people how they should stand in the escalators.
Actually, in many places people do not care, they just stand wherever. But in Tokyo, you stand to the left, leaving the right side open to people who need to rush up or down the escalator to catch their train, or go about some other important business.
But in Osaka, people stand to the right. The left side is open to those who need to run or walk quickly.
There are various theories on why this happened, but however it started, now there are plenty of signs and announcements in Tokyo telling you to stand on the left and walk on the right - and the other way in Osaka. Japanese people are very disciplined when queuing, no jumping lines or forcing your way ahead here.
And people line up properly in front of the escalators to get on - in a single file. When in line, people stand quietly and move orderly forward one by one - and this applies when standing in line in the escalator too. Only if you are in a hurry will you be able to bypass the line and sprint up the escalator.
That is, if you do not run into the exception, because like almost all rules in Japan, there are exceptions to the rule. If you need help standing, for instance because you are so old or young that you can not handle the escalator alone, the rules (which are not unwritten, but clearly posted on the escalator) allow for your helper to stand next to you.
The first escalator in Japan was installed in the Mitsukoshi department store in 1914, but it was destroyed when the store burned down during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923.
Escalators gradually became more common in both Tokyo and Osaka as the cities were rebuilt after the war, but it was not until the middle of the 1960’s that signs and speaker announcements started telling people how they should stand in the escalators.
Actually, in many places people do not care, they just stand wherever. But in Tokyo, you stand to the left, leaving the right side open to people who need to rush up or down the escalator to catch their train, or go about some other important business.
But in Osaka, people stand to the right. The left side is open to those who need to run or walk quickly.
There are various theories on why this happened, but however it started, now there are plenty of signs and announcements in Tokyo telling you to stand on the left and walk on the right - and the other way in Osaka. Japanese people are very disciplined when queuing, no jumping lines or forcing your way ahead here.
And people line up properly in front of the escalators to get on - in a single file. When in line, people stand quietly and move orderly forward one by one - and this applies when standing in line in the escalator too. Only if you are in a hurry will you be able to bypass the line and sprint up the escalator.
That is, if you do not run into the exception, because like almost all rules in Japan, there are exceptions to the rule. If you need help standing, for instance because you are so old or young that you can not handle the escalator alone, the rules (which are not unwritten, but clearly posted on the escalator) allow for your helper to stand next to you.
