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Thursday, July 05, 2007

quiet train ride

One very simple wish I want is to have peacefully quiet train rides everyday. With people's handphone ringtones and MP3 players blasting away, I find it difficult to concentrate on my reading. It's like I have to reread every line 2-3 times. You have your right to enjoy your music, and I have my right to enjoy silence.

If you find totally quiet Japanese trains a bit extreme, how about trains in places like Germany, UK, USA and Hong Kong having something known as quiet car. Passengers in those carriages are supposed to maintain silence. Ie, no ringtone, no music. Ah, I can see heaven...

But then again, with handphones ringing in cinemas and children screaming in libraries, it seems quite impossible in Singapore.

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posted by chillycraps at 9:50 AM | Links

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15 Comments:

  • quiet carriage of HK isn't exactly quiet. They have mobile tv with non stop playing ads, sometimes childrens or loud mainlanders. Almost similar to SG.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/05/2007 10:34:00 AM  

  • I think it's gotta do with... the timing when one's taking the train. For peak hour mornings... can hardly hear much, except feeling of passiveness. heh.

    but, i really can't stand kids nowadays playing music from their handphones speaker mode.. it just gets on humans' nerves.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/05/2007 10:43:00 AM  

  • hiya anonymouses!

    maybe I should go and experience the quiet carriage some day... But like what you said, it's most probably the same as SG. Ppl usually become blind when they see signs.

    morning still can hear music/noise seeping out from the headphone, quite irritating. I thought of wearing ear plug, but thought that would be too extra/attention seeking.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/05/2007 11:02:00 AM  

  • Yeah, those kids playing their tunes on their mobiles in speaker-mode, can get mildly irritating. I'm currently using a pair of Sony clip-ons, which sadly leaks a little, so I'm quite guilty of listening at high volume (it's only when I took it down to answer a call on my mobile, that I realised how much it leaked, yikes...). A little back then, there were always ah bengs with that Nokia message-tone set to maximum, and the world would know that they received an sms~ -___-||

    I remember my jap lang teacher telling me that in Japan, train-riders would set their mobiles to silent mode, as a ringing mobile on the train would be frowned upon. I find it rather amazing, and hard to believe. Can anybody confirm this little fact, hehe

    By Anonymous [ENE], at 7/05/2007 11:30:00 AM  

  • hi [ene]~!
    woooo, at least now you know~ When I'm listening to the earphone and thought the volume a bit loud, I'll take it out from my ear and see if the sound is audible outside.

    I think it's with the culture at large, something like Japanese bowing all the time while (some) Chinese hardly nod.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/05/2007 12:31:00 PM  

  • I confirm that in Japanese trains, passengers set their mobile phones to silent mode ("Manner mode" in Japanese). There are signs up inside the trains reminding people to not forget to do this. It is so much more pleasant there than in Singapore.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/05/2007 02:05:00 PM  

  • wow thanks for the confirmation!

    did someone say Singapore is moving towards gracious society?

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/05/2007 02:44:00 PM  

  • I look forward to quiet bus rides in addition to train rides. My bus ride to work every morning is exactly half an hour. If there isn't TV Mobile, I might find it easier to fall asleep each time. Lord knows I might even be more productive in the work I put in for each day.

    By Anonymous Veron, at 7/05/2007 10:45:00 PM  

  • yes nowadays I find traveling time quite precious in the sense that you can do things during your journey which you won't do/no chance to do during other times.

    hmm quiet bus ride would be somewhere here.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/05/2007 10:50:00 PM  

  • Things to do on buses/trains:
    1) read something
    2) music
    3) observe nodding donkeys (you should get it)
    4) sightseeing
    5) snooze, but try to avoid being a nodding donkey...
    6) if you've got enough attitude, just keep staring at the bugger seated opposite you. XD

    By the way, thx to anon for jap-train confirmation.

    By Anonymous [ENE], at 7/06/2007 01:04:00 AM  

  • talking about the bugger sitting opposite me... yesterday got one kinda hot girl seated right opposite me, she was like playing with her tennis shirt's zipper! (which is right in front in the middle, if u can visualise it...)

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/06/2007 06:23:00 AM  

  • Life starts with noises from us and our mothers. It will end with some noises when we go.

    So, in between we need the noise and silence to show that we exist in a real world. We live in a colourful world.

    Not in the matrix where you get simulation of noises in your minds.

    By Anonymous reader, at 7/06/2007 12:05:00 PM  

  • hi reader: hmmm so are you pro-noise or pro-silence?

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/06/2007 01:23:00 PM  

  • Oh yah. Talk about TV Mobile! It's just as bad as kids with speaker music. *Frown*

    Noise's literally everywhere. The ads on the LCD screen at every MRT station is kinda sickening too. Especially with the looping.

    I don't remember Japanese having much of phone rings etc etc in train then. But i do spot females putting on mascara on the way to work, which i feel... that abit unright too.

    Shan aka (2nd anon fron top)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/12/2007 05:38:00 PM  

  • hi Shan aka (2nd anon fron top) =P

    I don't understand why do they put the sound on FM and still blast the sound from TV Mobile. Anyway I do know of a place where their TV only has sound on one deck of their double-decker bus.

    Knitting on train is cool though =)

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 7/12/2007 05:51:00 PM  

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