The trains in Japan always look clean, particularly the Shinkansen. At Tokyo station, the cleaners quickly board the incoming trains, perform a quick clean and have the train ready to go again.
The cleaners have special rooms and facilities which are actually located at the base of the Shinkansen tracks. You can see some of these rooms in the following pictures.
Can you see under the platform the area with the blue buckets? The cleaners can get in down here and walk around making it easy for them to move when the platform is crowded.
7 comments
They sure do a great job of keeping the trains and adjoining areas clean. On the american program “I Survived A Japanese Game Show”, this is what one of the losing teams had to do for a punishment. They couldn’t handle it. Aw…..:( Kimonobox has a related feature on the Shinjuko Line neat and spotless http://tinyurl.com/l52w7z with all the people that go through the stations all day it’s just hard to imagine. Also here’s a link to the progtam, http://tinyurl.com/3ouff5 ๐
I always love those cute cleaning signs. In Europe all the signs are really boring, no cute woman or anything on it just plain boring text which makes nobody happy at all. I so like those cutely drawn signs with little woman informing you about the cleaning in a way, so that you won’t mind the little wait. ^_^ ใใใใงใใ
the cute signs remind you to be polite and not stress so much ๐
I always wondered what those buckets were for. I never knew that the cleaning crew had offices under the rails. Thanks for taking the time to check it out and get the photos. Great blog post!
thanks. i wanted to follow one of the workers in and get better pictures but thought i better not
The shinkansen has always been a part of Japan of which I have been completely in awe, one way or another. The fact that they build platforms high enough so that cleaning crews can get in right under the track is something I had never taken much notice of before, but does not surprise me in the slightest..
at tokyo station there are so many different levels of platforms it is quite an amazing structure.