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Seats block train doors on the Keihan Line

If any of you Kansai folks have ever rode on the Keihan Main Line, you may have noticed that seats sometimes block the doors of the train cars. Here’s a video clip from ナニコレ珍百景 showing how some of the doors are blocked and unblocked:

The trains are equipped with a unique system that raises and lowers extra seats at different times of the day. The morning rush requires more doors, but later in the day the benches automatically lower and the extra doors are deactivated.

18 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 12, 2008 at 10:42 am

Categories: Technology Tags: Keihan Line

Fremen72

That is pretty cool but I hate when Japanese audiences have to sound like its the most amazing thing they have ever seen. They act like it’s some sort of voodoo magic going on with all the “Eeeeeeeeh!!???” going on.
It doesn’t take much to get them excited.

http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net/ Jordan

Ha. They were unusually “sugoi-ish” for this particular feature. I thought it was pretty cool myself, but I agree sometimes they get a little too worked up about stuff.

doinkies

Well, oohing and aahing over stuff is part of their job

http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net/ Jordan

Haha. True. They must have really got paid that day!

Irene

Well, I agree that these days those “eeeh!?”s are rather getting exaggerated, and I don’t deny that I sometimes get bothered also.
But my point is “eeeh”ing doesn’t mean it’s something really special.. we just say it in everyday life when we encounter something that’s unexpected.
I like Neptune (the 3-guy group) and I admit they always act like they’re hyper on TV, and maybe that’s also why.

Jarvik7

All the “eeee?” is because trains are an integral part of Japanese society and have almost become transparent to many people. For someone who has to ride the train potentially a couple hours per day, seeing something unique and different about it (this feature is apparently unique to Keihan, which is a rather small company) probably does make it somewhat amazing to people from other areas. …but yeah, the tarento do exaggerate their responses, to everything. (falling off their chairs in response to a non-sequitur for example)

Anyways, I lived in Osaka-shi and commuted to Hirakata-shi (and thus rode Keihan daily) so it’s nothing new to me
Tres

I ride the Keihan line 2 or 3 times a week and I have never seen the seats blocking the doors. Then again I’m always riding on the express (usually the double-decker variant) so that could be why.

http://sleepytako.blogspot.com Sleepytako

That double decker train is nice. I’ve only been able to ride it once. Lucky

reisender

I ride the keihan 3 times a week.

I’ve seen the seats blocking the doors countless times but never gave it a second thought. Obviously the seats are raised and lowered when there’s nobody in the train, so I’ve never seen that happen.

I just thought that they bought trains with too many doors (or the trains were an old model) and decided the space would be better used by installing more benches.

Interesting, but not “eeeeeh” worthy.
Bob

So morning commuters get to see all the boogers and chewing-gum stuck under the seats instead of poster advertisments or train routes.

HeHe!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Charles_Nguyen Charles Nguyen

lol Funny music. It’s like the gates are being opened to something.
Delta

Thanks for the effort put into this site .

Actually I can remember reading about this seating business for decades and, sure enough, the J-Wikipedia entry says the Keihan 5000 series with exactly this feature was manufactured from 1970 to 1980, so nothing new there. The most remarkable thing IMO is that those Tokyo types were surprised at all.

Time to welcome some serious tetchan and/or tetsuko onto your team perhaps?

Keep up the good work anyway.
- Delta.

The Overthinker

“The most remarkable thing IMO is that those Tokyo types were surprised at all.”

The fact that people voluntarily live outside Tokyo is enough to surprise them….
ponta

I am Tokyo type, I wonder how kansai people sitting on the seat pose themselves when the seat is on the top—Do they curl up in a ball?

jmadsen

Actually, I think the “eeeeeehs” are part of a soundtrack, like the laugh track in the US sitcoms.

I know that the Japanese are all full of “oneness”, but do you really think they could all start and end their “eeeeeeehs” as perfectly synched as they do on TV?

dobokun

Well you’re right, and they show the reaction of the people on stage 「ステジー」。 It seems like it gives the audience more information　and feels more realistic and believable!

dobokun

すーげい！！ベンーチが急進される。　うおお。
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Seats block train doors on the Keihan Line

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