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Drinking party breaks out on Tokyo Station platform as Shinkansen delay strands travelers

Casey Baseel Jun 18, 2018
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Booze fans pass the time in a quintessentially Japanese way, while their younger counterparts opt for a more athletic method.

Despite a well-deserved reputation for reliability and punctuality, Japan’s trains do sometimes encounter problems and end up running behind schedule. This can even happen with the Shinkansen bullet trains, the pride of operator Japan Railway.

On Sunday afternoon, a Shinkansen train left Tokyo station at roughly 12:20, heading north along the Tohoku Shinkansen line, and things were fine until about an hour and a half later. After it pulled out of Sendai Station, though, an undisclosed mechanical issue caused the conductor to stop the train, which in turn shut down the entire line while a team of inspectors investigated and rectified the problem.

That process ended up taking over five hours, which left plenty of travelers stuck at the station while they waited for service to resume. Things were especially crowded in Tokyo Station, where Japanese Twitter user @Thrill_Junky snapped this photo of the congested conditions near the Shinkansen ticket gates.

ちなみにエレスカレーター下るとこう pic.twitter.com/LYLrZ5P2d9

— ちゃび🕹🔲🐉 (@Thrill_Junky) June 17, 2018

Up on the platform, though, the atmosphere was decidedly more jovial, where a group of older men decided to bust out the booze and snacks they’d intended to consume on the train and have a drinking party right there on the ground.

東北新幹線全然動いてなくて、改札口は阿鼻叫喚だけど、ホームは諦めて宴会場になってるの草 pic.twitter.com/ZvKiikuvqs

— ちゃび🕹🔲🐉 (@Thrill_Junky) June 17, 2018

Because Shinkansen seats always have trays, it’s common for alcohol-appreciative travelers to crack open a cold one (or two) as they zoom about the high-speed rail network. These gentleman had stocked up accordingly, but with no refrigerator to keep their libations chilled, they came to the conclusion that the only sensible thing to do was to drink them before they got too warm.

Meanwhile, further up the line in Aomori Prefecture, stranded Shinkansen travelers waiting on the platform of Hachinohe Station were provided with some surprise entertainment.

東北新幹線のホームで学生さんたちがパフォーマンスしてる pic.twitter.com/1r4QnPJTMm

— かか (@hminami_oshi) June 17, 2018

Among those who suddenly had time on their hand was a college gymnastics team, and instead of using that empty space to plop themselves down in a drinking circle, they instead popped off a series of back flips.

https://twitter.com/Ms_mickey7711/status/1008300686834991104

Shinkansen service was finally resumed at around 7:30, but the examples shown here serve as a reminder that when travelling, just because you’re not making progress towards your destination doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the journey.

Sources: Twitter/@Thrill_Junky via Jin, Mainichi Shimbun, TBS News, NHK News Web

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s reminded of the train station platform drinking party episode of Maison Ikkoku.