Please do it at the beach

Mike Grist Ads / Signs, Japan 8 Comments

Recently this ad has been cropping up in train stations all round Tokyo:

I’m glad as it’s about time- the number of people I’ve seen hemi-sliced like bacon rashers by those executioner-style train doors is more than I care to think about.

Shlump!

His upper body rolls around messily inside the carriage. Everybody politely ignores it, as they do if a drunk person has a food escape or a homeless person comes on and emanates.

So, it’s certainly about time.

Of course they could just de-sharpen and de-fang the train doors so people weren’t forever getting hemi-sliced, but then what kind of deterrent to dive-bombing Tokyo metro trains would that be?

I’ve gotten myself caught in the guillotine maw doors before, sometimes embarrassingly so- with my new pony-tail pinning me fast until the next stop rolls by. Solution- lean casually against the doors acting like it’s all part of the master-plan.

That aside- there really is nothing like bidding for this dive into the train and making it. I imagine it’s the exact same feeling Maradona had when he scored the ‘Hand of God’ goal. He shouldn’t have made it, it wasn’t supposed to be possible, it was ilicit, everyone knows he cheated fate- but still it worked!

That mad rush down the stairs to the sub-way, weaving through slow-movers using advanced traffic-judging algorithms like a hunter-gatherer chasing its prey through the Triassic tundra, then that incredible leap, those long seconds in the air, time slows to Max Payne bullet-time, then…

Shlump… your upper body comes down on one side, legs the other.

Hell. It’s worth the risk.

The words of warning to ‘Please do it at the beach’ I would take more as training advice than as a serious alternative. Here I am at the beach- getting some good training in!

Though that isn’t me- it’s my buddy Yamanashi Jei from the Tokyo Ultimate team Iku. The excellent photo was taken by another Iku friend- Alex Chabot- see more of these dives here.

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Comments 8

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    Curt- Did you see some of Rob’s dives on Alex’s page? Pretty amazing- but matched the ad less, so didn’t use them.

    Tornadoes- Ha, good catch, showing my soccer ignorance- amended.

    Doug- Best I can do:

  2. It’s funny, but I was looking at this ad the other day, and thinking to myself that this guy’s legs are going to get pulled off after the train enters the tunnel…
    Then i wondered if I should blog about it, ha, but you beat me to it.

    Nice mock up putting ‘pick up’ in the ad!

  3. You could have used the picture where I caught the disc!

    I learned that dive trying to run on to trains… everyone here can do it, although all the kids doing it on pavement and in crowded restaurants etc. meant they needed to start a “do it at the beach” campaign.

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