Over the Wall of Silence

30 Over the Wall of Silence

Chapter 2

GETTING THE CLASS MOVING

W HY TRAINS RUN SO EFFICIENTLY IN J APAN Japanese passenger trains, which are world-renowned for their punctuality and efficiency, are a good analogy of the way this society functions. Consider a local train in a major city. You are waiting at the terminal station; this is the last stop for the train coming from one direction and about to go back on the same line. Passengers have to wait in front of the triangle or the circle signs. After all the passengers have exited the arriving train, its doors close and the rail way staff quickly walk through all the cars on a general check, wak

ing up the odd sleeping person and flipping the seats to face the opposite direction. The train moves two meters down the platform