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Retro Video:Tokyo Train Commute in 1994

mdchachi

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This was my typical commute in Japan in 1994. I had an easy commute as far as they went, just one line with no changes from 池尻大橋 (Ikejiri-Ohashi) to 大手町 (Otemachi). But I still got sick of it after a while and ended up getting a motorcycle license and commuting by bike for several years.

1994 Tokyo Commute - YouTube | Japan Forum
 
Denentoshi Line (Shin-Tamagawa-sen) hasn't changed at all. What strikes me apart from the fashion is the total absence of mobile phones.

Lovely time warp. Keep them coming @mdchachi ! :)
 
さすがなああ東京...
Cool post
Denentoshi Line (Shin-Tamagawa-sen) hasn't changed at all. What strikes me apart from the fashion is the total absence of mobile phones.

Lovely time warp. Keep them coming @mdchachi ! :)
Right? these days it seems like everybody is just looking down at their phones. alot can change in 10 years!
 
I didn't even notice the mobile phone bit. Interesting. I was looking at the fashion too (the girls with huge, hairsprayed bangs...a lingering holdover from 80's idol fashion, I think), and I was thinking about how the photographer probably couldn't get away with filming like that on a crowded train today.

Plus, I was also thinking about how the mid-1990s seem not so far away from me, yet to the younger generation they are already considered "retro".
 
I didn't even notice the mobile phone bit. Interesting. I was looking at the fashion too (the girls with huge, hairsprayed bangs...a lingering holdover from 80's idol fashion, I think), and I was thinking about how the photographer probably couldn't get away with filming like that on a crowded train today.

Plus, I was also thinking about how the mid-1990s seem not so far away from me, yet to the younger generation they are already considered "retro".

I don't think it's retro either but I couldn't think of a better term. But that's 20 years ago, before some users of this forum were born! I think you could still get away with filming in Tokyo -- everybody has a video recording device in their pocket now. And still lots of gaijin & tourists. I will post it eventually but I have video of school kids doing their 運動会. Now that, I wonder if it would still be tolerated. Imagine a guy hanging around a school videotaping in the U.S. The cops would be called immediately.
 
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Amazing video!
In my opinion only the women in this video are giving away that it are the mid 90's. To me the salaryman suit style and the hairstyle of men can still be spotted in daily life. If I compare this to Europe in the mid 90's, Japan looks a lot more advanced and modern. If you cut out the women, it could have easily been 2000 or 2004 to me :)
 
Amazing video!
In my opinion only the women in this video are giving away that it are the mid 90's. To me the salaryman suit style and the hairstyle of men can still be spotted in daily life. If I compare this to Europe in the mid 90's, Japan looks a lot more advanced and modern. If you cut out the women, it could have easily been 2000 or 2004 to me :)

I think that's the first time I've heard salaryman style referred to as advanced and modern. ;)
 
Now that you mention it (the absence of smartphones), even in the birthplace of the walkman and mini-disc, you don't see anybody with earphones on.

Another observation: at 5:18 you see a guy jump out of the train just as it's about to depart. That's the guy who woke up just in the nick of time before he missed his stop.
 
Cool video... and it does seem pretty similar to what I remember in the past. Was this your recording of your first trip to japan or something?
 
Cool video... and it does seem pretty similar to what I remember in the past. Was this your recording of your first trip to japan or something?

Thanks. Technically my 3rd trip. It was a few months after moving to Japan. I did that commute for about five years. (Well a couple years because I switched to scooter and then, later, motorcycle).
 
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