Death By Yamanote Line
Saturday night, 8:58 and the heavily tattooed, chain smoking Hideki Moriyama ( 46) was about to start his 3 day weekend. Then he heard the sound he hates most- the 1 minute long horn blast that all JR Train operators blow when someone jumps in front of the train, it's the national standard that every railway in Japan has been using since 1881, when The Nippon Railway began operations. The 4th day of business was the first reported suicide by moving train on record in Japan.
“ For fuck's sake!”, Hideki, who happens to be huge fan of the band, KISS, was in the middle of brushing his teeth and getting ready to hit Kabuki cho for some fun at one of his favorite image clubs before heading home to West Tokyo.
8:58 - The Death Horn blows, the train comes to a halt, two men have been hit by an oncoming Yamanote train bound for Shinagawa
Hideki is pissed about the delay to his days off but he's become quite proficient in getting shit back to normal. Tokyo has many train lines and the fierce competition between railway operators put a great emphasis on efficiency, possibly more so than safety. Having a dead salary man on the tracks is the most common way that timetable gets fucked up.
9:02- At least the dead are Asian today, if they where foreign he'd have to go put on the heavy duty Hazmat suit.
The foul mouthed Hideki's job is to remove any sign of what happened at the location they have been employed to clean, and to deal with and any biohazzards that result from such an incident. As Federal regulations deem all bodily fluids to be biohazzards, any blood or tissue at a crime scene is considered a potential source of infection. “ I don't care about my safety really, I mean most Japanese people are clean and free of serious diseases- it's the foreigners I worry about- one of these faggots from the US or Africans probably has the AIDS” It's true, when a non Asian jumper gets bogged up in the trains chassis it takes over an hour to get things going. A Japanese man will only take about 20 minutes to be scooped up and taken away. “ No one wants to get near the non Japanese bodies- who knows what the fuck they got! I really wrap myself up but good before I go near that shit.”
9 :05 - With the station staff holding the tarp in place, Hidkei can get the bodies out and onto the platform
Crime / Suicide scene cleaners need specialist knowledge to handle biohazardous material safely and to know what to look for at the scene. They also need permits to transport and dispose of biohazardous waste. " We need to take some boring classes to do this shit. I like the actual work though, today's mess was a tough, the first, older guy was in two pieces and came right out, the other guy's legs were all twisted up and wrapped around the axle a few times, his pants were all hard to cut through as well"
9:06- Other staff check the rest of the car to make sure that there are no more bodies under there, it would be very embarrassing to miss one
Hideki and his 3 coworkers at JR Shinjuku station's death scene cleaners come in and restore the scene to its pre-incident state- and the quicker the better. Time is money!
9: 08 - After Hidkei gets the first body loose, the 3 cleanup techs get busy.
I ask Hideki about the people near the incidents who get sprayed in the face or splattered with blood, brain matter and skull fragments.
“ Fuck them! These customers are so impatient, they always stand in the yellow zone where that's gonna happen. The yellow zone on the platform is meant to be stood BEHIND- not on! Those motherfuckers never learn. Then after the accident we got all the assholes leaning over the tracks to get a look. We gotta get in there with our stuff and clean it up so the train can get moving, if they block my way it's gonna slow them down. I get paid for overtime so I can take it but the bosses at JR have a shit fit about it. Then the fuckin' cops gotta come and investigate. We gotta bend over backwards for them too. What's to investigate?!? I mean the guys dead! I only know of like 3 times where someone got pushed. They think it's CSI: Tokyo or something, they're way too into it".
Amazingly fluent in English from listening to US and UK rock music since he was 13, I asked him if the railways use the famous 5 million yen charged to the dead's family to pay for the actual expenses. “ That story is total bullshit! It's been an urban myth since I was a kid. The companies never deny it as they think it might actual persuade some sap to go off himself at home. We ain't such cunts that there gonna go make his poor family pay, I mean they should cause the fucking guy slowed us all up and affected productivity for a lot of people who gotta be at work or have tickets to something”
9:10 - Body #1 is quickly taken out, The Yamanote line uses green tarps to cover the body,Sobu Line uses yellow and Chuo Line orange as it matches the cars color. On the tracks blue is the standard for all trains
9: 12 - the more mangled body # 2 is hustled away to the ambulance outside, the creep in the shades on the right was following and taking pics for his blog over the tarp for a good 30 seconds before being reprimanded by staff.
“One guy asked me if I ever go through the wallets to get the identity's of these people, It ain't my job, I leave that to the cops. I'm not supposed to touch that stuff. I just get the fucking shit cleaned up, make sure it's looks mechanically sound and get it going. One of the guys in the train yard will give it a real check later, I just get the body parts and bloody clothing and shit like that out. He shouldn't to deal with that too.” “ I've seen so many dead bodies mangled up that it don't phase me a bit, I could even eat a sandwich while doing it but it would look bad to all the people watching me- I hate that the most. All these creeps with their phones out taking pics of it. Bunch of morbid fucks, I bet they would cheer the guy to jump if they could go back in time.”
9:14 - Everything looks Kosher, Hideki packs up his gear and gives the thumbs up the station master. Unfortunately, his work ain't close to being over though, he's got a shitload of paperwork to deal with now.
Enough of my interview with Hideki - his salty language is even too much for me, let's get back to our meal on the 58th floor
