Friday, December 16, 2005
Tokyo subway sign
I just got a beautiful Christmas card from the folks who represent our company in Japan, and tha
t prompted me to write about this sign, which I saw in the Tokyo subway a couple of years ago.
I don’t know Japanese, but I’m guessing that the message is something like “If you drop something off the platform, ask one of the station staff to get it back for you.” Which makes a lot of sense, of course, but it’s the story told in the silhouette that fascinates me.
Here’s one of the most vulnerable and appealing members of society who has lost something of great personal worth, the destruction of which by an oncoming train would be hard to explain to parents and school. The temptation to solve the problem herself must have been almost irresistible. But she did the correct thing, and summoned the competent uniformed adult equipped with precisely the right tool for the job. (And kudos to the silhouette artist for the detailed depiction of the lost items grabber thingy – you could design the tool from that image.)
We would do it very differently in the States, more along the lines of a skull and crossbones with a message reading “It’s 10,000 volts, you knucklehead – don’t even think about jumping down there!”
t prompted me to write about this sign, which I saw in the Tokyo subway a couple of years ago.I don’t know Japanese, but I’m guessing that the message is something like “If you drop something off the platform, ask one of the station staff to get it back for you.” Which makes a lot of sense, of course, but it’s the story told in the silhouette that fascinates me.
Here’s one of the most vulnerable and appealing members of society who has lost something of great personal worth, the destruction of which by an oncoming train would be hard to explain to parents and school. The temptation to solve the problem herself must have been almost irresistible. But she did the correct thing, and summoned the competent uniformed adult equipped with precisely the right tool for the job. (And kudos to the silhouette artist for the detailed depiction of the lost items grabber thingy – you could design the tool from that image.)
We would do it very differently in the States, more along the lines of a skull and crossbones with a message reading “It’s 10,000 volts, you knucklehead – don’t even think about jumping down there!”
