Unfortunately the death toll from Monday's train derailment is up to 91. I'm talking about the train accident in Hyogo pref. And sicne there are still some people trapped inside one of the train car, that number will likelly increase. Is it because the driver was trying to recover a 90 second scheduling delay? What a news...
In Japan, and especially in the Tokyo area, most people go to work by train. I have to take a one-hour train ride everyday tp get to my job. Like I wrote before, every morning people have to have stress. On the train, some people spend their time playing games on their cell or gameboy, listening to music, reading book, magazine or comic. Monday through Friday, it seems everyday some weekly magazine or comic is published. For example, Shonen Jump is on Monday. Informative culture magazine Shukan SPA is on Tuesday. anan is on Wednesday. Social and political Shukan Shincho and Shukan Bunshun are published on Thursday. And picture gossip magazine Friday comes out on, surprise, Friday. People buy those magazines and comics everyday to read on the train. Actually my co-worker buys a comic at the staion near his home and discards it 45 minutes later when he arrives at the station near work. A waste of money? Hmm yes. Probably. However, those magazines get recycled very very quickly. How?
At train stations, you might notice people with big bags picking up these magazines from inside the train cars and trash cans. Usually they are the homeless or street bums. They sell those magazines to brokers and the brokers resell them near the station. In those places, magazines that were published "today" are sold much cheaper than regular vendors. Yes it is a kind of 45 minute recycle exercise, it seems a little strange to me. But I suppose it is a another type of economy.
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