What Now?

A question that visits me quite too often is: what's the next thing I'll write about? While some people find their nirvana in a host of different things, I find mine in writing, not minding if it isn't polished as that of seasoned writers.

As most who read this site know, the last which caught my fancy were films and dreams. From there, I sought out my next subject.

On my way home last night, I noticed that there is now a cellphone signal at every subway station of Keihan. It greeted me with much elation that I knew immediately what my next subject is going to be. No, not cellphones but trains.

Some people are known to have a fascination for trains. There are those who maintain prized collections of miniature trains. And of course, there are the terrorists who like to blow up trains, or in the Japanese milieu, gas their train commuters. While most train fanatics are in Western countries, there might also be fanatics in countries without subways, bullet trains or at least a long distance-running train. Indeed, there are and it includes me.

The Philippines only has the LRT, the MRT and the dilapidated PNR, and I rode on all of them. My first train ride was on the LRT during my job hunts after college. I rode the LRT with a very clear purpose. It was not to spare my white shirt from soot, which could have been adequately met with a taxi ride. The reason was simple: so I can declare to all of the world, I have already ridden a train. My ride on the LRT was my so-called baptism to the train world.

My next train ride was for the sheer fun of it. At risk of getting tetanus, I took the PNR train from San Andres Manila en route to College, Laguna. It was such a shaky experience that if there would have been a welcoming party at the end of my destination, I could have served them well-shaken tequila. On the other hand, my ride on the MRT was for convenience. Coming from Quezon City, I figured that I could save some money by taking the MRT from North Ave to Baclaran, then a taxi to the airport. I did save some money but getting a taxi was so difficult. I almost failed to catch my flight back to Japan.

Oh, yes, I've also experienced riding those romantic foot-powered, four-seater, wooden assemblies that use the railroad tracks to ply short distances. I don't know if there's a name for them but I'll just give them the monicker, peditrain, being very similar to the foot-pedaled pedicab. Knowing how safety-conscious the Japanese are, the sight of a peditrain would probably be characterized by their usual grunts of uhs and ehs. Whether in amazement or disgust, I won't know for sure.

On the other side of the world, New York observes the 100th year of its subway and you can read more about it at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/14/nyregion/14subway.html. At this site, there is also the interactive feature titled A 100-year journey, the subway:1904-2004. The feature compares the major subways of New York, Tokyo, Paris and London in terms of annual ridership, miles of route, number of cars and stations, longest line, fastest train speed and deepest station. You can probably guess where Tokyo tops.

Back in the home front, the groundbreaking for the rehabilitation of the PNR happened a few months ago. With assistance from China, train lines going as far north as my hometown, Batac, Ilocos Norte, and as far south as Matnog, Sorsogon will link the Philippines. How soon the tracks will spread will likely depend on how well our politicians can cover their thiefly tracks.

In the meantime, I will keep on enjoying the trains of Japan, with or without a cellphone signal.