Imagine arriving at Tokyo station to take the shinkansen (bullet train) with plenty of time to spare. You’ve triple checked everything is secure for your little one and your luggage. You make one last check on your phone before slipping it into your bag pocket and then reach to lift the stroller over the sizeable gap between the platform and train. You’ve lifted this loaded stroller plenty of times now but this is a much tighter fit than you’re used since the shinkansen only has one door. You all make it onto the shinkansen safely and get your family situated in the seats you wanted to grab with extra storage space by the doors.
Once your little one and partner are settled, you sit down and let out a sigh of relief excited for a relaxing trip. That is, until you reach into your bag pocket and realize that something is amiss…
Surely you must have just placed it somewhere else so you check inside all of your other pockets to no avail. You ask your partner if they’ve seen your phone and when they give you a clueless shrug you start to feel dread wash over you. It’s not here.
A thought flashes through your mind in the panic as you recall the one moment that everything could have gone horribly wrong. Springing up from your seat you rush to open the automatic door of the shinkansen and stare at the home platform and your gaze wanders downward. There you see a familiar black screen staring back up at you from the train tracks. The essential lifeline that should be in your hands is now completely out of reach.
Your train is about to depart for Kansai in 5 minutes. So much for a smooth start to your vacation.
After Over a Decade in Japan it Finally Happened
Thanks a lot Murphy’s Law you’ve become a real thorn in my side since becoming a parent.
These days your phone really is your lifeline to everything including train and shinkansen tickets in my case. So even if we had just carried on to our final destination I would have been met with just as troublesome a situation upon arrival without an IC card to even tap out of the gate with. A lesson for me to also update one of my old physical cards to keep safe in my wallet from now on as well.
Thankfully my phone fell into the spot between the platform and the actual train tracks so there was still hope but it was definitely problematic. We had to rush off of the shinkansen after we had just gotten settled with our baby. This quick retreat was possible because we boarded at Tokyo so there was extra time to get on or off during the roughly 15 minute long taxi. We also had non-reserved free seats so there was no problem if we needed to ride a later shinkansen. Our little one was a trooper as we took turns flagging down a staff member to inform them of the situation. Unfortunately this meant we ultimately missed the shinkansen we wanted to ride and left us waiting an hour for the next but at least there were still trains for us left to ride.
The gap was almost this wide.
Image Source: https://x.com/gintatakamatu/status/1637754097171599361
What to Do When You Drop Something onto the Train Tracks
For starters, don’t panic too much. Take a breath and assess the situation. If a train is coming or going make sure that you are safely standing behind the yellow line or whatever safety markers there are. You don’t want to cause any disruptions or delays for others or the staff especially at busier stations where train intervals can be as short as 5 minutes.
Next, you’re going to want to get the attention of a staff member. Unfortunately, not all stations will have people readily available on the home platform but if they are there wait for them to finish up any duties they may be doing and then ask for help. If there is no staff around then you should head back to the gates to get help.
Some stations have emergency buttons for when objects are dropped on the tracks but you should only use these if what you dropped is directly on the tracks in a way that could cause danger should a train run over it. These types of buttons are meant to be used when people, large objects etc. fall onto the tracks or other emergency situations.
Be sure to properly describe the object that has fallen and where it’s located. For example specify between what train car markers on the platform like car 5, door 2. The more detailed you can describe things the easier it will be for staff to quickly retrieve the item and confirm it’s yours.
Finally, wait for station staff to do what they need to do to retrieve your item and be sure to thank them properly when they do. Depending on how the station is built this may require them to scoop it up from the tracks from above with a tool or as simple as going down to a lower level underneath the tracks to grab it from there. In our case the shinkansen tracks have a lower level so the staff went down to get my phone that way.
This will not be the first or last time someone has had them work around schedules and possibly cause delays to retrieve things so if you can also apologize and be kind. I’m sure the staff will appreciate it. Don’t be too hard on yourself and enjoy the rest of your day or vacation.
Between getting off the train, flagging down staff to explain the situation, and finally getting my phone retrieved from the tracks and handed back to me it really only took around 20-25 minutes. However we were in the best case scenario for everything so results may vary especially on a regular train and not a shinkansen.
Throw back to the Hello Kitty plushie that was lost under the platform across the one I used for my work commute a few years ago that was stuck there for almost a year. Part of me is curious to go back and see if she was rescued yet. I certainly hope so since it’s been a few years now.
Have you ever had something fall onto the train tracks? How did the retrieval process go for you? Would you like a Japanese guide on what to say in these kinds of situations? Let me know if the comments!
