World War II. Europe. Between Chitose-Funabashi and Kyodo. That is, I am seated on the Semi-Express and, standing with his back to me is a middle-aged man wearing a leather ‘Bomber’ jacket engraved with a detailed map of the Normandy invasion. Omaha Beach. Utah Beach. Gold Beach. Juno Beach. Sword Beach. German and Allied battle lines. The American Airborne Division. The Pointe-du-Hoc German fortification. All of it in golden-colour pencil as though some displaced brass rubbing. Oddest feeling to be on a Japanese train in 2008 watching a piece of train garmentry, a jacket lay-out of the war. Makes me wonder if you would ever see on the Paris, London or New York metro a coat-map of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The man in question, however, innocently, quite passenger-ly, holds on to his carriage strap.

Aha! Big Day in Mukōgaoka-yūen eki. The new lifts or elevators have been installed. Slow, stately up-and-down beasts, a mere one floor level up from street level, and both South and North. For weeks there have been the ubiquitous blue tarpaulin covers, hard-hat workmen and supervisors, and truck-loads of equipment. Eventually, all Odakyū stations, where necessary, will have lifts. This one may have come early because the Romance Car stops at the station. Whichever the reason the upshot is convenience time for the elderly, for mothers with push-chairs, for parcel-carriers, and for myself whenever there is a suitcase to be lugged into Shinjuku. Lime-green frame. Also see-through glass, so even if you are not travelling in the lift, you can see the looped cables, the wheels, the intricate engineering. Odakyū engineering.

Two schoolgirls get on at Seijo, maybe twelve or thirteen years old, in sailor-girl uniform. Both have in hand their flicker-lists. With a bit of careful craning of the neck I can see they are doing ENGLISH VOCABULARY. Each mouths a word, checks the Japanese for it, and then flicks on to the next word-ticket. It is as though they are using carriage mini-dictionaries. Two assiduous lexico-trainees. Eigo ichi (first-year English).