Are Meguro Line Sardines Really More Depressed Than Toyoko Line Sardines?

A puzzler at Den’en-chofu station…

In Japan, sadly, one of the most classic ways to say, “Goodbye, cruel world” is to throw oneself in front of a train. But this not only traumatizes your family and friends, it also shuts down the commute for tens of thousands of people just trying to make a living or get to school. Train companies (and the police and the firemen, who are usually first on the scene to pick up the pieces) understandably want to make it more difficult for people to choose this particular way out, so many stations have been retrofitted with automatic gates that prevent people from being able to fling themselves onto the tracks when a train is arriving.

So…here at Den’en-chofu station, how come the Toyoko Line (on the left) doesn’t have gates, and the Meguro Line (on the right) does? o_O

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.