Trainspiration

No, the title does not come from sweating. I think. But, the more I think about it, it could…
See, now that we’re in the middle of winter, it’s freakishly cold outside most of the time. But that does not always hold true for your average train journey. Of course, if you are standing right at the doors you should prepare yourself for a metaphorical army of snowmen vigorously attacking you for the duration of the train’s halt at each station. If you have managed to snatch a seat, however, and the train is so crowded that you begin to literally see yourself and the other passengers as sardines in a mobile can – first of all, congratulations! You got a seat! Second of all – you’ll soon feel like a sardine that has been cooked to its buttery perfection because the heaters on the train outdo themselves in attempting to counteract the cold from outside.
As a result you will usually find yourself weighing your options: dressing lightly and freezing on the way to and at the train station (good if you spend more time on the train than outside) or wrapping yourself up and feeling toasty warm outside but like a burning toast on the train (good if you’re going to walk around outside a lot and if the trains are not too crowded so that you could potentially take off your outer layer and ignore the weirded out stares that you might get). What shall it be?

Anyway, that’s not what the title is alluding to. Instead, this post is all about the duck and my on-train entertainment:

ADventures

Sometimes, when we end up on one of those packed commuter trains at night – those that are so packed that there is not even enough space to take out our phone for the usual train study or being virtually social for a while sessions – the duck and I entertain ourselves by making friends with the characters in the advertisements posted throughout the train; sometimes we make up their backstories, create a soundtrack in our heads or imagine having meaningful conversations with them in cool, artsy cafes. Sometimes we just try our best to hold back an echoing giggle (of confusion).
You can’t really imagine how plain old posters could be that entertaining? Well, see for yourselves!
Instead of boring you with our own interpretations, we’ll just give you a select few ads so that you can have your own (train) adventures. (For an immersive experience, find the most crowded place in a 50km radius and look at each of the following pictures for at least thirty minutes.) Feel free to share your stories with us (and if you really can’t think of anything I’ve added some ideas and info):

Twin in a box

When I first looked at this ad for an English school, I had many questions: Why is the man holding a gift of himself? How did he get in there anyway? Is he a twin? And why haven’t the duck and I improved our Japanese enough to read the text?

In a world…

In a world where men could only wear blue and women pink, they met on a crowded train and felt an instant connection as they saw each other’s constipated faces, a mirrored image of their innermost feelings of exhaustion and- a dark secret…

Inside out man

Do you know and remember Nickelodeon’s inside out boy? Well, this is his father- who returned from a roller coaster a changed man…

Cutest bestest friends

Come on, there are so many wonderful and fluffy stories you could make up with those cute little characters having fun in the snow. Just look at them! Aaaaaaawwww… ♥

Teachers from a different dimension

This one is just wonderful! The duck and I have spent so many hours just looking at this ad, wondering what it could possibly be about. Well, as it turns out, this crazy assembly of interesting characters is advertising one of the coolest cram schools in existence!
It shouldn’t be too hard to work with this for a nice little story (they’ve even done it themselves – just look at this video version of the ad!).

Well, we hope you had an adventurous journey with this post!

We’ll go out to collect some more trainspiration, in all senses of the word, so that we can soon present you with yet another train post, hahaha!
(tmi? idc!)