The death toll from the train accident keeps going up every day. All the trains are running slower and many stations have employees thanking people for riding the trains, presumably in this sad and frightening time.
I found out two pieces of information I did not know in my last post about the accident. The first is Amagasaki (the site of the accident) is on the same line as Suminodo (my station), it happened on the same line I ride at least once a week. I have never taken a train that far on the the line, but to know that it took place on the same line as Suminodo makes it feel different somehow. The other surprising thing is that the driver of the train attended Tanigawa Junior High School, which is the school I work in. He would have done so long before my time (by at least 7-8 years) But he would have walked the same halls that I do now. The driver was only 23 years old, the same age as me. None of these things are particularly relevant to the weight of the accident itself, but somehow these very thin strands that ever so slightly connect me to it make the accident seem more tragic.
sad