Chris’s friend and her husband recently left the glory of Manhattan for the supposed stillness of New Jersey, so they invited us out to their home in Dunellen, New Jersey, today for the husband’s belated birthday celebration and housewarming party. This meant we needed to take the subway to Penn Station, take New Jersey Transit to Newark Penn Station, and then transfer to a final train that would take us to this suburb.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m really happy and grateful that we were invited, and I was happy to see our friend’s beautiful new home — which it really was. It was beautiful, barely a year old, incredibly spacious, with great outdoor areas, high ceilings, and a massive kitchen with stone counter tops. But New Jersey Transit… no. That is not beautiful or spacious or even cheap. Our round-trip tickets cost $23 each. I was flabbergasted at the cost given the distance, the fact that on the weekends, it only ran once an hour, and that the seats were so small.

Then there were the overhead bins. Even on the Tokyo subway there were large overhead bins on regular transit to store one’s luggage. You rarely saw anyone placing a purse or bag on the subway floor ever. Here on NJ Transit, you could barely store a full backpack on the top overhead “bin,” which was really so pathetic that you couldn’t even comfortably place a duffle bag packed for three days. I was so annoyed by the whole sight and experience.

The ticket man who comes around to check tickets — he littered on the subway by hole-punching passengers’ tickets and allowing the punched holes to fall all over the train floors. It’s like litter everywhere, and no one seems to have a problem with it! He’s dirtying up the train floors! Am I the only one annoyed by the filth and dirt?

That’s it. Nothing can compare to Japanese trains or cleanliness or manners or even the price for what you are getting. I think I’m ruined for life.