A couple of days ago, was maintenance time for one of the ticket-checking machines at the station.

How it works here, is a little different than in switzerland. In switzerland you would buy a ticket, board the train, and soon or later, someone will check and stamp your ticket marking it as used.

In Japan it works differently. Once you got your ticket ... that can like my monthly pass you have seen some time ago, or be an Electronic proximity card (the ones that you don't need to slide, but just keep them in your wallet and move them toward the sensor to have you granted passage) or simply, a normal ticket as this one:

Once you have your ticket, you proceed and insert it on one side of the passage, like our Mister Honda is showing us here:

If the ticket is valid, you can pass..if not... small doors will close and an alarm will go off.

Please note the green arrow at the right side. This is interesting. The passage can be used in both ways, depending on how many people are passing by at the same time. A green arrow tells you that nobody initiated the passage on the other side and you can use it.

In fact, sometimes happens that you and the person on the other side try to get thru at the same time... well...in that case, you better be the fastest, or you would risk to crash into the small doors ;)...

As far as i know...no serious injuries have been reported so far ...