The pea-green artery pumping shoals of company staffers into the heart of Japan Inc. every morning, and funneling them home by night, perfectly exemplifies Japanese efficiency.
The sheer volume of bodies shifted is what takes the cake: If there is something dehumanizing about shuffling onto -- or being shoved into -- a crowded train carriage, then the Yamanote Line is surely the world's prime weapon of mass commuter soul destruction.
But whether from a sense of awe at the miraculous precision of its operation, a fondness born of familiarity or an ironic faux reverence for its power to assimilate, for the Japanese, the fondly abbreviated Yamate-sen is close to being an object of worship.