I don't know about you, but when I'm walking along train tracks and I hear a train approaching, my instincts tell me to get out of the way, fast. So, last month, when I was strolling along the sleepers of one of Tokyo's underground lines and I detected a distant rumbling, that's exactly what I did.
Not so the children who were with me; they just kept on walking. Perhaps they had more faith in Tokyo Metro than me. After all, the Tunnel Walk event in which we were participating was organized by Tokyo's biggest subway operator — and, come to think of it, no trains are scheduled to run on these rails until next June, when Tokyo's 13th subway line, the Fukutoshin Line, opens.
We were among the 160 lucky people selected by lottery to walk along Tokyo's "secondary city center" line (as Fukutoshin could be translated), a subterranean artery that will eventually connect Shibuya and Ikebukuro stations (and continue on a track now called the Yurakucho Line [New Line] to Kotake- mukaihara Station just northwest of Ikebukuro).