The Train Ride That Took Away My Innocence
Growing up among perverted men
I was 13 when I had my first taste of sex. It wasn’t with a boy. It wasn’t in the privacy of my room. It was on a train.
I was naive. I thought the function of a train was to carry me to a destination. I didn’t know it was a private cocoon for guys to initiate juvenile girls into womanhood.
I didn’t know a guy in a business suit would be sniffing for a uniformed schoolgirl like me.
I didn’t know enduring chikan (groping and molestation) was Japan’s celebrated tradition for girls.
Erika
It was 1986.
That day, as usual, I wore my school uniform — a green checkered skirt and a white shirt, my pubescent breasts poking ever so slightly.
Once I entered the smothering train, my body tossed around on hot bodies of suited men carrying briefcases — some thinking about their upcoming work duties, others dreaming up their favorite manga (comic book) character coming to life.
A manga character like Erika, a schoolgirl with a tiny waist and big breasts that popped out of her shirt. Like me, she too boarded an early morning rush hour train only to get groped by a hungry man.
