Context: The airplane ride was rather uneventful . I sat next to an older Japanese man but we did n't talk and in fact I do n't think we even made eye contact the whole 12 hours of flight . ( I ' ve noticed that people on the trains in Tokyo do n't make eye - contact either and people rarely start up conversations with strangers . ).
What may be the reason people in Japan do nt start conversations ? Why might people in Tokyo train not make eye contact ? Why was the narrator so bored traveling to Japan via plane ?