This train is bound for Nakano (or Imagination Engines)

A soft voice announces the destination of the train I take to work. The announcements are in Japanese first and then in English. The guard then announces the same in Japanese only.

The recording is unlike most of the recorded messages I have heard in India, where common phrases are recorded once and then mixed and matched to produce the complete sentence. Here in Japan, the recorded message is fluent and unbroken, which I guess is because its recorded completely in one go.

One such morning, I asked my friend, how do you think she is? "Who?".

I say the girl who recorded the message on train routes. He dismisses the question with, "aare whats there? She must be very fair and cute. She`s Japanese after all! Thats it! You dont have any imagination, do you?!"

Hmm.. this guy has some imagination. He could probably shoot the side of a barn with a shotgun and call himself a sharpshooter!

Listed below(oh! so formal) are some of the questions that occurred to me -

How was the girl selected to record the message?

Was there an audition?

What was the girl thinking when she was recording the train routes?

Was this something she wanted to do in the first place?

Was this what she wanted to do as a little girl?

Was does she feel when she`s in one of the trains and hears the sound of her own voice?

What would her children have to say about their mother?

Did she want to be a singer but ended up recording this?

Or is she a famous singer already and this was a kind of a favor she did to the Railway Department?

Is her boyfriend the biggest fan of her voice?

Did he propose to her because he fell in love with her voice?

Is this girl an employee of the Railways?

What do her co-workers think of her?

What would she feel when her recording was replaced with a different, perhaps a more youthful, voice?

The list is in no way complete.

And to get answers I guess I will have to start revving my engines.