I (20s white woman) get on the train at a fairly early stop, so I'm always the one sitting down first, and therefore people have to (freely choose to) sit next to me. In the past month or so I've been elbowed twice now, possibly by the same person (both times it was a middle-aged woman who gets off at my stop, but I've never looked directly at the culprit so I can't say for sure).
The first time it happened, I was just sitting down and this lady sits really close so our arms rub together whenever I slightly move to adjust something (usually when this happens people will realize that they're too close and scooch over or move their arm or something), but I guess this pissed her off because she starts elbowing me HARD, which shocked me since this was my first time experiencing anything like this, so I just ignored her and kept doing what I was doing until I got off at my stop (she was applying pressure on my arm and digging her elbow in for the duration of the ride). Today it happened again; a middle-aged lady sits right beside me, and this time I even scooch over as soon as the seat next to me is free, but as we get closer to my stop she starts digging in her giant bag and elbows me once. I unconsciously clicked my tongue at this (not loudly, and I wish it didn't slip out, but it just happened instinctually) and she turns her head and just stares directly at me for about a minute. At this point I'm wondering if it's the same person as before and feel the urge to say something like なんですか？, but again, I just stay silent, look expectantly at the doors and get up and leave when I can.
I can't tell if I'm being targeted specifically or if this is just some crazy person who would also do it to a Japanese person (I mean they're crazy either way). What am I supposed to do when we both get off at the same stop? I would be more willing to speak up and confront them if my chances of encountering them again were low. I'm thinking of just taking a later train from now on, but that doesn't really solve the problem of how to handle such a situation.
Anyone have similar experiences?
by unsure6101