I once ate hamburger on an intercity train (Namba to Wakayama) in Japan because I hadn't eaten all day.
The train was parked with its doors open awaiting for departure time.
Just as I was taking another bite of sandwich, someone walks into the cart, sees me eating, and turns around and walks right out to walk over to the next car.
If you were eating a basic (nothing exotic) rice ball (onigiri), they would not look twice. Can you guess why? Smell. (You also did not mention if fries were included.) My advice: Eat the hamburger on the platform and take the next train. Or, try something with almost no smell.
It's common to see parents feeding onigiri to their kids on the train, even if it is "technically" (the best kind!) against the rules.
I never thought of it before, but I don't think there is any food you can buy at Japanese station-platform kiosks that really smells. Very different case in Korea. On long-distance trains, there is always that guy with a bag of dried octopus...
Sometimes I’d shop around for a car or two for a perfect, heaven mandated seat for me, when the train isn’t leaving soon anyway.
It should be no big deal, unless people are really keeping distance from you and standing in the next blocks of seats. That happens, like, a man with garbage bags is grumbling nonsense. Bags of fries and 551 takeouts at 5PM usually won’t trigger that… just appetites :p
The train was parked with its doors open awaiting for departure time.
Just as I was taking another bite of sandwich, someone walks into the cart, sees me eating, and turns around and walks right out to walk over to the next car.
How do I know it was me?
There were only 2-3 people in the entire cart.
Guess I should've known better.