It is a necessity to be able to know how to use this in Japan and fortunately it has not been too hard for me to pick up. I'm gonna let you know about a few things I found interesting about the train, subway, and bus experiences I've had so far.
Coming from the bay area in California, I had the BART train system. I thought it was a pretty nice system and had gotten awards in the past for providing its service. Don't get me wrong the BART is nice and simple to use, but the trains and subways out here are way better in my opinion. The very first thing I noticed was their cleanliness. No graffiti on the windows, no dirty seats, or strange stank odors. Then I noticed how quiet it was. They'll be 50 people in a car and it's quiet. People don't talk on the phone in the cars and talk at a low level if speaking to someone. Usually people are texting on their phone, reading a book, or playing a DS (nintendo) or psp (sony). Soon after I noticed this, I also realized how quiet the actual train was. I thought, this ride is as smooth as butter.
The schedule's can be quite confusing at times, especially for someone who is not use to taking a train. Let's not forget the foreign language barrier. There are a ton of different lines and transfers to take to get to your final destination. They have a few different railroad companies so you may get off a train at one station, exit the toll area, and then have to find your way onto a different company's set of trains. The transfer stations are pretty big and there is just a swarm of people weaving in and out of each other all the time.
With all the people that live here, rush hour is......
funny. That's the only way I can put it 'cause that's what I think every time I've experienced it. It's so funny. The carts are jammed with people. And when I say jammed, I mean JAMMED. You are probably standing and there is no need to hold on to the handrail because you are packed in so tight. When the doors open and the exiting passengers escape, people rush in and if someone stops moving inside and there are still people outside, those outside people get the pushin'. HAHAHA. It's so funny. But everyone seems to be all accepting of this behavior and don't seem to think twice about it. I haven't seen anyone start yelling or fighting because they were bumped, pushed forward, stepped on, or anything like that. I could just imagine this scene in america, somebody would act up and cause some kind of commotion. So every time I'm packed in a car I laugh and smile thinking WOW, this is so cool.
The bus experience as been quite similar, clean, no talking on the phone, quiet. The difference here opposed, to my experience in the states, is that you pay according to how far you travel. If you get on the bus when it leaves the station or near the station, you just get on and pay your fee once you exit. In the front of the bus there is a meter which shows the current fee and everyone exits the front paying that fee. And the bus will give you change. CHANGE !!! It's awesome. I couldn't believe it. You would always have to have correct change in the bay area or end up paying more than you had to. I do think the bus prices are a little high, especially after you've been on for about 15-20 mins. I did like just the flat rate back home.
Speaking of getting change, you can also get change at the train stations. And it's not all in quarters like at the BART, these machines are puttin' out bills. I put in 10000 yen, a little more than 100 dollars, for a 150 yen ticket and got my change back in mostly bills. I don't even know if the BART machine would have even accepted that much money. I thought it was cool that it did that.
Alright, that's all for now. I need to go get something to eat. Hope everyone is doing well. And if you have any questions please, click on comments, and post them.
Later
