Transportation Japanese Style

As I’m significantly behind on my posts anyway (at this point in time, my Educator’s Tour has already ended, yet my last post was day 3), I figured I’d ease back into the blogging project by talking about something NOT site-related: transportation.

Transportation is often a traveler’s biggest concern when visiting a new country, and in some places getting around is obviously quite difficult, especially if you don’t know the language. Turkey, Morocco, Colombia, India—those places were sort of on the lower end of the spectrum for me because navigating a lot of the public transportation is dependent upon already knowing the system or at the very least, being able to ask people about it in the language. For instance, Turkey and Colombia both have these mini-buses that are parked in various spots around the city and depart for certain areas only when they’re full. Pretty difficult to find or know how to pay or when to get off if you’ve never done it before. China would be kind of in the middle for me—in the cities it’s very intuitive to get around, but I think I’d run into some annoyances even as a Chinese-speaker if I tried to travel in the countryside. Israel was also remarkably easy to travel around, despite a serious lack of English anywhere.

But Japan? Wow, Japan. Japan just blows every other place I’ve seen out of the water. It’s so easy! In the city, the subway is expansive and very-well labeled in both Japanese and English. In Tokyo, the regular train lines for the whole country are interconnected with the subway, so that you can switch systems easily if you’re going somewhere further. I should note that Tokyo’s system is obviously newer than New York’s, the majority of the stations have walls along the platform so no one can fall or jump onto the tracks. Like Taipei, there are markings on the floor to indicate where you should stand (usually it’s positioned so there are two lines on either side of each subway door, so people get off go down the center before the two lines get on). The floors of the subway are marked with arrows to control the flow of traffic, and people actually follow them. I can’t actually imagine New Yorkers standing in line to get on the subway…but it’s a nice dream.

This is a sign in the subway station letting you know exactly which car you should get on, depending which station you plan to get off at. This is something we New Yorkers do without even thinking about it after a certain amount of time passes doing the same commute--how cool is it that you can read a chart and check?

As for the JR Rail Lines, the regular network of trains that runs all over Japan, there are also impressive traffic control measures. The cars of any reserved trains are marked, and people wait in two different sets of lines at the appropriate car. One of the lines is for the next train due to arrive on that platform, the other line is for the train AFTER that. Can you imagine how much space this saves on the platform? Instead of having people milling around and bumrushing the doors when train arrives? <coughNJTransitcough>

                         exhibit A                                                                      exhibit B

Please see Exhibit A on lines in Japan. This is a little convenience store located in the middle of the platform. Check the markings on the floor that indicate that in the event of extreme crowds, a neat little circle is to be made allowing everyone one clean circular pass through the store that ends with the cash register (this was actually happening when I was in the store). Note that although the man on the right coming towards the camera is actively disobeying the law of the arrow, the fact that there's a system for this at all is amazing. When I was actually purchasing things it was quite crowded and we all walked in the circular line--now it's cleared out some. Exhibit B is the 2-line phenomenon I referred to earlier. The red line is for the very next train due to arrive. No one has yet begun to form a line in the green one, but this wasn't rush hour. 

Of course, in Japan you’ve also got the Shinkansen, the high speed trains. These are not actually maglev trains, like I thought they were, but Japan plans to move in that direction in the next 10 years. The Shinkansen trains apparently work on much higher voltage than normal trains, so it’s very important to have an uninterrupted power supply. The top of the trains thus have this funky looking triangle that adjusts to the height of the electrical cables above so that contact is never broken. There’s also something about the degree of the axles in the wheels that allow the trains to take turns much faster than regular American trains. Anyway, the Shinkansen was cool, but it didn’t seem all that different from the Acela, for example. And it’s just as expensive! We got an amazing unlimited JR Pass for Rail and Shinkansen for three weeks, and that was $600, but apparently one Shinkansen trip from like…Osaka to Tokyo would be about $300. In any case, both the regular trains and the Shinkansen were incredibly clean, had electronic signboards with the next stop, and had clean bathrooms in every car. And you’re also apparently supposed to ask the person behind you before you recline your seat! ;)

Last but not least are buses. Even buses are easy in Japan, because unlike in most cities where you kind of have to know where you are in order to press the stop button, there’s an electronic signboard on the buses that let you know what the next stop is. At bus stops, there’s an interactive sign that takes the readings off of approaching buses to let you know when your bus is 2 minutes away. Best part is of course is the immaculately polite bus driver, who says things like “we’re moving now, so please take care to hold on,” and thanks and bows to every single person as they get off the bus. This can be especially hilarious at big stops when half the bus is getting off: “Arigatou gozaimashita arigatougozaimashita arigozaimashitaarigoashta….”

This is the moving sign at the bus stop. The 1st picture shows the yellow bus in the middle, indicating it is one stop away. The 2nd picture (right) shows the yellow arrival circle on the left, indicating the bus is about to arrive (and it did).

To sum things up, Japan’s transportation is pretty awesome. As a traveler who doesn’t speak or read Japanese, you can still get around apprehension and anxiety-free. Most of the country is reachable by public transport, and relatively easily. I think in 3 weeks I took maybe 4 taxis and one charter bus. And I’d just like to add, those taxi drivers wore little hats and white gloves. =)