station at terminal one of narita
bakurocho station of JR line
homeless homes
concourse at shiodome station
great tile as basic station
map to tell what care to use
status sign on the platforms
entire subway map
One the most impressive thing that I found when navigating Tokyo was the ease, efficiency and beauty of the Tokyo Subway system. Since it’s made up of at least three separate systems, that could scare you into thinking that it would be difficult to navigate the various lines, stations and handle the payment. Despite the three lines; the Toei, Tokyo Metro and JR East Railway each traversing the center of the metropolis, getting around is generally a breeze.
Generally speaking paying is based on distance travelled. You have several options when purchasing your ticket, if you’re just visiting the city for a short time, you’ll typically choose from the following: pay as you go, get a daily unlimited for either of the major systems, daily unlimited which works on a combination of systems or get a multiple day unlimited that’s meant for tourists.
Chances are that when you arrive into Tokyo, you will do so via one of the two major airports. The most popular is likely to be Narita which is quite large, and pretty far outside of the city. It’ll easily take you over and hour to get into the city via any of the trains, and most likely closer to two hours.
When I first left Narita (terminal one shown above), I was bound for the Chuo-ku area, which meant that I had a couple of different means of getting there. The JR Line to Bakurocho happen to be the most direct.
One of the surprising things that I came across quite early on while navigating the under ground world (at bakurocho station) was the presence of homeless shelters in the corridors. Oddly, while sad that situations exist (nearly everywhere) whereby people are forced into such circumstances, it was somewhat comforting that at least in this particular location, it appears that their homes may exists in a somewhat clean, organized and decent manner. In cities such as New York, a similar situation would not be nearly as clean or seemingly livable.
That being said, the situation pictured above did not appear to be widespread, as most stations that I had visited appeared to be rather empty of all other then passengers trying to get from point A to point B. In some cases it was almost eerie how expansive, clean and empty some concourses were.
Besides the clean trains, and clean stations, the overall experience of waiting for trains was generally made more enjoyable as well as efficient by the aid of signs and decorations.
The first sign that I thought was great, and wished I had seen more of was the map to tell you information such as where the stairs, escalators and elevators were in relation to each car of the train. It also can aide in telling you where the best places to be if you were looking to transfer to another line.
The electronic indicators of when the next train to arrive is another that was great to see. You’ll generally notice that the train are on-time, which actually made me a bit excited when I caught this one when the train was running late.
Besides just knowing how long you have to wait till your train arrives, knowing how long may give you the chance to grab a coffee or tea out of on of the ever impressive vending machines which tend to exist on each platform. What makes these machines so cool is that the items which you’d typically expect to be hot or warm, actually are and those that should be cold, are as well. Simple but nice features to have.
There are so many other things that I’ve greatly enjoyed about the subway system, but to really appreciate it you really must check them out for yourself. The best part is, nearly anywhere you are, there will be a train there for you.
Related posts:
