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July 28, 2007
Training in Tokyo
Travel in and around Tokyo is by train. Occasionally one takes a cab, but it's expensive (about $6 for a 3 minute ride, and the cost goes up from there). And it's confusing. There are several different train companies, each operating different "lines". One of the largest, JR East, has a rail map that is difficult to read.
To board one of the trains, you need a ticket. To (try to) figure out the fare, you look at the train map above the ticket machines. If you're lucky, you find a map that has the names in Roman Type, but you can't count on it. Finally you fish up some coins to drop into the machine. Remember, there are multiple train companies that service each terminal, so you need to remember not only the fare but the company name and punch that in before you buy the ticket.
Finally arriving at your destination, you find out if you guess right on the ticket fare. The exit gates have this very convenient pair of doors that swing shut if your ticket isn't expensive enough. It's pretty obvious what the problem is, despite the voice speaking in Japanese.
All in all, it's quite an adventure. A couple of weeks of this kind of thing and you start to get the hang of it.
Now all I have to do is try to understand what the advertisements in the trains are talking about...
Posted by pgutwin at July 28, 2007 10:02 PM