Feed on
Posts
Comments

Public Transportation in Japan

by

Public Transportation in Japan is probably the best in the world, and you can easily live all your days without a car here.

There are tons of train and subway lines, each run by different companies. The biggest is JR (Japan Railways), and it’s the one I take everyday.

Muni LogoI used to live in San Francisco and I’ve gotta say, MUNI stinks! Sure it gets you where you wanna go, but when you get there is anybody’s guess. I used to love those comics in the SF Weekly called “PUNI, neither here nor there.” More on MUNI (SF Municipal Railway) in another thread.

Viewing Tokyo trains through my MUNI lenses, I was amazed with their cleanliness and punctuality. Everyday, I leave my house at the exact same time, and arrive to work at the exact same time….on the minute! And my commute involves three trains.

If the train is late, it’s for a damn good reason, like an earthquake, typhoon, or “accident” (accident seems to be a euphemism for people jumping in front of moving trains aka “suicide”). Not cause some fat, lazy-ass driver stops to hop into the liquor store for a snack (I’ve seen this in SF several times).

Drivers in Japan undergo strict training, and can’t play games like back home. If these guys are even 1 minute late, there’s gonna be hell to pay!

Posted in Transportation | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Public Transportation in Japan”

  1. on 23 Aug 2006 at 6:46 am   Keisuke

    Hello! At first I’d like to tell you briefly that I found a misspelling. It’s “puctuality” in the middle. I hope this information didn’t harm your feelings.
    I’ll post another comment after I finished reading all posts. See you.

  2. on 23 Aug 2006 at 7:53 am   south110

    Nice catch! It’s just like what we were talking about earlier today on proofreading. The mistake has been corrected, and if you find any others, let me know!

  3. on 13 May 2011 at 12:04 pm   Cantino

    Is the public transportation expensive? If I lived in an apartment about 20 minutes out of the Tokyo or Kyoto or Osaka or something would it be expensive to go into town on a daily basis?

  4. on 13 May 2011 at 10:04 pm   south110

    I never really thought about it being expensive. If you’re commuting from an apartment 20 minutes outside Tokyo everyday it might be around ¥200-¥300 each way. Depending on how many times you need to transfer, it could be more or less. Here is a good site where you can enter in any two stations in Japan, and it gives you timetables and prices for the trip in Japanese, English, or Chinese: http://www.hyperdia.com/

  5. on 20 Oct 2011 at 1:39 am   pat

    hehehehe this is cool

  6. on 20 Oct 2011 at 1:39 am   pat

    this was very help full

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply