This was such a full trip that it's hard to show everything we did. I've posted maybe ... just maybe ... 1% of our adventures.
Let's look at the train system. It's amazing. Japan is roughly the size of California, but more than four times as many people live there. Most of them don't own cars. They count on the trains ... subways, street cars, rail and the bullet trains (Shinkansen) to get them around.
The transit system is the best I've ever seen. Trains go directly into the airports. The subway system intersects with the Shinkansen line. The subway stations exit directly into the bottom floor of the department stores (which is usually the grocery section). It's efficient. It's effective. It's what I call efficacious.
The subway (in Tokyo it's called the Metro) can get you from one side of an LA sized city to the other in under 20 minutes. Wow. The only thing is that there are LOTS of stairs and few escalators to be found. When you're going down 100 feet below street level carrying a bag or three, that's a big deal. The accessibility hasn't improved since my last visit nearly 10 years ago.
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| Tokyo station during a quiet spell |
Crowded? Yes. But nothing like the image you have in your mind of conductors pushing people into cars like sardines. I've yet to see that scene play out.
The street cars. Cool. We never had need to take one. Ours was a short visit so this little adventure went by the wayside. Unlike San Francisco, these are serious transportation... not just a tourist attraction. The one below is a new experimental model that runs on lithium batteries that recharge in one minute, hopefully one day removing the necessity of overhead power lines except at periodic intervals.
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| Toden Arakawa Line streetcar |
Which brings us to regional trains. Outside the major metro areas, these are the meat and potatoes of the rail system. What's wild is that there are multiple companies (The big gorilla being JR) running these lines. Osaka is served by at least seven different rail and subway companies. All of them profitable without the government subsidizing them. Hello, Amtrak? Pay attention, you might learn something.
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| Boarding the local train in Osaka |
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| Yet another rail line in Osaka |
What does stink is that there is no one map or internet site that shows all of the systems together and gives you the best option to get from point A to point B. You have to figure out transfers on your own.
And finally, the super-star of the rail system. The Shinkansen. That translates as "New Trunk Line," but has come to refer to the backbone of super-fast lines that run at nearly 200 mph. We got from Osaka to Tokyo in 2 1/2 hours for $8 per person. That's roughly the distance from LA to San Francisco. And the train does not dump you in the middle of nowhere - rather, it's the center of town.
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| The Shinkansen passes Mt. Fuji between Osaka and Tokyo |
There are six models of Shinkansen trains in active use. I've counted four that I've ridden on. The one below, the 500, is not on that list... it doesn't go much faster than the others, but gosh if it isn't pretty.
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| Shinkansen Type 500 at Shin-Osaka Station |
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