Taking trains

If you live in a Japanese city you will soon become familiar with trains as a mode of transport. Of course you can also take buses, but buses mostly run within fairly local areas; they're good for taking you to areas not near stations, but they aren't a good way to cross a city. 

If you're coming to Japan for the first time, one of the first things I recommend doing is picking up a metro map from the airport or a major train station. 

Be aware that Tokyo, and Yokohama, have more than one railway company. You have JR (Japan Rail), which operates trains all over the country; they also have lots of stations throughout Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture. Many cities also have their own subway, like the Yokohama City Subway, and the Tokyo metro. So if you pick up a Tokyo metro map, it may not have all the JR stations on it; likewise, a JR map may not have subway stations on it. Also, if you have a special pass that allows you unlimited use of a particular line - JR or metro or whatever - you probably won't be able to use it on other lines.

How to ride a train

1. Check the map and fare

It shouldn't be too hard. Let's imagine you're at Yokohama station and using JR. You go to the ticket machines and there is a big JR map above them, showing the different stations and the fee for each. (Occasionally at less important stations, this map will be all in kanji, and you're screwed. Hahaha...)

You see that it will cost you 450 yen and that either the Tokaido line or Keihin-Tohoku lines will take you there. The Tokaido line has considerably fewer stops between Yokohama and Tokyo, so it will obviously be faster (though they run less frequently and there may then be less opportunity of getting a seat).

2. Buy a ticket and check the route

Now you know the fare, you can put your 450 yen in the ticket machine and buy a ticket.

If you do not have a map or a clue where you're going, you will want to check the map to see some of the other stations in the direction you want to go. Once you get in the station, it's more difficult to find full railway line maps (though they are inside the trains themselves), and if you're going to a smaller station, it might not be immediately obviously which direction train you should take, since most trains and platforms are labelled with two or three main stations in that direction, eg 'for Kawasaki, Shinagawa, Omiya' or 'for Kannai, Ofuna'.

(If you use trains regularly, you might want to buy a card like Suica or Pasmo. That way, rather than buying a ticket every time you go to a station, you can put credit on the card and swipe it over the card reader on ticket gates. These can also be used in selected vending machines, buses and stores bearing the Suica/Pasmo logos.

If you plan a lot of travel in one day, day pass tickets are also possible.)

3. Go to your platform and check the type of train

Then put the ticket in the ticket gate - take it as you go through - and now you can go to your platform. Check the signs for your platform and destination. Sometimes, as with the Tokaido line, one train line will have more than one platform, and occasionally, one platform may have more than one train line (or lines that change their name after a particular station).

Once you're on the platform, you can find maps of the line you are on. You might have to walk up and down the platform to find one, but they do exist. These maps should also show the route of the local trains (stop at every station), rapid trains (stop at some stations), limited express trains (stop at major stations), etc. This is important as if you're not going to a major station, the rapid/limited express trains may not stop there.

One other point is that some kinds of trains, including some limited express trains, require reserved seating and therefore an extra fee. If this is the case there will usually be a ticket machine on the platform itself. The Tokaido line has regular trains with 'green cars' for those wanting the comfort of a guaranteed seat; these green cars require a reserved seat and extra fee, but you can ride on a regular car for no extra fee.

4. Changing train lines


If you have to change train lines, it's not too difficult. Unless you're changing to a different railway (eg, JR to Keikyu, Yokohama Subway to JR), you shouldn't need a new ticket or to exit through any gates, but can change within the station on the same ticket you originally purchased.

5. Getting out


Once you get out, put your ticket in the machine again, and the machine will eat it.

Incidentally, you can enter a station on the cheapest possible ticket, and then travel anywhere you like. If you've gone further than the price of your ticket - eg, you changed your mind and went further than you expected - the gates won't let you out until you've paid the balance. But you can easily pay on exit. There are 'fare adjustment machines' inside train stations, in which you can top up your ticket (or Suica/Pasmo) so you can get out.

Train times


First trains usually start running at or after 5am. Last trains are often around midnight, maybe as late as 1am. It depends where you're taking it from. A station near the end of the line will obviously have a later 'last train' than one near the beginning. Also, some last trains don't go all the way to the end of the line. And if you're changing trains, you gotta be aware of the time of your last last train! I speak from experience. Taxis are expensive in Japan, and if you get stranded too far from your station, you might end up sleeping in an Internet cafe or doing all-night karaoke (again, I speak from experience ^_^).

In short

I made taking trains sound more complex than it is. Actually, taking trains in Japan is *usually* quite simple, provided you know where you are going and what lines to take. Again, I strongly advise getting a map, or at least checking carefully where you're going before entering the station. And make sure what kind of train you are getting on, whether it's a local or rapid...

Links

I've plugged these site a couple of times before, but check out Hyperdia, through which you can plug in any two station names in the country and it will give you the possible routes, cost and travel times between them.

Japan-Guide also has a good section on transportation, for example, Transportation in Tokyo.

Japanese Pet Peeve: Feeling the sun on your skin... or not

I went on a Japanese cruise ship, and one thing I noticed was that very few of the Japanese passengers actually used the swimming pool. When I asked them why, their answers were either 'I'm too shy', or 'I don't want to get the sun on my skin'.

If you live in Japan, you will notice that even in warm weather, many ladies will wear long sleeves that cover their skin. Some also carry umbrellas, even if they are only walking a couple of blocks in the sunshine.

In Japan, white skin is the beauty ideal, rather than tans (although this is less true for men). So I'm not sure whether the sun safety ideal is a result of health concerns about UV and skin cancer, or a desire to prevent cosmetic effects like a tan, freckles or wrinkles.

I currently work at a university. The weather has been gorgeous all week - about 26 and sunny every day - but one thing I've noticed is that, in striking contrast with Australian universities (and Australian *anywhere*, really), nobody was sitting outside. There is outdoor seating available, it's just that I'm always the only one enjoying it. I brought this up with my students and they agreed they didn't sit outside. Why? 'The UV,' they said.

Coming from the Land of Skin Cancer, Australia, I appreciate that this is very sensible, and much better than the opposite extreme of lying in full sun for hours to get a tan. However, I feel like we should enjoy nice weather when it comes up. That's why it's a pet peeve of mine - it feels like overcautiousness to me - especially when you feel you can't walk outside with your skin exposed to the sun for even one minute. Or swim in a pool on a 35 degree day (why not put on sunscreen? And lie in the shade after you've finished swimming?) My culture has instilled in me a sense that when the weather is nice, you should be out there enjoying it.

The other day it was cloudy, with no sunshine, but it certainly wasn't raining. We went down to a river in the countryside. A lady was clambering over the rocks while holding an umbrella aloft. To protect her from the non-existent sun. For some reason, I found this sight depressing.

Impressions of Nagoya

I've been in Nagoya for a little while now, so what's it like?

Okay, Nagoya is in central Japan, between Yokohama and Kyoto (but closer to Kyoto). It's the fourth-largest city in Japan; at around 2.2 million people, it's smack between the populations of Yokohama (3.6 million) and Kawasaki (1.3 million).

Since Nagoya is a reasonably large city, I expected it to be bustling and lively. I knew it wasn't a major tourist draw, so I wasn't expecting many sights to see, but I thought the vibe would be similar to other Japanese cities I've visited, which includes masses of cool little streets full of shops, restaurants, businesses, bars and people.

Instead, I found the city to be pretty boring. Last weekend I was walking around Nagoya station thinking 'this is the main station?! Where are all the shops? Where are the restaurants? Where are the people?!' I walked around the station in every direction; all I found were a smattering of shops and one (admittedly large) department store. There may well be more but they weren't very visible.

This is, like, one street back from Nagoya station. Look at it!!

Any time I ask someone 'where should I go in Nagoya?' or 'where are all the shops?', people say, 'Sakae'. If I listen to friends and students, it seems Sakae is the only place people go to hang out. And Sakae is somewhat livelier, with more places to hang out.

Another thing that struck me - I suppose because food is such a priority for me ^^; - is that 90% of all Nagoya restaurants seem to be noodles-in-broth restaurants (ramen, soba, udon), or katsu or curry rice. I mean, I like these things, but not all the time.

My impression also is that Nagoya is a more car-oriented city than Yokohama, Kawasaki or Tokyo. In those three cities, restaurants, shops and businesses tend to cluster around train stations, which become hubs of energy. Even quite small and insignificant stations would have several shops and restaurants immediately around it. In Nagoya, while this is still the case, it's to a lesser extent. Things seems to be a lot more spread out, where you have to consciously make a trip to a specific store to get what you want, or research what kind of place you want to visit before you can go there. I find it a bit frustrating, because I was used to going somewhere and being able to just wander around and find lots of cool stuff serendipitously.

But I must admit, in this regard, Nagoya is more like my own hometown in Australia.

Nagoya is known as an industrial city, and there are a lot of factories. I drove from one side of the city to the other, and the city itself looked like a lot of electrical wiring and construction work, though I suppose that's the same in other Japanese cities.

On the plus side, despite the industrialisation and power lines, it does somehow feel more spacious. My own neighborhood in Nagoya feels like it has some greenery, gardens and proper houses, not just apartment blocks and concrete. When it rains it smells fresh. And that is a boon.

Oh, another interesting (albeit random) thing is that supermarkets here don't give you plastic bags, but you are expected to bring your own bags from home. I've talked before about how much excessive packaging most Japanese food stores give you, so this really surprised me. Good for the environment. ^_^

Anyway, these may or may not be accurate impressions; I've not been here long, after all. I wouldn't really recommend Nagoya to visit, but already I like it better than when I first arrived, as I've gotten to know people and had some good times with them. I suppose in the end, your feelings toward a place are a collection of memories; good times can transform even an uninspiring place into a fond recollection.

Peace Boat (continued)

Before I continue with my glowing report from the previous post, I should probably mention a few potential challenges.

One downside was that sometimes there were events that sounded fun but which I didn't have the Japanese skills to really appreciate. The ship does have a group of great, super hard-working volunteer interpreters. However, they could not cover the vast number of events on the ship, so there were some events I felt I couldn't fully appreciate. Also, it is nice to sometimes get things 'first hand' rather than through an interpreter.

A second problem is seasickness. This really wasn't such a big issue as I feared. I have been quite badly seasick on small boats, so I had a mental image of spending the entire journey prostrate on the floor. However, it wasn't like that; although a lot of people got seasick once or twice on the voyage, it wasn't for very long, and the seasickness pills were effective. Small boats are worse! After seeing so many movies like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Forrest Gump' and others with dramatic, swelling waves and boats pitching madly, it was a relief to find that mostly, ships travel nice and smoothly!

A third potential problem is that journeys are quite long - at least 80 days, and often over 100 - so it can be a long time to be in the same environment, with the same people. Generally, there was so much going on, especially working as a teacher, that I didn't find it claustrophobic. Perhaps towards the very end, the last long stretch at sea, I started to look forward to getting back to dry land.

There was 'so much going on'? Let me explain more.

You should be aware that this is not a luxury cruise. As a result, the facilities are not super deluxe; also, they don't have a lot of professional performers, no casinos, etc. However, what they do have is, in my opinion, great, and makes for a real sense of community. It's a system whereby every passenger on the ship is a potential event organiser. Anyone on the ship can book a public space and hold their own events. This is *massive*; I mean some days there are over 60 individual events. There's a daily 'newspaper' with all the events for the day.


Events could include anything from hula dancing classes, photo workshops, playing the harmonica, watching a documentary about the environment, learning Spanish, meeting up for drinks with other people your age or from your hometown, making posters for peace, playing board games, a reggae night...

There are also many, many random, weird and fun events. If you ride the ship, you'll also have the chance to take on leadership roles and help organise things if you want to do that.

In addition to these events run by passengers, there are also bigger events organised by Peace Boat itself. These include lectures and events by guest educators onboard the ship, as well as larger parties and themed nights, festivals and much more.

Of course, as a passenger you can kind of control your own pace; some people get involved in loads of events and volunteering opportunities; others do very little and just lounge around reading. As a volunteer teacher or interpreter you will naturally get involved in a variety of random things just as part of your job.

Here are a few of my personal highlights from the trip.

Highlights

Watching the first full moon on the Indian Ocean... absolutely still and quiet, and then seeing flashes of orange in the distance, where a lightning storm was raging

Camping in the desert in Jordan, and getting up to watch the sunrise, with the desert stretching on forever and no-one else to be seen...

Participating in my first full-blown, Japanese-style undoukai (sports festival).

Having a 'fjords party' as we went through the Norwegian fjords. It was summer, so even at midnight they sky was not quite dark, and we stayed up to watch the sunrise.

Reaching Europe and strolling around Athens on my own, albeit running into random students and other teachers for random photo ops. Meeting random students and seeing them using their English in real situations was a nice experience for an English teacher. ^_^

Singing a duet in front of a big audience. Being an emcee. Giving a lecture. It was a nice chance to practice being up on a stage; something I hadn't been very used to.

The strange feeling of staying in a hotel that delivered me to my destinations. That is, being able to get up, have a shower, get dressed, grab my handbag, walk outside - and into a new country. It felt very surreal but very cool.

Walking on a smoking volcano in Guatemala, which had erupted only days earlier.

Having a big party with the other vols near the end of the journey - and then everyone rushing to the side to watch twenty or more dolphins jumping alongside the boat.

Peace Boat

Peace Boat is an NGO that does various peace activities, mostly using a ship that sails around the world. The ship's global voyages start and end in Yokohama, and visit various ports in several continents. On board and in ports they do activities to encourage passengers to learn more about global issues, meet local people, volunteer and assist development projects. That said, there are also plenty of people who just take the journey for the pleasure of a trip around the world.

I was lucky enough to go on Peace Boat myself and travelled around the world for more than three months. I have to say, it was a truly great experience. It's possible to ride Peace Boat for free as a volunteer English teacher or interpreter. I think this opportunity is not well-known.

One thing to consider if you'd like to go on as a teacher or interpreter is that it *is* a job; you will often be busy; it's not just a free holiday. People with an interest in global issues or volunteering experience will be well regarded, and it's good to be a proactive person, willing to participate and volunteer for various tasks. One nice thing about being a volunteer is that from the word go, you are in a team with other nice, like-minded people, and you'll (hopefully) form a close friendship and have some built-in travel buddies. ^_^

If you go as a regular passenger, I'd say the more Japanese you already have, the easier you would find it to be part of ship life. The environment is fairly Japanese, and most of the passengers are Japanese. However, many lectures and main events are interpreted into English, and there are always lots of Japanese people on board who are studying English at various stages and would be pleased to make friends with you.

I think this would be a great environment to study Japanese. You can take a Japanese course on this ship (as well as English or Spanish). I believe they're currently trying to encourage more international participants, and I think it would be great to see more internationalisation of the ship.

It's also possible to ride Peace Boat for part of the voyage.

More thoughts in my next post.

If you're interested in learning more, check out Peace Boat's English site.

Place names in kanji

If you don't have Japanese characters enabled on your computer, this will look like a whole lot of nothing.

Here are the Japanese names for some places in and around Yokohama. Here they're listed in romaji, hiragana and kanji.

Yokohama　よこはま　横浜
Kanagawa　かながわ　神奈川
Tokyo (actually 'Toukyou')　とうきょう 東京
Kawasaki　かわさき　川崎

sen (='train line')　せん　線
chikatetsu (='subway')　ちかてつ　地下鉄
shinkansen (=bullet train)　しんかんせん　新幹線
Keihin-Touhoku けいひんとうほく　京浜東北
Minato Mirai みなとみらい　港未来 (Minato Mirai is often written in hiragana)
Chuukagai ちゅうかがい　中華街
Motomachi　もとまち　元町
Sakuragichou　さくらぎちょう　桜木町
Ishikawachou　いしかわちょう　石川町
Kannai　かんない　館内
Yamate　やまて　山手
Negishi　ねぎし　根岸
Oosanbashi おおさんばし　大さん橋
Akarenga souko (Red Brick Warehouse)　あかれんがそうこ　赤レンガ倉庫 ('renga' usually written in katakana)
Sankeien　さんけいえん 三渓園
Shin-Yokohama　しんよこはま　新横浜

You can get around in Yokohama pretty easily without needing to know these words in Japanese, since many signs are written in both Japanese and romaji.

Notes: When written in romaji, the 'long' 'o' sounds tend to be shortened. So Toukyou is written 'Tokyo', Sakuragichou is usually written Sakuragicho, or Oosanbashi as Osanbashi.

A few interesting points, if you don't know much about kanji...

the 町 ('cho') in Sakuragicho and Ishikawacho means 'town'. This character can also be written 'machi', as in 元町 (Motomachi).

the 桜 ('sakura') in Sakuragicho means 'cherry blossoms' and the 木 ('gi') means tree

the character 川 ('kawa', sometimes 'gawa' when it appears in the middle/end of a word) means 'river'. You can see this character in 川崎 (Kawasaki), 神奈川 (Kanagawa) and 石川町 (Ishikawachou)

the character 新 ('shin') means 'new'

the 'tou' 東 in 'Toukyou' means 'east', and the 'kyou'　京 means 'capital'. You can see this 'kyou' in the city Kyoto (which used to be the capital) - 京都. You can see the 'tou' in the word 'touhoku', a region in Japan ('touhoku' means 'east north').

'Yamate', 山手, funnily enough, actually has the same kanji as the busy Yamanote train line in Tokyo.

***

Incidentally, I am soon to move to Nagoya (名古屋 ^_^) for a short while. I might take the opportunity to write a little about that city as I discover more of it, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of info online about the city.

City Spotlight: Ikuta Park area (Kawasaki)

I know Kawasaki city well, and although I love it, I can tell you it's not exactly renowned for its beauty and nature. That said, if you get away from the city centre, you can find some pretty spots. One of the most natural areas in Kawasaki is Tama ward, and one of Kawasaki's best attractions is Ikuta Park.

The park is lush and green, covering a large area, with seasonal flowers and various attractions. You could do a lot of walking if you wanted to. In the park you can visit Nihon Minka-en and the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, among other things.

Nihon Minka-en, aka the 'Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum' is a collection of historic houses from various parts of Japan, brought to Kawasaki and carefully re-erected and preserved so that visitors can see the traditional architecture. Even if you're not interested in history, this park is quite pretty and atmospheric in its own right. When we went, they had volunteer staff in the houses, caring for the fires and chatting to visitors. It does have some signs and information in English - obviously not as much as in Japanese.

Taro Okamoto was a famous artist who did a lot of abstract pieces. His hometown was Kawasaki. At this museum you can see a lot of his works, both paintings and sculptures. I'm not a big art fan and I don't know much about it, but I enjoyed looking through this gallery and pondering the meaning of the various pieces. The museum is easy to spot, with the distinctive white sculpture behind the entrance.



There are other attractions in Ikuta Park, like a planetarium and science museum for youth, but having never been to these, I can't comment. If you want more info about opening hours etc, check out this page, which is part of the City of Kawasaki website - a good place to find info about Kawasaki and get tourist info.

The closest station is Mukogaoka-yuen station (Odakyu line, a 15-minute walk); the closest JR station is Noborito on the Nambu line (a 20 minute walk from the station, it takes about half an hour to get to Noborito from Kawasaki station).

(It strikes me that considering this blog is called 'Yokohama Vibe', I tend to post more about Kawasaki than Yokohama. My logic is that Kawasaki is so much less famous, and there's less info on the web about it, so this may be of more interest. Plus, since I lived near the 'border' of Kawasaki and Yokohama, I always spent a lot of time in both cities.)