Transportastic Tokyo

Hi Readers!

Hope you have enjoyed your weekends! I spent the past weekend in Tokyo, and I loved it. Not because of what the usual attractions are (shopping, culture, whatever else), but the most interesting aspect of Tokyo for me is its transportation system.

For those who don't know me well, I have several fascinations. I list them here in descending order of fascination:

-Food

-Languages

-Rapid Transit Systems / Transportation Infrastructure

-Water

This blog will concern the 3rd one: rapid transit. Out of all of these fascinations, the transportation infrastructure one is the hardest one to satisfy for me (especially because the US and Canada have quite crappy systems).

Everytime I return to Taiwan, I look forward to riding the Taipei MRT System (Metro Rapid Transit). It's so modern, fast, and efficient - and this boggles my mind. I'm looking forward to the completion of the many lines that are under construction right now.

But nothing, NOTHING, can compare to Tokyo's rail system. It's simply amazing, the way there are so many lines going every where. And there are SO MANY PEOPLE taking it, it's absolutely unreal. Below is an image from only one platform of the Shinjuku Station, at 11:30pm on a Saturday night. The train was more crowded than during rush hour in Taipei.

Everything about Tokyo's rail system is appealing to me. The warning sound before the door closes, the silently efficient motors, the Japanese feminine announcements, and the fact that there are so many ways to travel from point A to B.

Granted, it's horrendous to navigate, and I think virtually impossible without a map or prior experience. When there's something like 10+ possible trains you could take at a single station, the possibility for screwing up tends to increase.

Both Shinjuku and Shibuya were pretty bad for this, both being gigantic stations that probably holds tens of thousands of people at any one time.

I don't know why it interests me so, but navigating the Tokyo railway system was the most interesting thing that I did in Tokyo. I am especially proud at having navigated myself from Shibuya to Ueno, and then walked all the way to Akihabara station, without getting lost. =)

The Rest of Tokyo (that is not trains)

Places I visited in Tokyo:

-Shibuya crossing (picture above - way too overrated)

-Shinjuku (station itself is the main attraction)

-Asakusa (I've visited here before with my mom!)

-Ueno (Park is nice and I had Tom Yom Ramen!)

-Akihabara (I spent 3 hours reading manga here)

-Ookayama (Shunji's house is small but cozy)

Hanging out with the IAESTE Japan group was amazingly fun. I practiced and learned so much Japanese, and I made a lot of new friends. Hanging out at Shunji's house afterwards was also fun (I just wish it hadn't been so hot so I could have slept more than 3 hours...but it's not a big deal). Overall, it was an extremely fun experience. I'm looking forward to (potentially) taking the Shinkansen, but we'll see if that's possible.

So now that Tokyo's checked off the list, next subway system to visit will be Moscow's system. I have high hopes for Soviet realism and 80km/h subway cars =).

Ja Mata! / じゃまた！/ See you later!

-FCDH