Japan Transit is AMAZING!

There were so many interesting aspects of Japan and I’m going to try to share and process my thoughts on here.

One really great thing was the transit system. Tokyo was the biggest and most complex, but all the different systems around the country are connected and worked well together. As a tourist I could buy a rechargeable IC card to use for payment of all the trains and buses in all the cities I went to. This meant I never had to struggle figuring out the fares and could just jump on and off of whatever was around. This is even more incredible with the fact that the different lines are privately owned and run and yet can work together!

Although one of the challenges of Japan is that there isn’t as much English everywhere, the trains have electronic screens and switch between Japanese and English. Signage is clear and SOOOO helpful. I heard that there was a major investment in this before the 2020 Olympics for all the visitors who never came.

Schedules, fares, platforms, train cars, stairs, escalators & elevators, and station exits are all well marked and integrated with Apple and Google Maps, so when you get directions all the details are included. Station exit numbers are clearly marked, so people know where to get out. Genius!!

They also clearly mark the direction the train is going, show the next stops and suggestion how many minutes it will take to get to each station.

The crowds of people using the transit is INSANE, but well mannered Japanese wait patient in marked lines till everyone gets off before they shuffle in.

I don’t have anything extra interesting to say about the bullet trains except they move so fast, but don’t really feel different and the ride is really smooth. And as you would expect they are comfy and plush with lots of legroom.