Transport Madness

Very few people in Tokyo seem to drive. There is a logical reason for this - public transport in Tokyo is amazing.

Over 20 million people pass through a single subway station in a single day. When you get off the train, signs tell you how far via subway it is to other train platforms (in some cases up to 1km away). Signs also show what is near each exit, so that you go to the correct exit. Essentially one Metro station in Tokyo is larger than the entire subway system in Japan!

We avoided 'peak hour', yet the trains were still full at 9pm.

The good things about Tokyo Metro and Japan Railways

• Trains run every 5 or 6 minutes, so it doesn't really matter if you miss your train.
• The trains are always clean.
• You can get from one area to another without having to go into the 'city'.
• If you didn't get the right ticket, you can change the ticket within the station with no hassles.

The not so good things about the trains

• Even at 9pm, some trains are packed (standing room only) with business men.
• Train fillers are used - to push even more people onto the trains. (For some unknown reason, we decided to avoid this phenomenon!)
• You can't buy a daily ticket, just buy per journey or prepay cards to pay per journey.

Fortunately, the transport maps had English versions, so even tourists could work out how to travel! Somehow we managed to work out how to follow maps like this!