One of the great things about being in Japan is riding on all the various trains.  With 30 million people in and around Tokyo, there needs to be a quick, efficient  mode of transportation for a lot of people! The trains meet that need! Of course, it’s not just Tokyo that has all the trains, as we found them way up in the mountains around Hakone too!

If you are staying in Tokyo, you’ll quickly learn to avoid rush hour on the trains from around 7:30-9:00 a.m. which is the busiest time.  Likewise, 6-9 pm is also a time frame you’ll want to avoid since everyone is dashing to get home as quickly as possible.  Trains stop running around midnight and start around 6 a.m., and it’s best make sure not to take the last train of the night since iw wil undoubtedly be crazy crowded.  If it’s too crowded, you’re stuck where you are until morning unless you want to pay for a taxi which can get extremely expensive.

If you do ride a train at rush hour, get in line in the designated area on the platform, and patiently wait to get on.  You will be squished in the train side by side all the other passengers.  It is very close quarters. In the early mornings, you’ll find that men and women ride certain trains during rush hour. Of course, this is only when there’s the luxury of having enough space to delineate that sort of thing. It’s not marked, but it’s an unspoken rule.

Another thing to be aware of is the difference between the local and express trains.  Local means it will stop at every station.  Express means that it will not stop at every station, only a few major ones.  The train signs are in both Japanese and English, but pay attention as the words go by rather quickly! We relied on the Google maps app a lot, and it gave us the directions in changing trains and where to find them. It was certainly a great help!

I love the train jingles!  Each train station has an “the train is approaching jingle” and “the train is leaving” jingle.  For the people who ride the trains a lot, they can rely on the jingle to help them know where they are.  Many Japanese people fall asleep on the trains, so the jingles can come in handy to warn you where you are unless you are deep asleep. I’ve been told this happens a lot, and I also saw it first hand!

The train stations are full of people rushing from one train line to the next.  It is important to know which train line you are traveling on such a JR line or Metro.

It does cost to ride a train, so it’s best to get a suica or pasmo – cards that you can put money on ahead of time.  As you enter the various train areas, there is a sensor on a gate that you touch your card to and it allows you to enter the station of your train.  You do it again when you leave the station. Have the card in something you can get to quickly such as your cell phone case or wallet.  There are a lot of people moving  through quickly, so you don’t want to be fumbling around looking for your card!  How do I know this?  Well..I did it more than once – fumbling that is!

The Shinkensen or bullet train was my favorite mode of traveling.  The trains travel almost 200 mph, and are used more for traveling to places further away such as Kyoto, Hiroshima, or Hikkado.  When going full speed, the train can pass by in about 8 seconds. These trains are more expensive to travel on.  You pay for the convenience, but it is wonderful!

If you know that you will traveling a lot all over Japan, it’s best to order a JR pass before entering Japan.  You can order a one, two or three week pass.You can get a regular or first class ticket.  We chose the 3 week pass green card or first class.  We traveled all over Japan during our trip, so we rode the bullet train a lot. We saved a lot of money with our passes. It was nice to be able to show our train pass and get on just about any train, some boats and some buses. You cannot get the pass in Japan and must order it about a month ahead of your trip.  It is great!
We had a great experience on the Japanese trains!  It is definitely a great way to travel!