A big hello to any residual readers of this blog, if indeed there is still, and everyone else will have a missclick or redirected this page. After a few good months of absence and a life Bordeaux probably too funny for me time (and need) to write, my ambition here to start a chronicle of my adventures in Japan, mainly on the theme of everyday things every day here, surprise me and make me smile. I decided to start with transportation because, well, that's one of the first things in this country as in many others, we are facing. And of course, many of you will have heard, the transport of Tokyo and Japan in general are known for their punctuality, efficiency and convenience (their prices also, alas, when it was self- same experience!) all of which are clearly lacking at the SNCF, RATP and their local counterparts (a thought for TBC and the Bordeaux tram line B in this respect!).
So transport, qualities and defects, and customs, it's gone. I first want to justify my title: this article could have been called simply "the Japanese underground," for example. But it's not as simple. For the novice, fresh off his plane at Narita, the Japanese transport are at first a beautiful Chinese puzzle, excuse the expression. On this same large area overlapping métropolesque blithely, indeed, subway lines, lines of national railway, and commuter trains operated by different private companies. On my first arrival in this mish-mash the incredible Shinjuku station, believe me, I thought my last hour had come, trying to find the famous line "Odakyu" that would take me up at my host family. The Japanese stations have this antique European perfectly illustrate the maxim that "all roads lead to Rome": the line or exit you want is always indicated, but the problem is that the is always in two or three directions that uninformed you are, you would have a priori considered as opposites. What, you will understand, does not facilitate the intuitive direction.
Transportation Tokyoites require So a bit of practice, time to sort out what symbol means what kind of line, color indicates what type of train (there are rapids, slower, and stopping everywhere, stopping a little less and others who stop in a few selected stations) in general, expatriates like myself know how to get from their job at home and that's not bad. But after this first phase of stupor, we discover their many qualities.
First, and known, they are always on time. At the minute. Billboards announcing trains do not make a little suspense as those of Paris, Bordeaux and London (to limit myself to my experience), in announcing a wait of about 5, 6 minutes - minutes that are often very flexible ... No, here there is a timetable and it is held. The train is announced for a specific time, 9:33 p.m. say, and next there now appears that: no way to cheat.
Then there on the dock marks showing where the train doors will be located when it stops, it avoids to feel fucked up when we find ourselves between two hair cell doors and that 'because it can not run seating or space at all. People are lined up quietly to the small brands, something quite incongruous for a French. I doubt
that some will see this as a stigma obvious extreme propensity to order that one blames the Japanese, but personally, I have a pretty bad memory sncf trains which failed 'never stop in one place wharf, cars sometimes numbered in the wrong place or, if possible, always so that you have to walk across the station platform length. Finally, significant practical detail, you can get a membership card and even a single ticket that allows you to pass through the same route on 3 types of lines at a time. I do not know how they manage to share in between them, but it's still good. In addition, the subscription card is also used for purses and if you put more money into it, you can do your shopping to handsets and many other stores near the stations.
In the end, I wonder if this painting makes you want comprehensive or not to use public transportation in Japan. As I still want to convince you, let me add one final argument in their favor: everything is extremely own, as indeed all the streets in Japan. No greasy paper, cigarette butts or urine on the walls ... and it has its charm, though!
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