On our first day in Tokyo, we toured Odaiba, Ginza, Sensoji Temple, and Akihabara, which are some of the best spots in the heart of Tokyo. In the process of moving from this attraction to another, I did not see a bus on the road, nor did I feel how congested the road traffic in the downtown area was. Some group friends asked the tour guide why, and the tour guide said that people were walking underground and on the overhead elevated road. Underground is the subway, on the overhead elevated road is the "tram" (equivalent to China's light rail), and these two, or rail transit, should be the most important way for Tokyoites to travel.
Odaiba
Tokyo Bay
Before entering Tokyo, the tour guide introduced the rail transit represented by the subway here. Regarding the development of Tokyo rail transit and the complexity of the line, if nothing else, compare the rail transit operating mileage of Tokyo with several major cities such as North, Upper, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in China:
China: Shanghai 705 km; Beijing 699.3 km; Guangzhou 478 km; Shenzhen 285 km.
Tokyo: 2500 km.
The above data tells us that Tokyo's rail mileage is more than 300 kilometers more than the four most populous and economically prosperous cities in China combined.
Tram lines overhead
The tour guide introduced the complexity of Tokyo's subway stations, which even made me feel a little frightened. She said that the last time she led a group with a Beijing post-90s, although he was highly educated and had good English, he got lost at the Tokyo station and finally had to call her for help. She told the young man to stay still and keep the phone open, and she went to look for it, only to find it for more than 40 minutes. The tour guide said that Tokyo Station is too complicated, because there are sixteen or seven subway and tram lines passing through Tokyo Station, and the Shinkansen also uses this station as a station, so Tokyo Station has several floors, there are many platforms, and there are many upper and lower passages and entrances and exits of each passage. The whole thing is a labyrinth.
The tour guide warned us not to change trains at Tokyo Station, Shinjuku Station, and several major stations such as so-and-so and so-and-so by by subway, because it is easy to get lost!
The tower in the distance is called the Skytree, which is more than 600 meters high, which is higher than the small waist of Guangzhou
Although Tokyo's rail transit is complex: there are many lines and operated by different companies, it is easy to take the wrong car, but we also have to take a ride, because our second day in Tokyo is free, there is no bus transfer, no meals, if you don't want to spend the whole day in a hotel in a small town in the outskirts of Tokyo, you have to take the rail transit to go out. In addition, I also have some confidence in taking the rail transit, traveling independently in Moscow and London, and taking the subway for several days in those places. I thought I was also an old sparrow in Dongting Lake.
It happened that the next day, the tour leader also had to go out to buy, so we bought tickets and found a platform under his guidance, then took the tram, then changed to the subway, and arrived at Yurakucho in the city center an hour and a half later. The fare costs 610+ 170 yen. It is 51 yuan and 2 yuan. Much more expensive than domestic subway fares.
Tokyo Subway ticket
Partial diagram of the Keisei Line
Link
When we broke up with us at Yurakucho Station, the tour leader said: When you go back, follow the route you came from, and don't ride randomly. We certainly nodded yes.
See Shinkansen trains at Yurakucho Station
The tour leader also asked us to download a Tokyo Rail Transit APP so that we could go online at any time to find out how to go. But I didn't buy a local internet card, so I had to give up. I believe that "the road is on the mouth" and ask the locals so that they should not get lost in the subway station. However, even after asking the locals, we got lost in the subway station, because the Tokyoite who showed us the way was also lost in the subway station!
In the rail transit cars of Tokyo. I found that most of the young passengers were low-headed people who looked at their mobile phones. There are also old men like me who are low-headed. Some people criticize Chinese mobile phones that do not read, and seem to be playthings. This argument is not supported.
After breaking up with the tour leader and standing up from Yurakucho, we walked along the street and watched, sometimes entering the shop to have a look, and sometimes sitting in a small park. After two hours of shopping we were ready to return. Since it was 3 kilometers away from Yurakucho Station at this time, we were tired and planned to take the subway. After going underground, looking at the map at the station and asking the staff, we bought a ticket for 170 yen according to the instructions of the ticket machine. The 170 yen ticket is actually the shortest ticket, but this line does not go directly to Yurakucho, and you need to change once at a small station in the middle.
A subway port in Ginza, Tokyo, is much more stingy than the subway port in the city
Take two stops to the interchange station. Although this interchange station is not large, the walkway inside is long, and there are also several forks and many exits. How do we get there? I decided to ask the local passengers. At this time, a gentleman in his forties or so in a suit and leather shoes and a leather bag passed by, and I went up to him and asked him, "Please, can you tell me how to get here?" (May I ask, can you tell me how to get here?) As I spoke, I showed him the note that read, "Yurakucho." The place name "Yurakucho" is the same in Japanese and Chinese, but the pronunciation is definitely different, so I wrote it separately on a piece of paper and showed it.
Seeing me asking for directions, the gentleman stopped his hurried steps, said OK, and took out his mobile phone to open the Tokyo Metro APP and began to help me find a line from this station to Yurakucho. After checking, he made a "follow me" gesture and walked toward a passage. I followed him closely.
After walking up and down and turning for ten minutes in this passage, the gentleman stopped, took out his mobile phone to check for a while, and said, Sorry, I went wrong! So he led us back again, turning left and right, up and down. We were all sweating profusely as we walked, but we still didn't find out where to take the bus to Yurakucho. There was no way out, so the gentleman took us by car to Ginza Station and asked me where my final destination was. It seems that he wants to arrange another route back to the hotel for us at Ginza Station.
When I arrived in Ginza, I was also a little relieved. After all, we were in Ginza yesterday, and we know the location and traffic of Ginza from the map, and we know that even walking from Ginza to Yurakucho is not far.
This gentleman will continue to accompany us, but I am already embarrassed to let him lead the way. We have delayed him for more than half an hour! I told him that when I got to Ginza I would be gone. He said, will you really go? I said yes, I know it's gone. Only then did this gentleman leave us on our own.
In Ginza, we re-bought a 170 yen ticket and asked two more people. In front of the ticket machine, I asked a Japanese lady, who was also very enthusiastic about checking our mobile phones for us and guiding us to buy tickets, and after entering the station, we asked the Chinese compatriots who stayed in Japan, and they told us the correct platform after checking the mobile phone.
We finally arrived in Yurakucho. An hour has passed since we got off the subway. If we had walked to Yurakucho in the first place, it wouldn't have taken so much time!
For elementary school students in Tokyo, at low temperatures, all boys' shorts and girls' short skirts
The train from Yurakucho Loop Line to Nippori-ri to Gisei Line is familiar, but there are still twists and turns. Mainly the cars running on this line are operated by different companies, although in most sections, the cars are running on the same line, stopping at the same station, but at a certain time will be divided, at the same time, the cars of different companies need to buy tickets on different ticket machines. With the help of the staff on the station, none of these problems became problems in the end. We were able to get back to the hotel smoothly at dark.
Sensoji Temple
It can be said that this day's free activities did not play a famous thing, but I really experienced a subway in Tokyo, including subways, trams, etc., and it is also a reward.
Source ▏ Red network forum netizen @ Goba
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