Tokyo's journal Vol. 1: Essential information to get around Tokyo by train
*Disclaimer: I promise that I really love living here
*May contain traces of Andalusian exaggeration, irony and general boredom.
There are certain things for which Google is not enough, knowledge that can only be acquired from experience.
Therefore, if you plan to visit Tokyo, I strongly recommend you read this brief guide and learn from my ancient wisdom.
The train. What a great invention.
Here in Tokyo, you can count on countless transportation options and train companies, so it can be a bit overwhelming. But it doesn't matter what you choose for your daily transport. You will be crushed to death.
When I came here the first time, I didn't know that there were some train stations that I had to avoid. The main one is Shinjuku.
Shinjuku station is like a dystopian city. Labyrinths of streets under the ground, absence of natural light and happiness, hordes of people dressed alike with lost eyes…
And it is huge. It is so big and has so many different exits that if you make a mistake you risk ending up in Taiwan.
Getting the wrong exit, however, is the best thing that can happen to you, since there is also an actual danger of never being able to get out of that hell. I remember that I got lost inside Shinjuku station 2 years ago. Today, I'm writing this from there.
Here, as in other big cities, there is a disgusting thing called "rasshu", which translated into English means "fxxxxxg rush hour". Okay, in Tokyo it's rush hour all day long, to be honest. But for a few hours in the morning and also in the afternoon, the rest of the countries are left empty because everyone is here, on the train, in Tokyo.
During rush hour you don't have to worry about finding a place to sit on the train, that's secondary (and impossible). Consider yourself a lucky person if you manage to get both of your feet enough floor space to stand on.
The good thing is that you do not have to make any effort to keep your balance, since a mass of three thousand five people per car will be there to support you. Let's enjoy the ride.
Getting a seat is the most difficult task, as you can imagine. But please, let's have some empathy. There are plenty of office workers who are really tired of spending 12 hours working with their asses glued to a desk chair, and they have a right to sit for a while longer.
Japanese people of a certain age like to read the newspaper on the train. The problem is that the person who decided on the standard size of newspapers in this holy country was an idiot.
A Japanese newspaper covers an area of approximately 2 hectares. It is convenient, however, because if someone decides to read their newspaper on the train, the passengers in the next car can also read it at the same time.
In my country there are not so many men who carry a bag, but in Japan everyone does. Men carry one, and women usually carry two or three. And they are not small purses, no. One of those bags fits a standard Japanese adult. And that's the problem. Either we put the bags in the car, or we put people, but both of them ? Impossible.
There is an interesting phenomenon that also occurs at rush hour. Imagine this situation: you get on the train, you are surprised at how empty it is and you thank God for that. No one else seems to come. Suddenly, the little alarm that indicates that the doors are going to close rings, and in the course of 3 seconds an avalanche of 2,107 Japanese enters at once.
But not everything is negative. Thanks to the train and the rush hour you can experience what it feels like to have a relationship with a Japanese man or woman. You are so close to each other that at the end of the journey you already share a pension plan.
My final advice and conclusion: If you have extra budget, hire a private driver to move around the city. If not, better visit Kanazawa, which is also very beautiful and it's not so crowded.
