My Trip To Japan: Riding In A Subway Car

If you visit Tokyo, Osaka, and maybe all large Japanese cities you will need to ride the subway. The fares are inexpensive and the subways is almost always on time. During times of heavy use, more trains are added. During the busiest times, a new subway train will arrive every 2 or 3 minutes. They are able to move millions of people efficiently every day. If such a system existed in my town I would use them as much as possible.

No country in the world is better at lining up than Japan. This really helps with the efficiency of the subway system. Each car has about 3 doors and people either form a single line or double line for each door. The symbols on the ground make this apparent. After the train arrives, the line moves to the side of the door opening. Then, all people exit the train before the new riders get on. Sometimes the stop time is just 30 seconds or so and sometimes it can be a couple minutes.

During low traffic times you can be guaranteed a seat. Other times it is 50/ 50. Other times there is no chance of sitting. During those times it is best not to sit anyway. You might possibly have difficulty getting to the exit door in time. I never rode the train during the heaviest rush hour time. The even have employees who push the people into the train to pack it solid.

When the train is not crowded you can expect people to be sleeping due to their busy schedule. Several times I had people sleeping on my shoulder. It is a little strange but I made sure not to disturb them. In Japan's busy society I'm sure that sleep is hard to come by. Everyone else will be looking at their phones. One thing that you will almost never see is people talking on the phone or eating.

There are special cars that allow wheel chairs and others that have a place for bicycles. They also have special pink cars for ladies only. I mistakenly lined up for one of the women only car. One of the other men waiting on the train nicely explained the situation to me.

I plan to get more indepth about the subways in a later post. I have lots of pictures and some other information.

A fairly full subway, but nowhere near rush hour.

This is what it looks like whenever a subway empties out at a station.

Early morning riders.

More sleepy passengers. This is a very common sight.