Getting around in Tokyo

As you’d imagine for a big city, for a visitor the best way to get around Tokyo is by public transport. No doubt you can hire a car but I’ve no idea what the experience is like, how easy it is to park etc. I do know it can get congested at times and of course the Japanese drive on the left like the UK.

Taxis are good but not all take credit cards, which given they’re expensive (minimum fare is around $8) means you should have plenty of cash with you. When congested the driver should ask if you want to take the (toll) freeway which could add several more dollars to the fare.

For the airports the best bet is a limo bus (which may even go door to door depending on your hotel) ranging from $15 for Haneda to Shinjuku up to $35 from Narita. There’s also the Narita express train at around $40 which stops at the major stations like Tokyo and Shinjuku though depending on traffic it may be no quicker than the bus. Haneda is served by the monorail but you’ll probably have to navigate the metro to get to where you are going which could be a pain with luggage.

Although Haneda is closer to the city, it has few international routes, though in October a new international terminal opens and multiple international cities will fly direct.

The metro itself covers the city well and can be a little intimidating at first given all the lines and stations. Avoid the rush hour as you will be unceremoniously crammed into the cars. Pricing is a little confusing as it’s run by multiple companies – on one line 160 yen might take you half a dozen stations while on the other, it will cost 170 yen to go a single station. Luckily they do cooperate when changing lines and they wont charge you the full rate on each. Get a Suica smart card to avoid buying tickets for each journey.

Going further afield the Shinkansen – the bullet trains – are perhaps the best bet. Tickets can be bought from machines in the station just like an ordinary train so more convenient than air travel, while covering most of the country. Cities hundreds of kilometers away can be reached in less than 2 hours from Tokyo station.

Finally when you get to where you want to be, Tokyo is very pedestrian friendly. There are frequent road crossings and drivers actually stop for you unlike most of Asia.

Why does it always rain on me–update!

August and September can be bad times to travel in SE Asia. At best it will be hot and humid and at worst… a typhoon can hit. I landed in a typhoon during September in Shanghai a few years back and it wasn’t fun. Looks like one is headed straight for Seoul though luckily (I hope) there is no need for me to leave the hotel. Hope all the glass stands up to the test.

Update: well Kompasu hit Seoul before 4am local time on 9/2. I was awoken by howls of wind and looking out the window, rain was moving horizontally and occasionally upwards. Small bits of tree were being deposited on the glass of my 9th floor window and the A/C was fritzing out periodically as no doubt it fought against the pressure outside the building.

Around 5am I heard sirens and someone on a tannoy, maybe trying to clear the streets. By 7am though it seemed business as usual and vehicles seemed to be going about their usual day in spite of the trees still being lopsided by heavy wind.

As it happens, things were worse than they seemed. Across the city power cables were down and windows had been blown out, indeed an 8’ by 10’ pane of glass in the hotel lobby had shattered after being blown in – a sight repeated across Seoul leading to lengthy repair times as glaziers became highly in demand. On the highway to the airport which is more open, entire trees had been dumped on the road.

Sadly, it seems three people lost their lives too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11161376

We have another coming in next week, though it’s been veering west towards China and running out of steam so will hopefully be less serious.