JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.7

Rather deteriorated underground JR station at Shimbashi

Day 7 (8 May 2016)

Sunday was my last day in Tokyo, and I actually wanted to use it for a bit of city walking and sightseeing, but then I remembered that I had almost forgotten to ride the Tokyo Monorail! Well, with so many different rail systems in the whole of Greater Tokyo, this can easily happen! So, after walking across the Imperial Gardens to Tokyo Station, I went downstairs to search for Tokyo's north-south "Passante", something that's shown as Sobu-Yokosuka Line. The underground station isn't really pleasant, but at least the train which was about to depart had a nice driver, who stepped aside when I wanted to take a picture, then helped me to reassure that this was the right train and after he had driven me down to Shimbashi, just one stop, saluted me with the big train horn. A very small, but lovely gesture in a country where train drivers seem to risk their job when the show any human gesture towards trainspotters.

Frightening photographing spot at end of platform at Shimbashi on Yamanote Line

At Shimbashi I had to change to a surface line, because just these, and primarily the Yamanote Line stop at the following station, which is Hamamatsucho, where the Toyko Monorail starts. The good thing about this line is that JR Rail Passes are accepted (I saw that some of the intermediate stops have unmanned gates where you won't be able to get out and back in again with a JR Rail Pass). The Monorail begins somewhere high above the Yamanote Line tracks, the station has only a single spur, though rather wide platforms, one side for arrivals, the other for departure, with a clear system for queuing painted on the floor:

And of course, there are three types of services, express just for the airport stations, some semi-express and locals. The local trains let the faster ones overtake at Showajima, next to the depot, but the timing is very tight, so the stop is rather short. Upon departure from Hamamatsucho, the Monorail glides over the multi-track railway corridor, you can watch all sorts of trains from Yamanote to Shinkansen head north and south. At this point I actually discovered the only Yamanote prototype train, so at least I knew that it was in service and in which direction it was moving on the ring line. The Monorail offers many spots for good photos, the better ones would be in the morning as on the western side there are often high buildings which throw their shade on the route in the afternoon. 

Tokyo Monorail - end-of-platform shot at Seibijo

From the end of the narrow side platforms, many photos are also possible after noon, though. And while in many countries of the world we are confronted with stupid photographing bans or whatever trouble, the Monorail encourages photographing, at least at the International Terminal station, where big signs show you the way to the best spot at the end of the platform. As this view is towards the east, late afternoon would be the best time here. 

 Invitation to take photos of Monorail!

 View from official photo spot at Haneda International Terminal 

The station at the International Terminal is wide and clear, and the arrival platform has a direct exit to the departure hall, whereas passengers who have just arrived by plane, easy access is provided from the lower level with one escalator up to the monrail. The Monorail's two underground stations at the Domestic Terminal are quite nice and also well-integrated into the terminal building. What is a bit funny on this monorail is the strange seat arrangement, probably determined by some technical equipment or the wheels under the floor. On some vehicles there are raised seats in the middle of the car, like thrones, very weird: 

This is probably a problem with straddle-beam monorails that has been solved later, as the vehicles in Tama or Kitakyushu have normal flat floors and seats could be arranged in whatever way, though resulting in an overall higher vehicle.

To finish off this Tokyo urban rail story, I could not help myself and started to chase the new Yamanote Line train. To improve my chances to get a photo in good light, I jumped on the next clockwise train at Hamamatsucho to get to the western side of the loop, while the new train was doing its circles in the anti-clockwise direction. With a headway of 3-4 minutes, I looked out continuously to see whether the new train passed on the other track. From that moment I would be able to calculate its position, with a full circle taking about an hour, similar to Berlin's Ringbahn. I got off at Ebisu and still hadn't spotted it, so it couldn't be too long unless it had been taken out of service in the meantime. But after a couple of older trains had come through it suddenly appeared and I got the pictures I wanted. While I was concentrated on my job, I heard some clicking behind me, and when I turned round, some spontaneous photographers who had taken the chance for a shot, too, had jumped back into their train going in the opposite direction:

And finally, the new stylish prototype Yamanote Line train at Ebisu

With that job accomplished I returned to Hamamatsucho on the next train to really finish my pleasant stay in Tokyo with a visit to the Tokyo Tower and its fantastic views. Then I made my way back to Iidabashi to collect my luggage and headed for Tokyo station to get on the next possible train to Sendai.  

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.6 | Next Stop: SENDAI 

LINKS

Tokyo at UrbanRail.Net (feat. all-rail map)

Tokyo Metro

TOEI

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.6

Tokyu's underground station at Sangen-Jaya

Day 6 (7 May 2016)

On Saturday, the sky had cleared and it was a fantastic summer day ideal to explore Tokyo's surviving tram lines. I first took a Yurakucho train from Iidabashi down to Nagatacho, where I changed to the Hanzomon Line, which at Shibuya becomes the Tokyu Den-en-Toshi Line. Among the private railway companies, Tokyu is probably the one that most intensely uses the line codes on signage, this being the DT line. At DT03, i.e. Sangen-Jaya, I got out of the underground station, followed the signs to the SG line, but these signs became fewer and eventually I had to ask, as the terminus of the Setagaya Line is somewhere hidden behind some shopping centre. I actually came in from the wrong side, where the trams come out, but there is a side entrance on the arrival platform. The line has only 10 stops, but a day pass is sold at 320 Yen. It is not available from the ticket machines, but from the ticket window and they hand it out with an information brochure.

 Setagaya Line in Stuttgart livery between Shoin-Jinja-mae and Setagaya

The Setagaya Line is in fact more light rail than tram. It has its own exclusive right-of-way, though with many level crossings which are all protected with barriers. The stops have high-level platforms and with the rather modern rolling stock, it has a certain resemblance with some lines in Stuttgart or Frankfurt; this impression is even stronger when a vehicle in yellow (Stuttgart) or turqoise (Frankfurt) turns up, because each car has a different colour. With the nice weather and the sun in the right position for a morning tour, I stayed around for a while and got pictures of all cars in service that day. The journey is somewhat slow, though. The rolling stock is nice, but could do with an extra section in the middle as some arrived pretty full at the southern terminus, and this being holiday week. They run quite frequently, about every 6 minutes. If they wanted to increase headways, the single-track termini might cause problems. People get on through the front door and pay a flat fare of 150 Yen in cash, or if they use an IC card, it's just 144 Yen. Taking pictures along the line is very easy as the right-of-way is rather wide and no cars get in between.

Setagaya Line in Frankfurt livery at northern terminus, Shimo-Takaido

Unlike the southern terminus, the northern one is well integrated with the Keio station at Shimo-Takaido. But as I had been on that Keio line already, I returned two stops to Yamashita, which lies adjacent to Gotokuji, a station on Odakyu's Odawara Line. I knew that this line was directly linked to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, but apparently not as much as other such interworkings. As Gotokuji is a local stop and all trains were shown as for Shinjuku, I took the next inbound train hoping that at the next major stop, which is the underground station Shimo-Kitazawa, I would be able to change to a Chiyoda Line train - but again all trains that stopped showed Shinjuku. 

Odakyu's tube station at Shimo-Kitazawa

I asked the assistant dispatcher who had previously told me to step behind the yellow line, if there was a Chiyoda train and he said something like Yoyogi-Uehara. I got on the next train, got off at Yoyogi-Uehara, queued orderly on the other side of the platform to board a Chiyoda Line train only to find out that the next one actually came from the Odawara Line. In the end, a very long trip for a short distance because I got off at Meiji-Jingu-mae to have a quick look at the Meiji Shrine.

Southbound Arakawa Line tram at Higashi-Ikebukuru

But my real next destination was actually the Toei Arakawa Line, the only real remnant of Tokyo's streetcar system. Therefore I headed north on the Fukutoshin Line to Zoshigaya and change to the tram, although the tram stop is actually called Kishibojin-mae, while Toden-Zoshigaya is one stop further north on the tram line. I first rode a tram south to the Waseda terminus, only three stops down, but without any connection to other rail services, and then worked my way up towards Oji, getting off at various stops to take pictures. 

Older Arakawa Line streetcar on short street-running section near Askuayama

In fact, in part the Arakawa Line also resembles a light rail line with its own right-of-way for most of its route, just a few sections interfere with road traffic. There are, however, numerous level crossings, many of them just for pedestrians, and I think all or most are protected by automatic barriers, so you hear the bell every few minutes with the barriers coming down. Interestingly, there's not just a light the blinks, but also an arrow indicating from which side a tram will pass - all very useful also for the waiting photographer, not only to get his camera ready, but also to be aware that a tram might come from the opposite direction. The vehicles, however, are not really light rail-like, although they actually have a medium-high floor. But otherwise they are just too tiny to be acceptable as light rail cars. In fact, I can't understand how they can bother to purchase so small cars. In most cases it should be possible to extend the platforms to accomodate at least an articulated car. But they have just been through a fleet renewal, so this situation will probably persist for the next 30 years. Like on the Setagaya Line, you get on at the front to pay the driver (I purchased a 400 Yen day pass - another line, another day pass...), and you get off at the rear. Some stops even have modern next-tram indicators, which show where the next tram is right now, or the next trams, if they are very close. But most people don't look at these, and just try to squeeze into an already full tram, which is then even more delayed, while another, mostly empty tram is already arriving. So this was the first rail line in Japan I have seen with regular irregularities. 

Arakawa Line tram in retro style at Machiya-ekimae

After having done loads of photos of all different types and liveries, I couldn't be bothered to ride to the very end of the line, instead got off at Machiya-Ekimae to change to the Chiyoda Subway Line, which would take me to Kita-senju, as yet another rail line was waiting for me.

Tsukuba Express at Kashiwanoha Campus

At Kita-senju I got on the Tsukuba Express Line, and I was quite happy when I realised that this line is indeed fast. In fact, technically-speaking, it appeared to be the best rail line in the Tokyo area. It's a kind of hybrid between a metro and a suburban railway and as such reminded me of BART in San Francisco. The route is completely separate from other railways, partly underground, though mostly elevated, and the trains sort of glide through the suburbs at speeds up to 120 km/h or so. Surprisingly, the line is operated manually, not in ATO. So while I was quite impressed by the quality of the train ride, the surface stations looked rather plain, whereas the underground Akihabara terminus in the city centre is quite appealing. 

Tsukuba Express city terminus at Akihabara

They also operate express trains, but local trains stop everywhere between the Tokyo terminus at Akihabara and Moriya every 10 minutes. And that's how far I travelled. To avoid paying high fares, I stayed inside the system for a while and tried to take some shots at the end of the platforms, and eventually returned and continued into the city. Maybe this was too long for a ride from Kita-senju to Akihabara, so the ticket barriers didn't let me pass with my PASMO card. I went to the ticket window and the guy checked it and mumbled some words in a language still unknown to me after three weeks and we somehow agreed that everything was OK...

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.5 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.7 (last)

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.5

Ginza Line - Tameike-Sanno station with music and folk dance from around the world

Ginza Line - Toranomon - original subway modelled after New York City Subway

Day 5 (6 May 2016)

Friday was a rather cloudy day and quite muggy, so I didn't have much energy. Combined with some city exploration (Parliament, Shibuya, Omote-sando, etc.), I managed to see some interesting Subway stations on the Ginza Line, notably Tameike-sanno, which is all decorated with motifs of music from around the world, and the elevated Ginza Line terminus at Shibuya. This may probably look quite different soon, as a new building is under construction on the eastern side, so it may become completely or almost completely invisible from the outside. Right now, it is the only station in Tokyo, as far as my knowledge goes, where you may be forced to go through an exit gate as trains go into the sidings to reverse and there is currently no interior link between arrival and departure platform!

Ginza Line - Shibuya elevated terminus likely to disappear in new development

Anyway, I had a quick look around what I would classify as the most horrible part of Tokyo (very loud and huge screens everywhere!) and reentered the Subway on the other side to find out that maybe new signage with large coloured panels has been introduced. I don't know if this is on a trial basis, if it will be expanded to other stations or if it was private rail company Tokyu's initiative as they share the underground station with Tokyo Metro's Hanzomon Line. 

Shibuya - new signage in Hanzomon/Tokyu mezzanine

I would consider it a good idea, because often I found it little intuitive where and how transfers to other lines are indicated. Like many European metros the stations mostly feature a wall ribbon in the line colour, but icons such as transfers or exits are not included there, but are usually posted on columns or walls. Talking of which, I appreciate the yellow boards which list quite a lot of places of interest around the station and which exit you are supposed to take to reach these. In Germany, some cities have only just begun to number exits! Very good neighbourhood maps are usually posted outside the ticket barriers. I think it would be good to have one on the platform, too. Sometimes I saw them too late and had to realise that I should have taken another exit instead.

A few examples that the Tokyo Subway is not just functional - Shibuya Hanzomon Line

 Iidabashi - Oedo Line

Higashi-Shinjuku - Fukutoshin Line

In the afternoon I met Craig again, this time out in the east at Kasai station on the Tozai Line to visit the Tokyo Metro Museum. Craig had already found out where it is, as I had actually problems to find it, although it is quite next to the station, actually below the elevated metro route. As the name suggests, it only deals with the history of Tokyo Metro's lines, ignoring the four Toei Subway lines. Although most things are only explained in Japanese, it is a very nice museum, includes two original metro cars, nice models and you can play the driver on a simulator. The souvenir shop has everything you never needed with some metro car on it, but also maps, books and DVDs. 

 Tokyo's oldest metro car at the Metro Museum

 Craig finally learning how to drive a metro train....

Quite up-to-date map of all metros of the world (click to enlarge)

By the time we left the museum, it had started to rain and we finished the day with a metro trip to Tocho-mae on the Oedo Line to go up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government tower, which is free, but unfortunately due to the bad weather the view was limited.

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.4 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.6

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.4

Inbound Keio train arriving at Tama Center - with the Tama Monorail viaduct passing above - no luck with a 2-train photo though...

Day 4 (5 May 2016)

Thursday started again as a very sunny day, and after having conquered the south and the east of the metropolitan area, it was time to go west for the Tama Monorail. I took a Shinjuku Line train out from the Subway system to Sazakusa, the first surface station on what is Keio's New Line, virtually an underground extension of Toei's Shinjuku Line (or seen the other way round, the Shinjuku Line is merely an underground city extension of the large Keio network). From there an express train which was bound for Hashimoto, but I got off at Tama Center, where I could have travelled also on an Odakyu train via a different route to catch the Tama Monorail at its southern end. 

 Tama Monorail's impressive Tama Center station as you approach from the Keio/Odakyu station 

This is actually one of their most impressive stations, I suppose (I didn't see the others from outside). Although there is a day pass just for the monorail, I did it the 'cheap' way and just used my PASMO card, although I got off several times along the route, rode to the end and finally returned to Tachikawa, to be charged 400 Yen, the maximum single fare on that line. From Tama Center, the train was packed with families, as this is holiday week in Japan, and many used the day to go to the zoo (Dobutsu-koen), four stops further north. The trains ran every 8 minutes, and at most stations you can take quite good photos from the opposite side platform. 

Tama Monorail - out of the front window view near Otsuka-Teikyo-Daigaku

Sometimes I had to run over to the otherside for a picture as I was visiting in the morning. Compared to the strange seat arrangement I would see two days later on the Tokyo Monorail, the Tama Monorail looks like a normal metro train inside. The ride is smooth, but somewhat slow. The route is not as spectacular as that of the Shonan Monorail, but still provides nice views of the surrounding suburbs. The trains are quite appealing in their strong orange livery. Orange and green are also the basic colours found in the stations, but once again colours were used only to make the stations fancier, but not to help passengers. In Tama, the tones change from orange in the south to green in the north, with little squares of darker tones being added station after station. So, while this looks good, it does, of course, not help in any way to distinguish the stations, as the differences between neighbouring stations are hard to tell. 

Tama Monorail - fancy station marker and colours, but not really helpful

And while other stations are spaced at quite regular intervals, Tachikawa has a stop just north and just south of the railway station, so I guess most passengers take the JR Chuo Line to continue towards Tokyo (well, Tama is in fact also Tokyo).

I did the same, but as I wasn't aware I jumped on an express to find out that it does not stop at Nishi-Kokubunji, the interchange with the JR Musashino Line, a sort of outer circular line through the northern suburbs. As my next destination was Omiya, I had to return one stop to change to a Musashino Line train north to Musashi-Urawa, an interchange with the JR Saikyo Line. At that station I was joined by Craig Moore, who happened to be in Tokyo for a few days and who has been feeding my website with lots of metro pictures he took on his frequent trips to Asian cities. He had been to Tokyo often, but never made it out to the "New Shuttle" in Saitama. In fact, I was wondering how he knew about it as it is not even included on UrbanRail.Net, as I had only learned about it a few months ago when we started to prepare our Tokyo book. But the "New Shuttle" is just another of several rubber-tyred metros I have already seen on this trip, but being far out in the suburbs, no one has ever claimed it. 

"New Shuttle" side by side with Shinkansen

The funny thing about this one is that it is attached to the Shinkansen viaduct, with the "track" in each direction aligned on the outside of the Shinkansen route. In fact, a few days later, on my way to Sendai, I could see some of the stops from the Shinkansen, and the pink train was just passing by. Where the Shinkansen splits, with one route heading west to Nagano, and the other north to Sendai, the "New Shuttle" becomes single-track along the south side of the Nagano Shinkansen, but with passing loops at all intermediate stops. As we arrived there in the early afternoon (I have got the impression that Japan is actually in the wrong time zone, the sun is always much further in the west as one would suspect!), the northbound route on the western side of the Shinkansen was perfect to take some pictures from the end of the platforms (about every other station has stairs at the northern end, but the other ones are perfect), although you only get shots from the rear of the train, of course. At Omiya they actually turn around in the loop, but for the outer end, they still have cabins at both ends. I made Craig jump off the train rather often, as the "New Shuttle" has a very varied fleet, at least all cars are painted in different colours, so I wanted to get as many as possible - and I think I got all that were in service that afternoon. Unfortunately, the larger series does not have a good design for people who want to look out the front window, as there is only a small glass window between passenger department and driver's cabin and at a rather low level. By the time we got to the end of the line, the sun had actually arrived so far west that it was possible to get a good shot with a train arriving, and not just a train, but the only one of a new series, which looks quite stylish (but I'll have to reserve that photo for the book, of course....). 

"New Shuttle" - front of new train

By the way, as it is difficult anyway to take pictures from street level as the line is rather high up, we didn't leave any station; instead, with had bought the cheapest ticket for 190 Yen, which was then rejected by the machine when we wanted to exit again at Omiya. But Craig, an expert in those things, went to the ticket clerk and asked for a stamp on it, I did the same, and the guy looked very confused, but did what we wanted and let us go out. I normally wouldn't do it, but I have been getting tired a bit of that Japanese fare "disintegration" that in the end you pay much more if you rely on several means of transport (and I'm not talking about excessive train spotters!).

Nippori-Toneri Liner - best shot I managed to get from platform end at Nishi-Nippori

Being so successful with the Tama Monorail and the "New Shuttle", we thought we could still have a go at Toei's Nippori-Toner Liner. But this line is very railfan unfriendly! Stupidly, you can't even take pictures at the end of the platform, because they have put some film over the glass windows! So the only option to get a train photo is from the front or rear window of the train you're in. Being operated in driverless mode you can actually sit in the driver's seat (very uncomfortable, though) and try your luck. Because on most stretches there is a kind of walkway between the tracks.

Nippori-Toneri Liner - typical view from front of train

Nippori-Toneri Liner - bad view from end of platform glass panel showing new train

Anyway, the sun was already getting too low for a good photo, and we were getting tired and headed back to the hotel, to enjoy a proper Japanese meal that evening (I'm proud I managed to eat it all with chopsticks!).

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.3 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.5

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.3 (feat. Yokohama)

 Center-Minami, looking north towards Center-Kita: Blue Line (left) and Green Line side by side

Day 3 (4 May 2016)

On my third day in Tokyo, Wednesday, it was supposed to rain after a stormy night, but already after breakfast, the wind had blown away all the clouds and it was a clear and sunny day. As I had already decided to spend the day mostly underground on the Yokohama Subway, I didn't change my plan, but went much more to the surface, which means that the entire exploration took much longer than initially planned.

To get to Yokohama, I took advantage of the through-running trains, i.e. theoretically you can stay on the same Tokyo Subway train from Iidabashi to Hiyoshi, the northeastern terminus of Yokohama's Green Line. As this implies, however, Tokyo Metro as well as private operator Tokyu, I entered the system with my PASMO card. The first Namboku train I jumped on, terminated at Shirokane-takanawa, so I changed to the other side of the platform to continue on a Toei Mita train. But like most people I quickly got off this one again two stops later at Musashi-Koyama to take the Tokyu express or semi-express or whatever (maybe limited express?), which brings us to advantages and disadvantages of express trains in Japan. While express trains certainly speed up the journey for many passengers, it excessively extends travel times for others who have to get off at a stop only served by 'local' trains. These have to wait again and again at certain stations to let expresses overtake, and although Japanese railways in general are extremely punctual, this break can be 5 minutes; sometimes even 2 expresses pass first before the local train can proceed. The same problem can be found on the Shinkansen network. Although all trains travel at the same high speed, some take significantly longer because they spend a lot of time pausing in stations to be overtaken. So on suburban (and even some metro) services, you should always be aware of this option and change to a faster train. But generally I have observed that local trains are less crowded!

Mitsuzawa-Kamicho station reminds me of Madrid's L6

What I liked about the Yokohama Subway, even before riding it, are the simple names they have chosen for their two lines, the Blue Line and the Green Line, but again, like in Fukuoka or Kobe, despite being a small network, the two lines are technically incompatible. While the Blue Line is more of a standard metro, even with third-rail power supply, and 6-car trains, the Green Line is another of those linear-motor metros and trains consist of just 4 cars, although platforms are laid out for longer cars. In Yokohama, I didn't find them so noisy, just when running over the switches at the end of the line, they rattled like cheap low-floor trams. The stations on the Green Line seem to be colour-coded, with different colours around the top of the otherwise white columns, and the same colour in some different areas, but much too decent to be perceived as something distinctive.

The biggest flaw of the 2-line system is the lack of cross-platform interchange at Center-Kita and/or Center-Minami. Ideally, the two lines, which run on two parallel viaducts, should have been arranged in a Stockholm fashion (T-Centralen and Gamla Stan/Slussen), that in one station you can easily change trains in opposite directions, and in the other in the same direction, whatever the major journey directions are. Interchange between the two lines is not too bad, though, and their solution was certainly much cheaper, especially as the Blue Line is much older. But given the rather brutal construction of elevated motorways and railways all over Japan, the visual impact of such a structure would have been limited, although during construction certainly the existing Blue Line would have suffered a lengthy disruption. The Green Line in its present form is a mere feeder to the Blue Line, as well as the Tokyu route and JR's Yokohama Line. Earlier projects to create a kind of semi-circular line seem to be on hold.

Hiyoshi - this would be the red station on the decently colour-coded Green Line

During off-peak hours, the Blue Line has express trains twice an hour. In this case, I would consider it full nonsense. Certainly, express passengers save a few minutes to get from the suburbs into the city centre, but I suppose no one would choose a metro train that only runs every half hour to be a few minutes faster, when the big advantage of a metro system is that you don't really look at timetables. On the other hand, as said before, passengers on local trains have to wait these extra minutes to let the hurried ones pass. And at local-only stops, headways suddenly get much longer and irregular.

Despite being "Golden Week" with many people on holiday I was surprised how quiet the most central station Kannai was. I was expecting it to be the busiest at any time. Having spent a lot of time on the northern section, there was not much time left to do the southern section in detail, but I rode it to the end anyway, as from there, I had the option to return on a Sotetsu train. Sotetsu operates a dense suburban service with trains linking Shonandai, the southwestern terminus of the Blue Line, with Yokohama station via a different route. Some of their trains run express on the inner section, so that is a good alternative for some areas. Their trains consist of 10 cars.

Shonandai - pleasant underground terminus for the Sotetsu suburban railway

At Yokohama station I changed to the Minatomirai Line, one of those weird urban rail lines in Japan. Getting down to their platform from +1 to something like -5 was quite a long and slow tour as suddenly lots of people had appeared and they all wanted to go my way. The Minatomirai Line, now 12 years old, was publicised as a sort of metro when it was built, although it is actually just an underground extension of the busy Tokyu Toyoko Line. But typically Japanese, they had to do it separately, with all the consequences, for passenger information and fares. 

 Yokohama - crowds queuing orderly at the joint Tokyu/Minatomirai station

The Yokohama Subway day pass is not valid, of course, but for the six stations which the line comprises, you can buy a separate day pass for 460 Yen, which I did to be able to get in and out of the stations as often as I wanted. Unfortunately it was already getting dark, so there was not much to take pictures of outside anyway. I interrupted this nice but busy day only for a short break to go up the Yokohama Landmark Tower next to Minatomirai station, from where you get excellent views of Tokyo Bay, and if you're lucky (which I wasn't that day) of Mt. Fuji.

Mapwise, Yokohama is a sad place, I mean for map collectors, because inside the Subway stations, they actually have quite a nice system diagram, which includes the Subway lines as thick lines, but also the other numerous rail services in the city. I understand that all these different rail companies have no interest in a joint presentation of their services, but the city administration should take on this role of coordinator and publish proper material for visitors. Apparently, since the Minatomirai redevelopment area was finished they have lots of visitors. And actually they do publish quite a good map of the 'Bay City' covering the central area and with all necessary transport options. When I asked for Subway maps in various places, they gave me a photocopied A5-size paper, and on some they had even manually added the colour to the Subway lines with a page-marker! Very cute indeed.

Minatomirai Line: Bashimichi station with an impressive dome-like vestibule

The Minatomirai stations are not as functional and monotonous as most metro stations in Japan. Each is different and, mostly on mezzanine level, has some interesting mural or art object or old images of this former port area. Again I took loads of pictures which I will hopefully put together into a gallery on UrbanRail.Net one day.

Minatomirai Line: Nihon-odori station

Minatomirai Line: Nihon-odori station, wall reliefs of historic surroundings in mezzanine

Minatomirai Line: Motomachi-Chukagai station, also with historic images on vault panels

From Yokohama I finally returned to Tokyo using JR with my JR Rail Pass. But with a total of six "lines" linking the two cities, I found it rather confusing to pick the best train. And most of these lines have their own platform, so you can't just go to the Tokyo platform and see what's coming along. I decided for the Ueno-Tokyo Line, but was confused that all trains were shown as 'Local', although then the train actually only stopped in Kawasaki and Shinagawa. Later I realised that this purple line doesn't include any intermediate stops on this route anyway, and therefore it is a 'Local', whereas the real local stops would be served by trains labelled Keihin-Tohoku Line for example. The JR Tokyo Region maps are posted in some places, but not too often either, and they are not as easily available to take away as Tokyo Subway maps. But it is very advisable to have such a map with you when travelling on JR. Once inside the trains, it is normally no problem to find stopping patterns, and also the information screen show the stops properly (on new screens, the skipped stops are shown in a faded grey, though, and scheduled stops in black!).

JR East will soon be introducing a system of line coding and station numbering, like on the Subway and private railways. The Yamanote Line, for example, will carry a JY code. So I wonder what the new map will look like and whether it is getting even more confusing.

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.2 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.4

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.2 (feat. Chiba)

Crowds of people moving between Tokyo main station complex and the Keiyo Line underground station

Day 2 (3 May 2016)

The second day started with another agglomeration of crowds, first on a fully packed Chuo train into Tokyo station, then an endless flow of masses down into the Keiyo Line station, some 400 m, to get a train to Disneyland. With the bad experience on the Enoden on the previous day, I just tried to get a few nice pictures of the Disney Monorail, but didn't even try to get a ticket to ride on the circular route. Maybe it would have been easy, but maybe not. And there were full train loads arriving from Tokyo and the other direction.

Disney Monorail, also accessible without a ticket for the theme parks

So I moved on to more deserted places, first Chiba, which looked like everybody had gone on holiday. At Minato-Chiba I was certainly not the first who tried to get a perfect picture with a JR Keiyo Line train and the Chiba Monorail side by side in the same shot, but it would be a miracle, with JR arriving every 15 minutes and the Monorail with irregular headways (line 1 every 15 minutes and line 2 every 12 minutes!). So I put the camera on the railing at the end of the platform, and hopefully I can merge the images to get the perfect picture. After getting a day pass for 620 Yen from the machine, I jumped on the first train available only to get off at the next station for some nice outdoor shots. The shorter Line 1 to Kencho-mae (in fact, the line numbers are not visible anywhere) was barely used that day, I think there were only two trains shuttling back and forth. The view down into the street as it heads for Chiba station is amazing because the train kind of flies above the streets. Also the junction east of Chiba is stunning, a super-structure which certainly from street-level looks a bit too much. Later the line down to Kencho-mae has a certain Wuppertal feel as it runs above a canal.

Wuppertal in Japan?

By the way, compared to Wuppertal, where the Schwebebahn has on one arm that runs on a single wheel - I mean several wheels, but all in one row - the Chiba suspension railway runs more quietly, doesn't swing so much from one side to the other, I would suppose it even has some special counter-wheels to prevent that, just when it switches from one track to the other it gets a bit more Wuppertal-ish. What was more annoying was some abrupt braking as if an automatic brake was applied as soon as the manually driven train reached the allowed speed.

Young female driver operating the quiet shuttle to Kencho-mae

Later I took the entire Line 2 out to its eastern terminus. This line was quite well used, no surprise it serves a typical day-out destination, the Chiba Zoo (Dobutsu-koen). On the way back I got off at Tsuga to take a JR Sobu Line train back towards Toyko.

 Shin-Keisei Line: pink route through the western Chiba suburbs

But that was not the last special transport system of the day. Though due north from Tsuga, it required a bit of a detour to get there. I decided for the pink Shin-Keisei Line from Shin-Tsudanuma to Kita-Narashino to see a bit of the Toyo Rapid Line, which in reality is a suburban extension of the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, but in Japan it can't be called just that. Trains on this line, however, run only every 15 minutes, but it deserves the adjective "rapid", and the underground stations I came through looked quite pleasant. And it's also expensive, for 5 stations I had to pay some 450 Yen on my PASMO card. 

Outer terminus for the Toyo Rapid Line, actually the end of the Tozai Metro Line

From the end of that line two stops further out on a Keisei Local I arrived at Yukarigaoka to see the Yukarigaoka Line! 

Old-fashioned peoplemover through a Chiba new town

This is probably the oldest and least-known of all rubber-tyred guided transit systems in Japan! Luckily there was a yound guy at the entrance, because like the SkyRail near Hiroshima, this system is not prepared for foreigners. It does not accept IC cards, and the ticket machines are only in Japanese. Well, you have to put 200 Yen into the slot and then press the key that says "200", and you get a tiny Paris-style ticket. It's difficult to get a view out the front window as they front is inclined and low. I took a trip around the racket-shaped route and got off one stop prior to the departure point, took some photos and walked through a department store back to the Keisei station. Unfortunately, there was no staff at that stop, so the ticket barrier swallowed my ticket.... Eventually, the Keisei Main Line and the JR Chuo-Sobu Local brought me back to my temporary home at Iidabashi.

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.1 | Go to Tokyo Part 2.3