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

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.1 (feat. Shonan)

Returning to Tokyo after more than two weeks (read about my initial impressions here) through the southern parts of the country already felt like coming back home, no need for new orientation which a new city always requires before one gets settled (and it's already time to move on...). Anyway, with a full week ahead, I still felt stressed wondering if I would manage to do everything I still wanted to do. To avoid getting from one thing to the other in a very confusing way, I'm writing this down in a more diary-style way:

Day 1 (2 May 2016)

Shonan "Schwebebahn" near northern terminus at Ofuna

I started the first day by taking a JR train down to Ofuna, south of Yokohama, to explore the Shonan region. The Shonan Monorail was fun to ride. This is actually a single-track Schwebebahn, a bit like the H-Bahn at Düsseldorf Airport or the one at Dortmund University, but with a driver and even a conductor on board. The choice of this mode was probably correct considering the many curves and gradients the railway has to negotiate. As PASMO is not accepted yet, I bought a single ticket from end to end (unfortunately on exiting, the machine eats the ticket, so if you want to keep it, you'd better exit through the manned gate and ask if you can keep it!). And stupid as I am, I didn't double-check in our own book to see that I should have bought a Shonan Explorer ticket at the JR station, this would have given me a day pass for the Monorail and the Enoden for just 700 Yen, besides the local JR lines, but for these I had my Rail Pass anyway.

Due to the alignment described above, the ride is a bit shaky, but not too much. The funny thing about this line is that the intermediate stations apparently have no ticket gates, so the conductor has to check tickets, and therefore he jumps out of his rear cabin, and if the exit happens to be at the wrong end, he runs forward, and later back again. While I was looking whether any of the stations would be a good point to get off for a few photos, we had already arrived at the southern end in Enoshima. The terminus is something like on the third floor of what from the outside looks like a rather pathetic building.

 Enoden at Hase station - not a common view, but a funny coincidence

From the terminus you just follow the crowd down the road and if you happen to be there in holiday season like me (most Japanese have their Golden Week right now), you'll see a huge crowd trying to get tickets or waiting for the next train of the Enoshima Electric Railway (short Enoden). I got my day pass easily from the machine, but first went down to the beach (honestly, I'd rather keep to my Spanish beaches also in the future...) and then returned to the street-running section to the east of Enoshima station. Luckily, I didn't have much difficulty to jump on a westbound train at Koshioge, the next stop east of Enoshima, so I'd be on the train before the busiest station. But things got much worse later on, when after a few shots along the coastal route I needed to go to Kamakura. Hase station was at the verge of collapsing (there is an important Buddha statue nearby), so I walked to the next stop, squeezing myself into the next train as if I were on the Ginza Line during rush hour and eventually made it to Kamakura. For obvious reasons, I just wanted to escape the holiday crowd, and left all possible sightseeing for another trip.

Enoden's Kamakura terminus with loads of people trying to exit the station

Instead I headed for the third curious rail line in the area, the Seaside Line, yet another rubber-tyred driverless guided transit system. I went from Kamakura via Ofuna and the JR Negishi Line to Shin-Sugita, the northern terminus of the Seaside Line. 

Seaside Line: Rubber-tyred driverless line at Namikikita

The name suggests quite a lot, and in fact the southern third of the route is quite nice with views of the harbour and Kanazawa bay, but the rest is rather dull, alongside a major motorway or through industrial estates. Like with similar systems in Hiroshima or Osaka, the ride is not bad, but not too smooth either.

Seaside Line: alignment on the southern stretch

Previous stop: Nagoya | Go to: Tokyo Part 2.2

JAPAN - Nagoya Subway

Higashiyama Line - Sakae station: busiest line, busiest station

When I arrived in Nagoya from Kyoto (just around an hour by Shinkansen) on 29 April 2016, I wondered whether I should walk to my hotel or take the Subway for two stops. Lazy as I am (and curious for yet another metro) I made my way down to the Sakura-dori Line (red line), used my PASMO card to walk through the gates but was rather disappointed that on a Friday evening, around 7pm, I have to wait for 10 minutes for the next train. With luggage that is getting heavier as I pick up leaflets and maps etc. one appreciates lifts and escalators, and also the station maps available in most Japanese metros to choose an exit with escalators. Everything seems fine, until you realise that the indicated escalator leaves you halfway up to the surface. No return either, because there is no down escalator anyway - and I wasn't the only one caught in that trap.

Aonami Line - ready to depart from Nagoya station

The next morning with the sun out, I got a 1-day pass (cheaper on weekends, just 600 Yen - available also from the machines, but I don't know if it gives you the same nice ticket you get from the ticket window, with a subway map printed on it). But to take advantage of the nice weather, I first headed for the Aonami Line, which is a separate suburban line (with its separate fare, of course), leavings from a dedicated platform at Nagoya station. I checked in with my PASMO card and rode the train until I saw a good place to take some photos, which I found at Nakajima. I didn't exit the station but returned to the last but one stop where I exited, Sasashima Raibu. Unfortunately this was not a good place to take pictures at this time of the day, and the JR station I was hoping to find there according to my own badly-drawn map on UrbanRail.Net, I walked back to Nagoya station. Later I realised that Kintetsu actually has a very primitive stop not too far from there. Like the Linimo (see below), the Aonami Line is shown on many Subway maps, but it is not integrated in its fare system. It was quite busy in the outbound direction on a Saturday morning, which I found surprising. So they could increase the off-peak headway, which is now a train every 15 minutes.

At Nagoya station, I was quite confused as I had no idea where all these JR trains went to. It's hard when you are not properly prepared and don't know the locations shown on train indicators. Eventually I managed to identify a local train on the Kansai Line that would stop at Hatta, an interchange with the Subway and Kintetsu. I took a Kintetsu Local back into town, curious to find out where their underground terminus is located. The trains actually pass below the JR tracks and then terminate underground on the eastern (city) side of the railway station.

Sakura-dori Line - Maronouchi station

During the day I used the Subway on various stretches without exploring it systematically. All in all, it is rather standard, nothing special I would remember except of the thin headways. Just the Higashiyama Line (yellow) is busier (somehow I would always think that the red line by default needs to be the busiest in any city...), running every 4 minutes even on a Saturday, whereas the Sakura-dori (red) and Tsurumai (blue) Lines only ran every 10 minutes. Also the purple Meijo Line, the only real metro circle line in Japan, but this one is doubled on its most important section through the city centre (which I suppose would be defined by Sakae station) by the Meiko Line. The red and yellow lines have platform gates, whereas on the purple and blue lines you can get nice train photos in all the stations (although I wonder if they are going to retrofit gates here, too).

I used the purple line to reach one of the most absurd of all Japanese metro lines I have seen, the Kami-Iida Line (sometimes written as Kamiiida), which only consists of two stations, and is shown as such on maps and can therefore also be used with a Subway day pass.

Kami-Iida Line - ridiculous 2-station "line"

All trains, however, ignore this fact and continue on the Meitetsu Komaki Line. So why on earth can't they just incorporate it simply into this line? Meitetsu has another underground city terminus right next to Sakae. I suppose the Kami-Iida Line was once supposed to continue further south into the city centre. Right now, it only runs every 15 minutes during off-peak hours, so rather a suburban line than a metro. So, being inside the Subway system with my day pass, I rode a Meitetsu train for a few stations and back again, because there were more weird things to explore still while the sun was shining.

Yutorito Line - extravagant elevated busway

The Yutorito Line, possibly the most extravagant means of transport I have seen so far in Japan - this is guided busway similar to the O-Bahn in Adelaide, running 6.5 km on an elevated structure. So I was expected something Brisbane-like, with a bus rolling past every minute. However, there is a bus every 10 minutes only, and it's a short bus, and in 2016 it's a high-floor bus, which despite its high floor has few seats with enormous space being occupied by the huge wheels. And something I hadn't seen on a city bus since the age of Ikarus buses in the (European) East, the driver changes gears manually. So in case he gets bored because there is no need to steer the bus, he is kept busy changing gears. But anyway, I suppose this is the most expensive transport infrastructure for the amount of passengers it is meant to carry. At least they should introduce some low-floor articulated buses to make it worthwhile. But better still, convert it into some sort of light rail.

Driverless Linimo maglev train returning from siding at the outer end of the line

Moving on in a clockwise direction on the purple line, and with a change to the Higashiyama Line (once again it's the zoo station that is decorated with animals to make it different from the rest), I reached the Linimo, another fancy transport system. This maglev system was built for the Expo 2005 and has survived. It's fun, the stations are like basic monorail stations, and the ride is smooth, but nothing too exciting either. I guess a properly built wheel-to-rail system (and railways are usually properly built in Japan) provides almost the same quality of ride, so I don't see the advantages. I don't know about operating costs, but certainly an isolated technology must be more expensive to maintain. It was probably one of those demostrator lines for a technology no one acquired in the end.

Higashiyama koen - zoo station

I finished the day with some photos in the Subway which you will hopefully see on the website one day if I get the time to make a little gallery.

Meijo Line - circle line without platform gates

On the following day I still had a bit of time before moving on to Tokyo, so I jumped on a Toyota train, I mean on a train to Toyotashi, the car-building city east of Nagoya. This line is directly integrated with the Tsurumai Subway Line, so I didn't bother to get a ticket, just stayed inside the station and returned to Nagoya. With a final trip to Nagoyako (port) I eventually managed to ride the entire circle line. Interesting to note that unlike most other circular lines, which circle around the city centre, this one actually runs right through the city centre and the circles around the eastern suburbs. The directions, i.e. which platform is best for which destination on the circle line is perfectly shown at mezzanine level, a bit like or even better than in Madrid.

Mapwise Nagoya is slightly better than Osaka, on demand, they do have an English A4 multipage brochure which I later also found in the tourist office, but nothing as nice as Tokyo or Fukuoka. Inside trains, display types vary from train to train.

By the way, along with the metros of Sapporo and Sendai, and many tram systems, Nagoya will be featured in our second volume of our series "Metros & Trams in Japan" (North & Centre), hopefully out in 2017!

Previous stop: KYOTO | Next stop: TOKYO(Part 2)

LINKS

Nagoya City Transport

Nagoya on UrbanRail.Net (feat. map)