Japan Mass Transit & Infrastructure 日本の公共交通機関とインフラ

[Isan]

I am really hate in riding to subway earlier in the morning and lately mid-night before operation close

[dom]

Okay if you want to go to tokyo for about 5 days you can probably live on less than in London to be honest.

- For each single journey on the subway its about 160-190 yen. You'll use that about 4-5 trips a day.

- For hotel accomodation you can sleep in a ryokan for 4000 yen in bunkyo-ku (in the city centre) or in a capsule hotel for around the same price in Shinjuku.

Basically you can get by on about 8000-10,0000 yen a day. 10,000 yen (50 quid) would be more comfortable however. You might want to go to Mount Fuji (90 mins each way - about 2500 yen return) or to Nikko (around 4000 yen return) or Yokohama (about 1000 yen return) during your stay. Taking the bullet train to Kyoto is fun but expensive...look at spending 20,000 yen return for the shinkansen ticket.

If you want to stay in nice hotels etc, take lots of taxis then the sky is the limit. If you want to have major fun then around 15,000 yen per day should be more than enough cash to go out in the evening in roppongi/shibuya have lots of drinks and have 3 meals during the day.

Food is actually suprisingly cheap in Tokyo. The key really is finding the right accomodation. I always go cheap on the hotels, just staying at capsules or the homeikan ryokan near Tokyo uni.

[Draff]

Originally Posted by dom

Okay if you want to go to tokyo for about 5 days you can probably live on less than in London to be honest.

I agree. In Tokyo, or Japan for that matter, I could live off the conbini's while I was looking at a sandwich for about 2 pounds alone at a grocery store.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Isan

The Chiba City "Townliner" is currently the longest suspended monorail system in the world, and it is getting longer. Since it opened, the system has never stopped getting bigger. Long term plans are for the monorail to be over 40 km in length, and this will most likely be surpassed. Building upon the knowledge and experience of the Shonan Monorail, the Mitsubishi Company built this dual-tracked system to connect suburbs in the Chiba Prefecture with Chiba's main rail station downtown. It is currently the world's only dual-beamed Safege-type system. It also has a spur line off the main line, another example that monorail switches work fine. One of the reasons Chiba officials selected Safege was because of the occasional inclement weather of the area. With Safege, the running surfaces and train bogies are protected from the elements inside the beams. Alweg-type monorails need either heaters in the beam or shovels on the fronts of beam during heavy snow or ice conditions. The downside of the Safege system is the larger size of the beams. A Texas-based company named Aerorail is proposing a smaller-beamed, higher speed version of Safege using steel rails


Opened 1988
15.5 km
18 stations

Cheers for the infomation.I was very fascinated by it.I used it every day while I was teaching in the city for 2 weeks back in Feb

[Alan934]

How do people get by with such high prices?

[Isan]

Originally Posted by Rapid

Thats expensive compared to my city, Toronto

TTC is bit cheaper than Tokyo Mass transit especially in connecting with sub-urban & outskrit community

Japan public transport actually is really highly than any other Asia Regional Country indeed and therefore

Alan934 How do people get by with such high prices?

Company is forced to providing all transportion means, as part of the enumeration package, to all employee for those travelling btw residential & working place

[TRZ]

Tokyo Metro is actually cheaper than TTC for short trips. Same goes for the suburban lines like Tokyu, but when I say short trips, I mean less than... lemme see, around 5, maybe 7 stations depending on where you start and get off. If you are travelling a little farther than that the fare is about the same, if your travelling more than a little farther it is more expensive than TTC.

All of the Tokyo transit systems are by distance. PassNet Card is conveninet, it works on close to everything except JR Lines (a few other exceptions, but not many).

Japan is expensive if you DON'T know where to go. The transit costs as well as food costs are reasonable - and cheap if you are on a Japanese paycheck.

[v9]

Riding around in Tokyo "felt" about as expensive as Boston or NYC. But Japan has much better rail transit than any other country in the world.

[Zuelas]

what is the yen/dollar ratio?

[Draff]

1 USD is about 111 JPY.

that's not very expensive.......but i heard the rail express from narita to downtown tokyo is 36 us dollars?

[TRZ]

Originally Posted by PEK

that's not very expensive.......but i heard the rail express from narita to downtown tokyo is 36 us dollars?

3000 yen for Narita to Tokyo, Shinjuku, and other locations (some have more service than others, but all go to Tokyo and more than half continue to Shinjuku). Given the distance (65+km) and the express factor, well worth the money.

[Vapour]

Or you can use the much cheaper Keisei skyliner, just 1000 yen (Narita - Ueno)

[plotstyle]

great stuff guys on my to do list!!!!!

[maxxam80]

tokyo sounds cheaper than London (where I live)

a pint of beer at canary wharf costs £3.20

What I don't understand about the USA is that they get paid properbly the same amount on average as a brit but can live for much cheaper

does that mean you have loads of money to spend on goods and services

and USA taxes are lower than UK

petrol is 89p a litre here and under half in america although rising

[Nick]

I borrowed this picture from Vapour's excellent Tokyo collection.




As you can see,the road in question is the one that rises to an overpass or the beginning of an elevated road.The speedlimit is a ridiculous 40km/h.

The problem with Japanese roads is the unbelivable inconsistantcy of the speed limits.Like this road,Osaka has some shockingly bad speed limits on the wrong roads.Between Kobe and Osaka,route 42,a semi expressway is 40km/h.The side roads that run parralell to it are 50km/h??????

Route one from Osaka to Kyoto as a 60km/h speed limit in the city where the road is narrow.Once into the more open spaces of the suburbs the road opens up into a divided 3 lane highway.The speed limit then drops down to 50km/h

Worst of all.Eeveryone goes over the limit becasue its unrealistic to maintain it on most roads.Especially 40km/h zoned areas.Ive been busted once only.Usually I just follow the cars in infront and ignore any limits.They are just too dam low.

Here is my list on what I think the speed limits should be.In brackes are the limits set by the government.

20km/h for tiny laneways (20km/h)

30km/h for narrow streets with no signals(20km/h-30km/h)

40km/h for streets in quite residential areas with signals(30km)

50km/h for local residential roads(30km/h-40km/h)

60km/h for main roads that run through the city
(Mostly 50km/h.Sometimes 60km/h if you are lucky.And sometimes 40km/h,even on divided roads with interchanges???????)

80km/h for any divided road seperated from all other traffic(the limit is 60km/h on non-tollroads like this)

The only semi decent limit is on the expressways.Its set at 100km/h and 80km/h in the mountains(although I think thats a bit too slow if the expressway is running straight and has no curves)

[Vapour]

Nick, that 40 km/h limit sign is due to a quite sharp bend to the left. Speed limits may be low, but traffic-related deaths in Japan are the *half* of those in E.U. countries like Spain.

[Facial]

Remember the physics:

Velocity-squared applies to your flesh and bone, too.

[Nick]

40km/h is ok if there is sharp bend to the left.

But in most cases you will have 40km/h on some very wide-straight roads

[Vapour]

Originally Posted by Nick

40km/h is ok if there is sharp bend to the left.

But in most cases you will have 40km/h on some very wide-straight roads

... so that drivers can enjoy the skyscrapers they're passing by