When flying to Japan, most international routes will take you to Narita International Airport in Chiba prefecture, far outside downtown Tokyo (this may soon change, however). Instead of renting a car or having a friend pick you up, the Narita Express train will take you into the heart of Tokyo in an hour for around $30US (2,940 yen). A taxi, on the other hand, will take at least an hour and a half (without traffic) and will set you back over $200. There are also numerous highway buses from the airport that terminate at various hotels and train stations around Tokyo, providing another convenient and relatively inexpensive way to get to the city.

On the Narita Express, the first part of the train ride is deceiving as the scenery whizzing by is of nice houses on plenty of land, rice fields and relative openness. Ride a little longer, however, and the edges of one of the largest metropolitan areas on earth soon appear. From this point on, the buildings and people only multiply and the congestion grows. Therein lies the overwhelmingly crowded sense of modern big city living that is Tokyo. It’s also a very convenient city with the right transportation (speaking Japanese, or having someone with you who does, also makes it much easier). How does one get around such a teeming mass of modernity? Trains. Around Tokyo, and in fact around most of Japan, trains are an easy and cheap way to get around. Like in Manhattan, a car is something many people do without or use only on the weekends to get out of the city. Roads in any of the big Japanese cities are a messy tangle of narrow streets clogged with trucks, delivery vans, and in many cases people scurrying about from overflowing sidewalks. Small cars are preferred not only because they get good gas mileage in a country with nearly 100% imported oil and $5-7 a gallon gas, but also because bigger cars literally won’t fit down many of the streets in Japan. Thus trains, which run on time with incredible efficiency and frequency, rule the transportation scene. Tokyo’s central train loop, the Yamanote Line, is used by 8 million passengers each day.

The shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan in also a model of comfort, reliability, speed, and safety. According to Wikpedia, “during the Shinkansen’s 44-year, nearly 7 billion-passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions, despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons.” A few facts about the shinkansen:

• It travels at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph). Test runs have reached 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to aworld-record 581 km/h (361 mph) for maglev trainsets in 2003.
• Shinkansen literally means “New Trunk Line”, referring to the tracks, but the name is widely used inside and outside Japan to refer to the trains as well as the system as a whole.
• The Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the world’s busiest high-speed rail line. Carrying 151 million passengers a year (March, 2008), it has transported more passengers (over 6 billion) than any other high speed line in the world.
  • Between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, ten trains per hour with 16 cars each (1,300 seats capacity) run in each direction.

• The Shinkansen is very reliable, and in 2003, JR (Japan Rail) Central  reported that the Shinkansen’s average arrival time was within six seconds of the scheduled time.

If you ever visit Japan, and I highly recommend that you do, take advantage of the Japan Rail Pass. It is a phenomenal deal that will save you a lot of money and give you access to most of the country via unlimited rides on all JR Rail lines- including the shinkansen- over the one, two, or three week validity of the pass. It is a cheap, convenient, and green way to explore a fascinating country.

- Justin Manger