Monday, March 04, 2013

My adventure navigating the Tokyo subway/rail system solo

This morning, I managed to navigate my way successfully through the Tokyo Rail & Subway system - during Monday commute time, even!

Dick and I took the subway/railway around yesterday and refreshed ourselves with the system. It was great to do that before my solo adventure today.

Dick and I walked to the Tochomae station this morning with Steve, and the three of us took the metro line to Shinjuku (only one stop away). We parted ways at the Shinjuku station: Dick and Steve took another line to work, and I headed off to Tokyo Disneyland! (I told them that there would be a good chance that my day just might be more fun than theirs.) ;)

I took the JR (Japan Railway Line) Chuo line to the Tokyo station. It was about 15 minutes. Once there, I walked a good distance, then transferred to the JR Keiyo line and took that to Maihama the station, which let me off right at the Tokyo Disney Resort! The second leg only took about 15 minutes as well, so it was a very quick and easy ride.

I'm really digging the rail and subway system here. It's fairly complex, with four different types of lines (Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, Japan Railway, and Private Railway). From what I can see, there are about forty lines within the whole system. They have a card, called the Pasmo, which you can put different denominations of money onto, and use it on all lines. It makes the whole process super simple.

This evening, I reversed my route, and made it back to our hotel again. I got off at the Shinjuku station, and walked about 15 minutes back to our hotel. What a cool transportation system.

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