Trains

If you ever come to Tokyo you'll pretty much have to use the trains at some point or another. In fact, you'll probably want to stick to the trains for all of your transportation unless you have a friend with a car.

From the airport you can catch the Narita Express, now called the NEX. It's been upgraded to be faster and have wireless internet connectivity.

The best thing to do if you don't live here, is to get a foreigner short term travel pass. In Japanese this is called .... You may be able to get this when you book your travel, so check with your travel agent. If you are traveling without a travel agent or you didn't get one of those, don't worry you'll have the chance to get one later.

You can goto any JR (Japan Railway) office in any of the stations to purchase tickets such as these. Here is what you want to say:

First, ask if they speak English or if English is ok. Some people in Japan can speak pretty good English, and almost everyone understands English to some level, however, I've found Japanese people to be extremely shy about speaking English. Sometimes, even if they know it they won't use it to speak with you.

If they don't speak English, then here is the Japanese to order a few things:

I would like to buy a JR Train pass.
Japanese: watashi wa JR gaigoku-jin no tay-key wo kaitai desu.

Listen for:
dono gurai or ikutsu type keywords. They are asking how any days you want the pass to be. Generally, you can get a pass or 7 day periods. Figure on about 28,000 yen per week ($280 USD) per person.

Then tell them:
ii-syukan de kudasai = 1 week
nii-syukan de kudasai = 2 weeks
san-syukan de kudasai = 3 weeks
yon-syukan de kudasai = 4 weeks

Listen for:
nan nean or nan mei keywords. They are asking how many people.

Then tell them:
hi-tot-su de = 1 ticket
fu-tat-su de = 2 ticket
mit-su de de = 3 tickets
yot-su de de = 4 tickets

Listen for a confirmation. Generally the JR workers always repeat everything back to you to make sure they got it right.

Then tell them 'Hi'. Hi (hai) in Japanese means yes. Or onegai-shimas (please).

Listen for the price:
ii = 1
ni = 2
san = 3
yon = 4
go = 5
ryoku = 6
nana = 7
hachi = 8
kyuu = 9
jyuu = 10
hyaku = 100
sen = 1,000
mon = 10,000 <--- about $100 USD

An example might be:
San mon hachi sen go hyaku en = 38,500

If they speak too fast, you can say:

English: Please speak more slowly.
Japanese: motto yukuri de onegai shimasu.

English: Can you say that again please.
Japanese: mo ichi-do onegai shimasu.

Don't sweat it if you don't get things right the first time. The brilliant part is that if you are willing to show an effort in Japan, the Japanese people can understand your effort and also will then be willing to extend the same effort to help you. Saving 'face' is important here as we'll discuss later, but this is one such example.

Once you get your Pass, this will allow you to travel on almost all the trains, subways, and buses. There are a few exceptions, like overnight trains, special rapid trains on the Shinkansen (bullet trains) and the like.

It should be noted, that you don't HAVE to buy one of these train passes. You can purchase traditional looking tickets for all the trains just outside of every ticket gate. Generally there is a large sign with all of the stops for a particular train, along with the price listed below each of the stops. Unfortunately, most of those are listed in Japanese.

There are a few things you can do tho. Buy the cheapest ticket listed. This will let you ride to any of the stops. Once you get to the stop, and just before you exit the station gate, there will be a smaller kiosk or ticket machine, usually just 1 or 2 of them together, that will allow you to adjust your ticket. You simply insert your ticket, and it will show you the remaining balance that you owe. Just make sure you have some Japanese Yen with you if you chose this method.

Another thing you can do is stop in the JR office at the station, and get a SUICA or PASMO card. This is just an IC card that you pre-charge. You can use it at each of the ticket gates by holding it over the sensor until it beeps green. Just watch the people in front of you, you'll understand. To re-charge these cards, you can goto the ticket machines outside the entry gates and look for the machines that are marked with SUICA or PASMO logos. Some machines aren't so be careful. Just put your card in the slot, you'll be presented with several yen values such as 1,000 2,000, 5,000 etc. Push the one you want, and insert your money. Sometimes you'll get a final confirmation. This is basically asking you if you want a receipt.

Outside of actual ticketing, there are some caveats about the trains that you should be aware of.

Some train lines share their lines with other trains. Saikyo/Rinkai line for example. Be especially careful on these types of lines, as the train sign may say that the next train is leaving in 3 mins, and the train pulls in, you get on and it takes off. Only later you realize that this was not the train that was leaving in 3 mins. It was another train. Trains are normally VERY punctual. If needed, wait til the last bell before getting on the train and the time that it is departing is at that time.

There are several types of trains you can use:

Local - (ro-ka-ru) These trains stop at EVERY stop. You can use this if you aren't sure about where the trains might stop. You can always check the signs for which stops these trains goto. These signs are posted inside the train above the door, and also on the platform, etc. They basically show a straight train line, along with various colored lines. These are the 3 different types of trains and where they stop.

Express - (kaisoku) These trains hit the big stops only normally, and generally the last 3 consecutive stops on either end.

Super Express - (Su-keen Kaisoku) These trains stop at major stops and generally travel a long distance 30 mins or more, before stopping. You have to have a special ticket to ride this kind of train. You can pay the ticket master when you ride, or purchase the ticket outside the gates and sometimes even on the platform.

Bullet Train - (Shinkan-sen) These trains are the high speed rail lines and travel great distances between major cities as opposed to local cities like the other JR lines. To get a Shinkansen ticket, you will need to goto a major station like Tokyo, and find the special Shinkansen offices there and buy the tickets. In Tokyo these offices are basically in the center of the station. If you purchased the JR Pass as described above, you can also use it on the Shinkansen, however, you cannot use it for the Special rapid Shinkansens. There are several types, much the same as the JR lines. Nozomi is the special Shinkansen that you cannot use this type of pass for. If you want to use this special (fast) service train, then you'll need to pay extra.

At the Shinkansen office:

English: I want to go to Kyoto please.
Japanese: watashi wa kyoto eh ikitai desu.

English: Can I use my JR Pass?
Japanese: JR pass wa su-ka-e-masu-ka?

Listen For:
hi (yes), mochiron su-ka-e-masu-yo (of course you can use it), su-ka-e-nai (can't use)

English: I want to use Nozomi line tho.
Japanese: watashi wa Nozomi sen de su-ka-e-tai desu kedo, dai-joe-boo?

Listen For:
tokubetsu (special), hara-wa-na-kere-ba (pay) and any of the japanese numbering above.

English: How much does it cost for 4 people?
Japanese: yon-nin de, Ikura desu ka?

Listen For:
the Japanese numbering posted above. They can help you with the money part.

Don't worry about the trains very much. Once you've used them a few times, you'll get the hang of it. Just be careful about the special rapid trains. Those are marked in orange on the train/time boards on the platform, while local trains' times are noted in green. If you aren't careful you might get on a rapid, while the station you wanted to go to only has local service, and then you could overshoot your station. If that does happen, don't worry, it won't cost you any more, just get off at the next station, walk over to the opposite platform and get on a local train heading the other way.

Another caveat I've seen one time is Deadhead trains. These are trains are marked as (回送列車) to be taken out of service after the next stop or the current stop. If you are in a hurry, don't get on one of these :) I had a friend that actually got locked in one of these trains for a few hours because he fell asleep.

Well that's about all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, please let me know and I can answer them for you.

*special note: I know many of the spellings for Japanese are not correct. These are written for people with no knowledge of Japanese, and phonetically written for those folks that don't speak the language. Say these phrases how they are written and you'll be ok.