A Yamanote Line day

Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Today we decided to head out on the JR Yamanote Line, which circles its way through greater Tokyo and just see what we could see. The Yamanote Line includes a total of 29 stations, which includes 6 major station hubs. In the past few days we have already seen Tokyo, and Ueno stations, so only Shingawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro left to explore. Our "home" station, Shimbashi, is not a "major" station, but it still sure is busy! As you may have guessed we are getting very good with our pronunciation of multi-syllabic words!

The trains have been very efficient for us to get around Japan since we arrived. Each station is configured and looks a little different and the major stations are amazing when we think of how many trains (going to a variety of locations) are coming and going AND how some of them have many tracks and lines stacked at different levels. Everything runs in quite the orderly fashion, especially when you consider how many people are rolling through these stations (big and small) everyday. There is at least one attendant at each gate to answer any questions and to assist with any manual movements.

At each station, Japan Rail, Tokyo Metro Subway or any of the private rail lines, there are ticketing stations where riders can look up and check which station they want to go to, check the cost, and make a purchase of a ticket. Generally, there is at least one attendant at each of these ticketing stations to be of assistance. There is an English option on the ticketing machines for those of us that don't read Japanese! Everyone needs a ticket to get into the station and again to leave it. If someone has "over ridden" their station, there are "fare adjustment machines" to pay the difference. Its all quite ingenious really.

Inside the stations are a continuing line of signs, overhead and on the walls and posts - to advise where to find each "line", platform and exit. There are also plenty of maps showing where you are, the station you are in, and the immediate area outside around the station, noting major attractions, etc. Its a bit overwhelming if you are not sure where you are going. We were armed with a good map, which was extremely helpful.

Once on the train platform, everyone lines up at the indicated lines, showing where the train doors will stop. Trains are made up of many, many cars, so there are lots of spots. We were amazed at how accurate the trains stop at these door spots! The rail system is also perfect for impatient folks who may miss a train - during our travels, the next one would be along in less than 5 minutes!

Inside each car on the train there are electronic indicators showing which stop is coming up next in Japanese and English as well as which connections can be made at the next station. An audio announcement is also made.

When you come visit Tokyo (or most major cities), even though it may cost a few more bucks a night, we highly recommend finding a hotel with the right location; for us the Dai Ichi Hotel Tokyo is perfect - 1 block from a train station and close to so many attractions we could walk to, such as Ginza (2 blocks away), Imperial Palace, Tokyo Tower and the waterfront. We like the experience (and cost savings) of public transit! Taxis here are very plentiful but very expensive. Renting a car (to drive on the opposite side of the road, in a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right, is also not recommended - parking looks to be a nightmare here!)

Our first stop on today's adventure is Shinagawa, where we picked up a few items in a drugstore(no Shoppers Drug Marts here yet) at a large mall opposite the train station. Already getting a little peckish (it was lunch hour), we looked around a little more not finding anything which piqued our interest, we headed back to the train station. We decided to look into the Shinkansen(Bullet Train), as we are taking it to Osaka Tuesday. We wanted to have an advanced look at what we could expect and exactly which platform we needed. We found the tracks and platform for the trains, and then went to the JR line ticket office to make some inquiries. At the office, a gentleman was very helpful, giving us a pocket timetable, helped us book our tickets and reserve our seats for tomorrow morning. This eased our minds as now we know we have seats. Our passage to Osaka is all included in our Japan Rail passes, so no extra charges.

From there, we re-boarded the Yamanote Line and headed out to Shibuya. There we did some more looking around (mostly for a restaurant), and stopped for lunch at Botejyu in the B2 floor of the Tokyo Plaza across from the station. The restaurant was a small "teppanaki" type restaurant, where customers can see the cook making their food on a giant grill. I think we must be getting even more brave than we were in the past, as we couldn't read the menu again and ordered a couple of dishes by pointing at two unfamiliar looking plastic renditions in the window and writing down what was written by the item. I ordered Pork Omusoba and Eve had Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. The dishes were made with something like crepes and filled with lettuce, noodles, meat and vegetables, then topped with a couple of sauces and garnishes. Both were very good. We saw the "samples" in the window and know what the items would look like (both large looking) and were wondering how we would be able to eat them with chopsticks. Our questions were answered when the dishes were served with what looked like small metal spatulas, which could not only cut our food, but we could eat with them as well (we took a clue from the table beside us!) Eve wanted to try the okonomiyaki this trip as Haruna worked in an okonomiyaki restaurant last summer and Pam also recommended we try it! That's the advantage of sending our kids ahead to foreign countries!

After lunch we walked around the neighbourhood and found the Tokyu Department Store, turns out it is connected to the Shibuya Station. The traffic corner to get back across to the Shibuya station and the "Tokyu" Department store was quite the spectacle - it is a massive scramble corner, with what seemed to be a sea of people going every which way. Also the corner was filled with amazing buildings, one having a TV the entire length of the building! The department store was huge, comprised of three towers. It took us a while to navigate through the store as we were not aware the three towers' floors were only connected on floors 5, 6 and 7. We saw a few nice items, but they had nice price tags to match!

Back onto the train and now onward to Shinjuku. This is the busiest train station in the World. In 2007, it was used by an average of, now get this, 3.64 million passengers per DAY. Now it is a holiday week here in Japan, and I can tell you, the place was quite busy today. Another daunting thing about this station is that it has over 200 exits, so you need to figure out, then find the right one, to get where you are going. We arrived at Shinjuko, looking to switch from the Yamanote JR Line to the Oedo Subway line - we got an idea!!! (we paid 170 Yen, one way, about $2.00 CDN each.)

We decided to go on a mission/adventure and check out the Canadian Embassy. For this we took the Oedo line to get to Aoyama-Itchome Station, which is the closest stop to the Canadian Embassy. We walked of a couple of blocks (the street and sidewalks here were eerily quiet especially after the hustle and bustle of some of the other places we have seen today!) We arrived at the Embassy, only to find it was closed due to the holiday. The security guards gave us a curious look, but we explained we were from Canada and just wanted to take a few pictures - they noticed Greg's Canada shirt, smiled and nodded! We took advantage of being there for a few photo ops., then headed back and reversed our direction back to Shinjuku, another 170 yen. Interesting note: there was a huge poster (one of three) advertising the 80th anniversary of Canada in Japan. Cool! One of the other two signs told us its 284 days until the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics! Tokyo is a candidate city for 2016 Olympics - there are banners all over the streets to promote this bid!

Once back at Shinjuko station, we took a stroll around outside. This station was SOOO busy! Outside the station, we noticed across the road (and some construction) Takashimaya Times Square. At the time we didn't realize it was a department store, but we thought it interesting the the building close to it resembled the Empire State Building! The Shinjuko Station is also attached to the Lumine Department store. We decided not to check it out, but it is huge! There's also an accompanying shopping mall as well!

Enroute to our next train, we discovered a London Style Pub, called what else but "London Pub Railway Tavern". It was a sign for a break! Happy Hour had just started! We stopped there for a drink and some appetizers. Again, for the appetizers, it was pointing, as this time no English was understood. Ultimately, we got our fries, and something else I thought was chicken wings, but turned out not to be. Don't know what we ate, but it was good!

Next Station: Ikebukuro. This area has many department stores as well (one out each major exit!) and good shopping. We stopped at the Mitsukoshi Department Store. They were having what appeared to be a huge sale, and there were people everywhere actively thumbing through the items, and they were lined up at the cashiers. Again, no apparent indication of a recession here! We love a deal, but after checking out the 'sale' price of a $50 umbrella, and many other items in the store, $25 chopsticks (that's for one pair), traditional Japanese lacquer dishes $20 for a small rice bowl, etc, we decided to move on. This was easily the busiest department store we had visited so far on our trip.

Now we were getting a little tired so decided to head back to Shimbashi and our hotel. However, I convinced Eve that we should stop, one more time in Akihabara (Electric Town), for one more look at some electronics. It was very cool to see Akihabara at night this time, seeing the flat signs we saw yesterday come alive and dance in neon. After about another hour there, and going into a few stores, we did finally headed back to Shimbashi.

We arrived back at our humble Shimbashi station about 8 p.m. After a day of being all over, we decided to stop at the food market we discovered last night and picked out some prepared food to take back to the hotel for supper (Sushi, Tempura prawns, Tempura Taro Root - that's just a guess, and what seemed to be honey garlic vegetable clusters), supper for two - cheap at under $15 CDN.

In our walks we have noticed many, many vending machines on the street and just inside back lanes selling drinks, snacks and cigarettes (as mentioned the other day). The other things which intrigue us is the use of white metal walls around constructions sites. Some of these walls were complete with metal bulletin boards, advertising windows and a few viewing windows - no unsightly mess or inconvenience to passersby. Also there are small, almost like speed bump type lines along the sidewalks, when we come to a corner or junction there it changes to a square or multiple squares filled with round bumps. We were thinking perhaps this may be for the visually impaired.

Now we're back in room 1625 the Dai-Ichi Hotel Tokyo, we're kicking back, sorting out our stuff, doing some packing and getting ready for our Shinkansen train ride in the morning. Thank you Tokyo, we had a great time! Osaka, here we come!
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