Japanese Metro Signs • 2 comments • Nothing shows Japan’s love and reverence for cartoons and comics quite like the various instructional posters you see while traveling on the metro lines throughout the country. Some caution against running for the (anthropomorphic) train, others show you how animals wearing suits would use the turnstiles, and there was even one promoting “molester eradication”.
Tokyo Subway • 1 comments • The best way to travel around Tokyo is undoubtedly the subway system. Several different lines crisscross and circle the city, making it easy to traverse the megapolis in a very short amount of time. On top of this, it's also ridiculously clean and many stations are adorned with art displays. Your journey on the Tokyo metro starts at the ticket machines. Whether you're buying the single trip ticket, or the re-loadable Pasmo pass, the machines offer an intuitive, English menu for selecting the fare. We opted for the Pasmo cards so we could avoid waiting for the machines each time. Once you've paid, the task of determining your route and platform are also surprisingly straightforward. The various lines are color coded, and each station is numbered and labeled in English, making it easy to navigate your way around the city efficiently. Though the stories of overpacked subway cars during rush hour are true, outside of the morning and evening rush you end up waiting a very short time for each train, and can often find a seat. The stereotypes of Japanese politeness are reinforced when you see people line up, let people exit the train first, and then carefully squeeze into their spot on the train. Our rides were fairly relaxed, and the system is so safe and efficient that we saw many children commuting by themselves. In fact, it's apparently common for children as young as 6 to commute on the subway and run errands by themselves - quite a contrast from the attitudes in North America. When you've finally reached your destination station, you can usually find high quality restaurants within the station themselves. The most famous example is probably the Michelin starred sushi restaurant made famous by the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, but each station has a different variety of restaurants and stores (or even huge malls, in the case of stations like Shinjuku). Shimbashi Station (pictured here a few times) is much smaller than Shinjuku, but still had some gems to discover.
xylopholks • 7 comments • I lamented about not seeing the Xylopholks around town during our previous times in NYC. So, I was pretty surprised that, on our first day in the city, we randomly happened to catch a performance at the Times Square / 42nd Street station. Their music just makes me happy. I mean, who doesn't love a xylophone and an over-sized pink gorilla?
new york city subway • 15 comments • Since we were in NYC for so long with a camera around our necks, we have a lot of miscellaneous subway photos and figured we would share them. We refrained from taking photos of the rats, you can thank us later.
hats off to you • 14 comments • A little subway silliness, courtesy of the MTA, for you this Friday. We'll be back tomorrow, with a real post. Have a great weekend!
subway blues • 4 comments • After a particularly late night of gallivanting around NYC, we sat and waited for our ride to show up while the gentleman above entertained us. He was good. We definitely would have emptied our pockets for him had he been on our platform. He stopped his song at the perfect moment to yell "TRAIN SOLO" as the subway loudly and un-melodically rolled in, rudely interrupting his tune.We were kind of hoping we would catch the Xylopholks somewhere around town, but alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe next time.
