Category Archives: Lifestyles

Travel : Tokyo JR Lines and Metro System

Posted on by
6

Last summer was my first experience on any metro system. Two good friends of mine had been stationed in Alexandria Virginia at the time, and had highly encouraged my wife and I to experience the daily grind of riding the Washington D.C. metro. Although there were several bumps along the way, the convenience and reliability of the metro was a huge plus, and at the end of the day I thought it outweighed most of the negatives I had conceived about taking public transportation.

Our D.C. tour had supposedly been our last experience on a train system for the next few seasons, however that quickly changed when I booked a ten day summer trip to Tokyo, Japan. I had discovered that traveling by taxi would be extremely expensive, and renting a car while learning to drive on the opposite side of the road wasn’t an viable option either. That left the trains again. In Japan, the JR trains and metro systems are the primary mode of transportation across the entire country, and in order to travel great distances quickly and efficiently, I would eventually need to learn how to use them. It was hard enough to navigate in D.C. with English written everywhere, so you can only imagine what I thought about when I learned that I had to travel for ten full days using a system set up in a foreign language.

Hiroo Station on the Hibiya Line right off our Hotel.

Hiroo Station on the Hibiya Line right off our Hotel.

Fortunately, being one of the largest and busiest metro systems in the world today, Japan’s systems are also one of the most punctual and simplest to navigate. I recall the metro in D.C. as being quite similar, but Tokyo was far better equipped at providing information to tourists and other visitors within the area. As long you can remember your station name, number, exit, and line color, it is really quite easy to navigate using the subway maps and other information littered across the walls. For added convenience, most of the downtown hotels in Tokyo provide hand held maps (in English) of the subway and train lines, so we used those regularly to plot our routes the night before we took them.

The employees at the stations were also quite helpful. They assisted in the loading and unloading of passengers, answered any questions we had (with their limited use of English), and kept the grounds extremely clean. In most cases a simple “Sumimasen” or excuse me in Japanese caught their attention and they would stop to speak to us or lead us to someone who could. I was very pleased with just how polite everyone was, and I definitely rank Japan as one of world’s best in when it comes to services.

Our Pasmo cards purchased the evening we arrived.

Our Pasmo cards purchased the evening we arrived.

Ticket prices are pretty fair while taking the metro and JR lines, but I would highly recommend purchasing a PASMO or Suica rechargeable card if your planning any type of extended stay in the Tokyo area. These cards can be purchased at the entrance of any metro station and there is an English button at the right end of the screen to help guide you through the process. At each entrance and exit, you simply place your card on top of the reader (the reader is located on the right and lit up with the color blue) and it debits the fare without having to purchase tickets each time you hop on another train. Each card requires a ¥500 deposit, but is 100% refundable when you return your card at the end of your trip. My wife and I started by adding ¥5000 each to the card and at the end of our trip, our total travel expenditures were ¥7000 (two ¥1000 recharges), per person. Not bad for ten days when you consider how many places (I’ll be writing about this later) we visited during our stay.

On a final note, unless you want to experience the Tokyo rush hour, I suggest you avoid the metro and JR lines during the hours of 7:30 – 9:30am and again around 5:30 – 7:00pm. Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station are probably the busiest in the entire Tokyo area at this time. I hit rush hour one evening going from Shinjuku to the Hibiya Line and it was extremely busy and hot. Not something I’d like to experience again!

OT: You know what I found quite curious about riding all those days on the Metro and JR Lines? The sleeping and cellphones! haha.. Man, there would be people sleeping for five stops then they would just snap out of it and walk off like they knew where they were going. It was pretty cool to see. It also seems that everyone is connected in Tokyo. I’ve never seen so many people with cellphones in hand at once. I wasn’t trying to be nosey, but they are all either texting, watching their navigation systems, or playing some funky game while waiting. Everyone also seems to have those “trendy” sparkles covering their phones and dangles.

Helpful Links:
Transportation in Tokyo by Japan-Guide.com
How to Metro by MustLoveJapan.com
The Tokyo Metro Official Site at tokyometro.jp
Pasmo Card Official Site at pasmo.co.jp

Travel : Planning a trip to Japan

Posted on by
4

Summer has arrived, and this year my wife and I have decided on Japan as our travel destination. Of course I’ll have my array of posts on my experiences in Japan when I return, so be expecting some great travel reviews covering the city of Tokyo during the months of July and August. Since I was basically tasked with the entire itinerary for the trip, I actually spent time preparing for our vacation since early March.

Booking Hotels and Airline Tickets

The first thing I did was book and confirm our flights and hotels. I bought tickets from Expedia once again since they were the most convenient for me, but I found competitive rates at both Priceline and Travelocity. In my experience with booking, its best that you have all the information you need available (credit cards, passports, etc..) before getting started. It just makes things much easier this way. The prices changed so quickly that I probably could have gotten a better deal if I had been prepared a bit more.

My original plan had been to book a decent three star hotel somewhere in the Shinjuku area, but even with all the discounts Expedia offered us, we would have easily paid $120.00 USD per night for something decent. Fortunately, the couple traveling with us are in the active military so they were able to sponsor my wife and I at The New Sanno located in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Therates are amazing, and if you are in the active military or have a friend who can sponsor you, its definitely worth a look. Its located less than ten minutes from the Hiroo Subway Line and they provide all the amenities you would need for a very comfortable stay. (money exchange, bank, BX, gym, etc…)

We did run into some problems however and it was primarily because we waited so long to book. We discovered that during the July 4th weekend its extremely hard to get rooms at the Sanno, so we’ll actually be staying at Azabu Court Apartments, which is about a ten minute walk from Sanno for a couple nights and return once the weekend is over. My advice : book very early.

Transportation and Costs

The next thing I wanted to learn a bit more about was getting from place to place in Japan. I knew that renting a car was not an option at all so I tried to learn as much about Japans public transportation as I could. The first option I looked at was a taxi. I quickly crossed that out after discovering they are about as expensive as riding the taxi’s here at home. $250.00 USD to get from the airport to hotel? Forget about it!

Apparently, the best way to get around Tokyo is by train or subway. I experienced Washington DC’s Metro System last year so I was familiar with how everything worked. The fact that everything is in Japanese may pose a bit of a challenge, but because everything is color coordinated and numbered, I’m pretty sure we’ll figure things out in a day or two. If your really concerned about getting around, I suggest you visit this site here. I took down a few notes and we already know which trains/subway stations to get on and off of for the first couple days. I’m sure if I had more time, I would probably have mapped out more of the trip. You may also want to look at this well done video about how to actually use the Metro if you have never used the subway station before.

Finally, be sure to purchase either a Pasmo or Suica smart card to use on your daily travels. It basically is a chargeable card that can be swiped at all major bus and train stations to make travel alot smoother and faster. It definitely beats buying a ticket at every stop. I plan to get a couple $50.00 USD cards upon arriving at Narita Airport, and simply recharging them as needed. I believe you can also refund any remaining balances when its your time to leave Japan by returning the card to a ticket sales office.

Our Itinerary (10 Days)

This was actually the toughest part of the vacation planning for me. There is just so much to see in Tokyo and I doubt we’ll cover even a fourth of everything in the ten days we’ll be visiting. I’ll post the basics here for everyone to guide themselves with, and start my reviews on each day as soon as I return.

Day 1

Enjoy the Hotel.
Walk around the area.
Possible Evening Trip to Roppongi Hills

Day 2

Tokyo Disneyland or Disney Sea(Chiba)

Day 3

Shinjuku & Shibuya, Japan Sword Museum, Isetan
Top of the Metropolitan Gov’t Office (South Tower) (Shinjuku),
Hachiko Statue, Shinjuku Station for Lunch , Stroll Shibuya in the Evening
(Check out the LOVE HOTELS!)

Day 4

Wake up Late. Gym/Pool
Shinjuku in the evening or Tokyo Dome

Day 5

Ueno Park (Tokyo National Museum and Zoo)
Edo-Tokyo Museum

Day 6

The Tsukiji Market (5:00), Imperial Palace Gardens,
Asakusa (Asakusa Shrine and Sensoji Temple)
Ginza, Sony Building Kabuki-za Theater (1 Act)

Day 7

Wake up Late.
Harajuku – Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu Shrine
Akibahara at Night

Day 8

Odaiba Pallette Town and Venus Fort shopping center,
Miraikan Museum Ride the Daikanransha (FERRIS WHEEL) Joypolis by Sega

Day 9

Kamakura (We need to leave early!)(5:00)
Inquire about Enoshima Kamakura Free Pass
Kamakura , Great Buddha of Kamakura ,Kotokuin Temple ,Tsurugaoka Shrine

Day 10

Not sure what we can do. Check out at Noon. Get Limo Bus to Narita. Check in Baggage. Hang out! What a VACATION! Where are we going next? SAYONARA! UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!!

Additional Information

I found a ton of useful sites to help me with the trip. I’ll list some of the most useful ones here.

Japan-Guide
Japanese Lifestyle
Japan Travel Info
Japan Zone
Virtual Tourist Tokyo
Wiki Travel Tokyo

Travel : Pikes Place (Seattle)

Posted on by
5

After eating at the Agua Verde Mexican Restaurant and enjoying their excellent fish tacos, my wife and I decided it was time to pay a visit to Seattle’s world renown farmers market called Pike’s Place. We were told by friends to visit the market during a weekday to avoid the huge crowds, and we were very glad we did. We found it much easier to navigate through the narrow passageways near the Fish Market, and although it was late in the afternoon when we arrived, were able to visit many of the small vendors with relative ease.

Although we arrived in Seattle in early June, it was surprisingly quite cold for the beginning of the summer. Being a islander from Guam, it was essential that I wore a warm sweater and pair of jeans. My wife and I actually found it quite amusing to see so many of the local population wearing shorts and flip flops, but I guess that’s why we were the tourists and they are the locals right? haha.

Immediately upon entering the market, you will instantly understand why its such a great place to visit as a tourist. The sights, smells, and sounds of the place are pretty amazing for a first timer, and you will definitely find something you have to buy. The market boasts some of the very best produce Seattle has to offer, beautiful freshly cut flowers, a huge variety of seafood, and three or four floors of mini shops which seemed to have an endless supply of little nick knacks and gadgets which you probably wouldn’t find anywhere else.

If your not a huge fan of window shopping, you must at the very least visit the very first Starbucks and grab a cup of Joe, then hang out along the streets to listen to a few of the entertaining street performers which litter the streets. We heard a great rendition of The Still of the Night, and there was this saxophone player whom I swore sounded exactly like Kenny G.

My final word of advice. If you’ve never been to Seattle you must experience the sights, smells, and sounds of Pike’s Place at least once. Visit during the early hours of the morning if you decide to go on a weekend, or casually stop by on a weekday. I also recommend visiting the Starbucks for a cup of coffee, and buy at least a few small bags of fresh fruits, flavored chips and almonds, or chocolate covered cherries! They were simply wonderful!

How to get there:

Websites: pikesplace.org
Pikesplacefish.com
Pikes Place Market
(206) 624-4029
1508 Pike Pl
Seattle, WA 98101