trains! trains everywhere!

I’ve spoken before of Japan’s predilection towards trains, railroads, trams, subways, monorails, and basically any other vehicle that runs on one or more rails. They’re everywhere, and they’re honestly fantastic. I don’t doubt that if only the United States had a train system even a quarter as advanced or connected as Japan’s, we would be a cleaner, faster, and altogether better nation on the whole. On the Japan model, we would be able, in the United States, to travel from Boston to Chicago in about 3 hours (tops) for about $100 or so, in an un-hijackable, much more energy efficient version of a plane. That’s on a large scale. On a small scale, people would be easily able to travel from Lawrence, Massachusetts to Burlington, for example, in under an hour and for probably three dollars. Imagine the effect this would have on the economy, and on population density! We have but a seed of this potentiality currently in existence in the US, and it is a shame that it hasn’t been allowed to blossom. Though this isn’t to say that Japan’s trains are cheap, or, with some exceptions, direct.

“Labyrinthine” is the word I think I’ve used before, and will use again, to describe this network of locomotives. Utilizing the hub and spoke method of railway connections, getting from point A to point B requires first going to Point A1, making a transfer to Point A2b, switching for Train F, etc etc etc.

My family and I experienced this firsthand when, beginning at about 7 AM, I left my house and walked up the street to Fuchinobe station. From there, I boarded the Yokohama line and traveled two stops to the Machida JR Station. I disembarked and walked across town to the Machida Odakyu department store, the basement of which is the Machida Odakyu station. Getting on the semi-express train for Shinjuku, I traveled for about 40 minutes or so until I arrived in Shinjuku station in Tokyo, incidentally the largest train station in the world. I descended through the many layers of the highly stratified station and soon arrived at the Shinjuku Tokyo Metro Station, the subway station. I got on the Shinjuku line and switched at Akasaka Mitsuge for the Ginza Line, another subway line, and, about 2 hours or so after leaving Machida, arrived at Shimbashi, the Tokyo Metro station near my family’s hotel.

I met them there and we then boarded the Shimbashi stop for the Yamanote Line, which took us to Tokyo Station. From Tokyo Station we again descended to the lower depths of train-traveling and arrived at the Maihara Line, a private, elevated railway that takes you about 15 km or so outside of Tokyo Proper. After a nice, scenic ride we arrived at our destination: Tokyo Disneyland. I will write more about this in my next entry, for it seems I have ranted far too much about trains.