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        <div class="chapter_number">Chapter 16: Cultural Notes</div>
        <div class="chapter_name">Trains</div>
        <div class="blurb">Japan
        is world-renowned for its first-class public transportation system, built
        around a huge infrastructure of railways. Almost every city, town, and village
        in Japan is accessible by
        rail, and rates are usually on par with a bus ride in the United States.</div>
        <div><img src="divider@2x.png" class="divider" /></div>

<p class="bodycopy">There are many local rail operators, but the biggest by far
        is Japan Rail, or JR. Japan Rail has a Japanese name, <i>Nippon Tetsudou</i>, but believe it or not, its company logo is a JR,
        and if asked for the name of the company, most Japanese would give JR.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">The train is a daily fact of life for almost everyone in Japan.
        Because students are responsible for getting to and from school on their own,
        at rush hour each day, you&rsquo;ll see the trains packed not only with
        businesspeople getting to their downtown offices, but also uniform-clad
        students, from first grade and up. The trains are incredibly convenient for
        commuting because, while they can be crowded at certain times of the day, they
        are almost always on time, down to the minute.</p>

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                    <div class="photo_credit">K. Koizumi</div>
                    <div class="photo_caption">Most larger train stations have kiosks and even restaurants available on the platform to accommodate busy travelers.<span class="photo_location"></span></div>
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<p class="bodycopy">The first thing you&rsquo;ll notice if you visit a train station
        is the parking lot outside, crammed to capacity with bicycles. Most people who
        are commuting by train, after all, are doing so because it is easier and
        cheaper than using a car, so taking a car to the train station would defeat the
        purpose. For a short journey from home to the nearest station, bicycles are
        efficient and easy to park.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Some people even buy two bikes and keep one at each train
        station they use regularly. So, for example, in the morning, they take Bike A
        to Station A, lock it up, and hop on the train to go to school or work. When
        they arrive at Station B, they unlock Bike B and continue on to their
        destination.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Perhaps the biggest testament to how accustomed people are
        to trains is the number of people you see sleeping on them. It&rsquo;s not uncommon
        on a crowded train to have the person sitting next to you doze off and slowly
        slump their head over onto your shoulder. And yet, somehow, they can rouse
        themselves automatically just as the train pulls into their station!</p>


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<p class="bodycopy">At rush hour in big cities, there are sometimes trains
        running along lines once every two or three minutes. This means that you can
        head down to the station without paying much attention to a schedule and never
        have to wait longer than a few minutes.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">However, if you&rsquo;ve got more than a few stations to go, it&rsquo;s
        usually worth consulting a timetable. Trains are divided into three categories:
        local, express, and super-express. Local trains stop at every station, express
        trains only at the larger stations, and super express trains at only the
        largest stations. This means that if you take a local train, not only will you
        be stopping at every station along the way, but every so often you&rsquo;ll have to
        wait on a side-track to allow an express train to pass. These three trains cost
        the same amount to travel on.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Of course, the grand daddy of all express trains is in a
        category&mdash;and a set of tracks&mdash;all its own. The Bullet Train, known in
        Japanese as the <i>shinkansen</i>, doesn&rsquo;t
        travel over the standard tracks and street crossings of ordinary trains. It has
        completely dedicated tracks that never cross any road or highway, allowing it
        to safely travel at speeds of 300 km/hr or more.</p>

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<p class="bodycopy">I used the <i>shinkansen</i> for a trip from Tokyo
        to Kyoto
        recently, and while I had traveled on it before, I was impressed once again.
        While the top speed is significantly slower than air travel in absolute terms,
        the <i>shinkansen</i> can be competitive
        when it comes to total door-to-door time.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">With the <i>shinkansen</i>,
        there&rsquo;s no showing up two hours prior to departure. You can come to the station
        like you would for any train, even minutes before your train departs. When you
        arrive at your destination, you can disembark and be out on the street in city
        center within minutes. On long journeys, the train will make a few stops at
        stations on the way, but these &ldquo;layovers&rdquo; last on the order of two
        minutes, and then you&rsquo;re back to zipping along at top speed.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">As a visitor to Japan, you can purchase discounted
        rail passes from JR that allow you to travel unlimitedly on both ordinary
        trains and the <i>shinkansen</i>. If you&rsquo;re
        planning a trip, be sure to look at the Japan Rail web site to figure out
        whether a pass makes sense for you.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Regardless of whether you buy a pass, though, it is almost
        certain that you will use trains extensively during any stay in Japan. They
        offer an inexpensive, convenient, and reliable way to get from point A to point
        B in the land of the rising sun.</p>

    
          
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