Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
Sorry it took so long to put together, but I thought I would write a little bit about my time in Japan to help “wrap up” my thread. First off all I would like to thank the members here who no matter the question go out to their way to provide as much detailed information as they possibly can, and who even digitally can convey an enthusiasm for railways around the world. It’s amazing the wealth of knowledge that resides on these forums, and how gracious everyone is here when it comes to sharing their knowledge.
My flight to Japan was aboard ANA Airlines on one of their new 787s. We departed Hanoi on time I managed to score an exit row seat on the “Dreamliner” which was a welcome experience on the 6 hour flight. There was hardly anyone aboard, so I ended up with an empty exit row my first 787 experience was a very positive one, but I digress. I landed in Tokyo pretty much on time my bag came out quickly, and I was hoping to squeeze as much riding as I could that night. Unfortunately, customs had other plans for me that evening. After a very through welcome to Japan in a tiny backroom in Haneda I was allowed to enter the country, but it left me with very little time for riding around that night.
My first rail journey was aboard the Tokyo Monorail. I had already had some Yen handy, so when I walked to the monorail ticket machine a railroad representative helped me buy the correct ticket for my ultimate destination that evening Tokyo Station. I waited a couple of minutes at track 2 until a train came to a stop, and my immediate fears that I wouldn’t be able to handle the chaos of Tokyo melted away. The car was pretty much empty, and I had no trouble finding a seat. The train made 6 stops before coming to the end of the line, where I was to transfer to the Yamanote Line. The transfer wasn’t as easy as I was hoping since there were a couple flights of stairs and no escalators at least the way I went, so I had to carry my bag up a few flights of stairs. Not the end of the world, but certainly could be a challenge for some.
I took the Yamanote line the “wrong way” to get some more time aboard it since it was considered one of the “must rides”. Eventually I arrived at a station known simply as “Tokyo” which was a little confusing, but I had checked the name ahead of time, so I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was the station itself. Carried my bag down another flight of steps and found myself in the middle of a big bustling city. Having spent the last two weeks in mostly backwater parts of South East Asia my pace of life had slowed down significantly. One of my favorite things to do is walk down the LIRR main passageway around 5:30 during a weekday rush just to feel the rush of the crowds (probably weird), but here I was it was around 11:30 at night at this point, and it felt an awful lot like I was in the LIRR section of Penn Station at rush hour. I was able to consult a map and find my hotel which was inside the station.
It took me a few minutes to walk to the hotel and another couple of minutes to find the rather discreet entrance to the Tokyo Station Hotel. Check in was a breeze, and somehow found myself being led to the Ambassadors Suite which was not what I had booked. They never quite explained how I ended up getting upgraded, but it was 1 of only 2 suites in the hotel, and I was certainly wasn’t complaining. It was a shame I was only going to be there for a night and I was in one the nicest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in. After telling the bell hop the room would be more than “adequate” I popped on the wi fi and updated a few friends and family of my safe arrival.
I was pretty spent, but I knew I was burning what little precious time I had in Japan, so I headed back down to the station. The hotel its self was outside of the fare gates that seemed to exist at every entrance and exit to the station, so after fiddling with a ticket machine for a minute I was able to purchase a platform ticket which would give me access to the station for a couple hundred of Yen. Basically all of the station was closed for the evening, but there were still what felt like thousands of people making connections inside the station. I spent basically 2 hours just allowing myself to get lost inside the station and walk down each and every corridor I could. Just trying to get a feel for the place. It felt more like New York Penn Station then any of the larger stations I have been to in England, France or China. Still an interesting place none the less.
After heading back out through the fare gates I was determined to find something to eat late night near the hotel. I didn’t have a destination in mind, but felt a tad nervous wondering around at nearly 1AM in a city I have never been in, but I felt pretty safe. I walked a couple blocks before finding Lad’s Casual Dining. Which was a mix of businessmen still in suites and a couple Westerns wearing shorts. Being dressed like the latter I pulled up a bar stool in the corner. A few Highballs later and after eating a pizza of all things I headed back to the hotel. The walk back again felt safe, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
My self imposed 6AM wake up call was a tad ambitious, but I planned on squeezing every possible moment I had on the ground to do things other than sleep and sit in airports. As I made coffee I had to laugh while I watched the New York Yankees with my breakfast instead of dinner like I am accustomed to. The first order of business was to purchase my tickets on what would end up being the only High Speed Rail ride of the trip aboard the Narita Express. I had more Yen then I anticipated and elected to spend the extra on a seat in the green car, which was what they called first class. Then not quite ready to head underground to ride some subways, I took a brief stroll through the neighborhood. Made what was probably the worlds quickest visit to the Imperial Palace then walked backed to the train station. I had hoped to take a ride on a Shinkansen, but I wasn’t comfortable with the schedules and timing to give me enough time to catch my flight home.
I decided instead to fulfill a very odd and fragmented dream from my childhood. I believe it was the Boston Children’s Museum that had a display about the Tokyo subway system, and somehow in my mind I remember looking at the subway map of Tokyo with my dad, and I have a clear memory of him tracing his finger across a silver line. Ever since then I have thought about riding the silver line. I guess I could have waited a few months, and rode a silver line down in Washington DC, but here I was in Tokyo with an opportunity to accomplish a very bizarre childhood dream. I didn’t have time to ride the line end to end, but I made it out to a transfer point with the silver line which took a couple of transfers, but using screenshots I took from Google Maps transit directions I made it through the transfers like a seasoned local :lol: . My childhood dream lasting all of 1 station from Kasumigaseki to Hibiya of course fell short of whatever grand fantasy I must have envisioned at the age of 5 or 6, and the reality of being on a packed subway car in Asia was certainly different then the exhibit at the museum. I then made 2 more transfers before getting back to my hotel. Where check out time was rapidly approaching.
I collected my things at the hotel and sent a quick email to my friend who was picking me up at the airport to remind him I was in fact starting the long journey back home. I checked out of the hotel and headed back into the seemingly nonstop river of people inside Tokyo Station. I found the liquor store I had read about online that promised a large selection of Japanese Craft beers and bought a couple different brews to try on the train. Another stop and I had secured a sandwich to eat aboard the train. I was standing on the platform about 40 minutes before departure time, so I was able to watch the Narita Express train before mine pull up and combine two sections which was interesting. I tried speaking to the one engineer who was going off duty, but his English wasn’t to great and he obviously wanted to get off duty, so even though I had roughly 100 questions for him I knew they would have to sadly to unanswered. A couple of other trains came and went in that half hour before the next Narita Express train showed up. I lined up where the sign said car number 6 would be, and as advertised the train pulled up 2 minutes early with first class the last car on the train.
I found my assigned seat, which was luckily a window although in this case it would have hardly mattered since the car was roughly 25% full. After a few minutes we pulled out right on time. I was surprised that no one ever came to check my ticket. I guess since I scanned it through a fare gate they knew I paid a fare, but the only employee I saw was the woman pushing an airline style snack cart through the train offering a selection of food and beverages for sale. The ride was very nice and the seating was excellent. The train ran express from Tokyo right to the terminals. I believe the maximum speed was only around 80MPH, so hardly a high-speed rail experience especially by Japanese standards. The equipment how ever is only a few years old so it was very nice. I was surprised how quickly we got out of the urban sprawl and into more or less farmlands. Although I understand that Narita isn’t really in the direction of most of the urban sprawl of the Tokyo Metro Area. The ride was nice overall and it did provide me with a touch of perspective of what I was missing by spending such a ridiculously short amount of time there. The train ride came to end much to quickly as we arrived at Terminal 1 of Narita airport.
Once you detrain you go through a quick passport screening, and then have to ride up 4 sets of elevators until you arrive at the check in counters. I checked in to my flight and made it through security and immigration very quickly. Checked into the United Club and took advantage of the self serve Crown Royal until it was time to board what ended up being a very blurry flight back to Newark.
All in all, it was quite an interesting although very brief trip to Japan. I knew I wouldn’t have time to even begin to scratch the surface on an entire country in that kind of time, but it certainly sparked a strong desire to return and give it a proper amount of time to fully explore and enjoy. There was definitely a little bit of a culture shock for me coming out of Laos and their microscopic Capitol city of just 50,000 to one of the biggest cities in the World. I think it would have been better to have had this layover on the front end of the trip, but either way I know I want to head back to Japan and give it a couple of weeks to visit more of it. I hardly feel like I was there, and would hate to feel that an entire country could be summed up in one quick visit like that. I would hate for someone to judge America on a 19 hour layover and a basically a glorified airport transfer from Newark to JFK, so I don’t think I can really give an informed opinion on Japan. I just hope my travel plans take me back there sooner rather then later.
Thanks for reading! This ended up being much longer than I anticipated!
Waiting to board the Yamanote Line
The first half of my room.
The Bedroom.
Awful shot of a Shinkansen departing Tokyo
Tokyo Station
My flight to Japan was aboard ANA Airlines on one of their new 787s. We departed Hanoi on time I managed to score an exit row seat on the “Dreamliner” which was a welcome experience on the 6 hour flight. There was hardly anyone aboard, so I ended up with an empty exit row my first 787 experience was a very positive one, but I digress. I landed in Tokyo pretty much on time my bag came out quickly, and I was hoping to squeeze as much riding as I could that night. Unfortunately, customs had other plans for me that evening. After a very through welcome to Japan in a tiny backroom in Haneda I was allowed to enter the country, but it left me with very little time for riding around that night.
My first rail journey was aboard the Tokyo Monorail. I had already had some Yen handy, so when I walked to the monorail ticket machine a railroad representative helped me buy the correct ticket for my ultimate destination that evening Tokyo Station. I waited a couple of minutes at track 2 until a train came to a stop, and my immediate fears that I wouldn’t be able to handle the chaos of Tokyo melted away. The car was pretty much empty, and I had no trouble finding a seat. The train made 6 stops before coming to the end of the line, where I was to transfer to the Yamanote Line. The transfer wasn’t as easy as I was hoping since there were a couple flights of stairs and no escalators at least the way I went, so I had to carry my bag up a few flights of stairs. Not the end of the world, but certainly could be a challenge for some.
I took the Yamanote line the “wrong way” to get some more time aboard it since it was considered one of the “must rides”. Eventually I arrived at a station known simply as “Tokyo” which was a little confusing, but I had checked the name ahead of time, so I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was the station itself. Carried my bag down another flight of steps and found myself in the middle of a big bustling city. Having spent the last two weeks in mostly backwater parts of South East Asia my pace of life had slowed down significantly. One of my favorite things to do is walk down the LIRR main passageway around 5:30 during a weekday rush just to feel the rush of the crowds (probably weird), but here I was it was around 11:30 at night at this point, and it felt an awful lot like I was in the LIRR section of Penn Station at rush hour. I was able to consult a map and find my hotel which was inside the station.
It took me a few minutes to walk to the hotel and another couple of minutes to find the rather discreet entrance to the Tokyo Station Hotel. Check in was a breeze, and somehow found myself being led to the Ambassadors Suite which was not what I had booked. They never quite explained how I ended up getting upgraded, but it was 1 of only 2 suites in the hotel, and I was certainly wasn’t complaining. It was a shame I was only going to be there for a night and I was in one the nicest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in. After telling the bell hop the room would be more than “adequate” I popped on the wi fi and updated a few friends and family of my safe arrival.
I was pretty spent, but I knew I was burning what little precious time I had in Japan, so I headed back down to the station. The hotel its self was outside of the fare gates that seemed to exist at every entrance and exit to the station, so after fiddling with a ticket machine for a minute I was able to purchase a platform ticket which would give me access to the station for a couple hundred of Yen. Basically all of the station was closed for the evening, but there were still what felt like thousands of people making connections inside the station. I spent basically 2 hours just allowing myself to get lost inside the station and walk down each and every corridor I could. Just trying to get a feel for the place. It felt more like New York Penn Station then any of the larger stations I have been to in England, France or China. Still an interesting place none the less.
After heading back out through the fare gates I was determined to find something to eat late night near the hotel. I didn’t have a destination in mind, but felt a tad nervous wondering around at nearly 1AM in a city I have never been in, but I felt pretty safe. I walked a couple blocks before finding Lad’s Casual Dining. Which was a mix of businessmen still in suites and a couple Westerns wearing shorts. Being dressed like the latter I pulled up a bar stool in the corner. A few Highballs later and after eating a pizza of all things I headed back to the hotel. The walk back again felt safe, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
My self imposed 6AM wake up call was a tad ambitious, but I planned on squeezing every possible moment I had on the ground to do things other than sleep and sit in airports. As I made coffee I had to laugh while I watched the New York Yankees with my breakfast instead of dinner like I am accustomed to. The first order of business was to purchase my tickets on what would end up being the only High Speed Rail ride of the trip aboard the Narita Express. I had more Yen then I anticipated and elected to spend the extra on a seat in the green car, which was what they called first class. Then not quite ready to head underground to ride some subways, I took a brief stroll through the neighborhood. Made what was probably the worlds quickest visit to the Imperial Palace then walked backed to the train station. I had hoped to take a ride on a Shinkansen, but I wasn’t comfortable with the schedules and timing to give me enough time to catch my flight home.
I decided instead to fulfill a very odd and fragmented dream from my childhood. I believe it was the Boston Children’s Museum that had a display about the Tokyo subway system, and somehow in my mind I remember looking at the subway map of Tokyo with my dad, and I have a clear memory of him tracing his finger across a silver line. Ever since then I have thought about riding the silver line. I guess I could have waited a few months, and rode a silver line down in Washington DC, but here I was in Tokyo with an opportunity to accomplish a very bizarre childhood dream. I didn’t have time to ride the line end to end, but I made it out to a transfer point with the silver line which took a couple of transfers, but using screenshots I took from Google Maps transit directions I made it through the transfers like a seasoned local :lol: . My childhood dream lasting all of 1 station from Kasumigaseki to Hibiya of course fell short of whatever grand fantasy I must have envisioned at the age of 5 or 6, and the reality of being on a packed subway car in Asia was certainly different then the exhibit at the museum. I then made 2 more transfers before getting back to my hotel. Where check out time was rapidly approaching.
I collected my things at the hotel and sent a quick email to my friend who was picking me up at the airport to remind him I was in fact starting the long journey back home. I checked out of the hotel and headed back into the seemingly nonstop river of people inside Tokyo Station. I found the liquor store I had read about online that promised a large selection of Japanese Craft beers and bought a couple different brews to try on the train. Another stop and I had secured a sandwich to eat aboard the train. I was standing on the platform about 40 minutes before departure time, so I was able to watch the Narita Express train before mine pull up and combine two sections which was interesting. I tried speaking to the one engineer who was going off duty, but his English wasn’t to great and he obviously wanted to get off duty, so even though I had roughly 100 questions for him I knew they would have to sadly to unanswered. A couple of other trains came and went in that half hour before the next Narita Express train showed up. I lined up where the sign said car number 6 would be, and as advertised the train pulled up 2 minutes early with first class the last car on the train.
I found my assigned seat, which was luckily a window although in this case it would have hardly mattered since the car was roughly 25% full. After a few minutes we pulled out right on time. I was surprised that no one ever came to check my ticket. I guess since I scanned it through a fare gate they knew I paid a fare, but the only employee I saw was the woman pushing an airline style snack cart through the train offering a selection of food and beverages for sale. The ride was very nice and the seating was excellent. The train ran express from Tokyo right to the terminals. I believe the maximum speed was only around 80MPH, so hardly a high-speed rail experience especially by Japanese standards. The equipment how ever is only a few years old so it was very nice. I was surprised how quickly we got out of the urban sprawl and into more or less farmlands. Although I understand that Narita isn’t really in the direction of most of the urban sprawl of the Tokyo Metro Area. The ride was nice overall and it did provide me with a touch of perspective of what I was missing by spending such a ridiculously short amount of time there. The train ride came to end much to quickly as we arrived at Terminal 1 of Narita airport.
Once you detrain you go through a quick passport screening, and then have to ride up 4 sets of elevators until you arrive at the check in counters. I checked in to my flight and made it through security and immigration very quickly. Checked into the United Club and took advantage of the self serve Crown Royal until it was time to board what ended up being a very blurry flight back to Newark.
All in all, it was quite an interesting although very brief trip to Japan. I knew I wouldn’t have time to even begin to scratch the surface on an entire country in that kind of time, but it certainly sparked a strong desire to return and give it a proper amount of time to fully explore and enjoy. There was definitely a little bit of a culture shock for me coming out of Laos and their microscopic Capitol city of just 50,000 to one of the biggest cities in the World. I think it would have been better to have had this layover on the front end of the trip, but either way I know I want to head back to Japan and give it a couple of weeks to visit more of it. I hardly feel like I was there, and would hate to feel that an entire country could be summed up in one quick visit like that. I would hate for someone to judge America on a 19 hour layover and a basically a glorified airport transfer from Newark to JFK, so I don’t think I can really give an informed opinion on Japan. I just hope my travel plans take me back there sooner rather then later.
Thanks for reading! This ended up being much longer than I anticipated!
Waiting to board the Yamanote Line
The first half of my room.
The Bedroom.
Awful shot of a Shinkansen departing Tokyo
Tokyo Station
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