5 ms·

Tokyo by Train (2016) [video]

kuczmama 3y ago
I lived in Tokyo for a little over 3 years from 2017 to 2020, and this video brings back some really fond memories. Here's a few fun facts about Japan's trains: - Every single station has a different song that plays. Here is a sampling of some: https://youtu.be/470_2wt2t1o https://youtu.be/470_2wt2t1o - In the deep subway stations they pump in bird sounds to make it not feel so deep - The trains can be paid for with a specific card called the Suica card and/or pasmo card. This can also be used as a debit card at various shops. But recently due to the chip shortage these cards have been harder to get.
- SoylentYellow 3y ago
  Komagome is my favorite Yamanote line jingle: https://youtu.be/-GF_dku3Mgo?t=131 https://youtu.be/-GF_dku3Mgo?t=131
  - kazinator 3y ago
    That's the famous folk song "Sakura, Sakura". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_Sakura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_Sakura
    - kazinator 3y ago
      And, aha, here is likely why that station has that tune. Komagome used to be called 染井村 (Somei Mura). It's supposedly the origin of that famous 染井吉野 (Somei-Yoshino) cherry tree.
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    Ebisu station has the beer company jingle. Its quite nice too.
- Taganov 3y ago
  I always thought the bird sounds were more of a guide for blind people, to give them a reference point for where the platform is, because I've heard them on above ground stations too.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - matsimitsu 3y ago
    The bird sounds are indeed a guidance for blind people (to the escalators/elevators/exit).
- throw0101b 3y ago
  "Why Tokyo Has Musical Train Stations" which goes into the history a bit: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htXigbGsqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htXigbGsqQ The first jingles were by Hiroaki Ide: * http://connect.ajet.net/2020/04/11/one-man-and-a-history-of-jingles/ http://connect.ajet.net/2020/04/11/one-man-and-a-history-of-... A profile on Minoru Mukaiya, who has composed a lot of the more recent ones: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSG5IkRA9BE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSG5IkRA9BE * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Mukaiya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Mukaiya
- 1024core 3y ago
  Yeah, those bird chirps threw me off in the beginning: I thought some bird(s) has set up nests in there. But then I realized how uniform the calls were and thus must be electronic.
- jwells89 3y ago
  > The trains can be paid for with a specific card called the Suica card and/or pasmo card. This can also be used as a debit card at various shops. But recently due to the chip shortage these cards have been harder to get. Something to note is that if you have a recent-ish iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), Apple Watch (Series 3 or later), Pixel (4 or later), or Pixel Watch, regardless of where they're sold those all have the Japan-specific bits in their NFC hardware required for the digital wallet version of Suica and other Japanese IC cards. For other Android manufacturers (Samsung, etc), you'll have to get ahold of Japanese models for that capability.
  - yellow_lead 3y ago
    Garmin (Japanese model) watches have it too
  - kansai 3y ago
    Worth noting that if you have a US-issued visa card, you cannot use it to pay for IC via Apple pay.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - a_t48 3y ago
      You can however buy a physical card (at a few of the major stations) then transfer it to your phone. Once it's there you still can't reload it directly, but you can use a recharge station (with cash) - just put your phone down where the card would go.
      - lhl 3y ago
        Sadly due to semiconductor shortage, physical Suica cards are very hard to come by atm: https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/sale-of-pasmo-and-suica-cards-suspended-except-those-for-tourists-080223 https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/sale-of-pasmo-and-suica-c... FWIW I've been using Suica on a Japanese Garmin smart watch and refilling it with Google Pay on an international card without too many problems (and before that with Apple Pay with the same card on iPhone/Apple Watch), although there are probably some gotchas (Apple Pay at POS seems to be pretty hit and miss for in Tokyo and I've never figured out why).
- kazinator 3y ago
  In the Chigasaki train station (Kanagawa Prefecture), the tune is from pop tunesmith legend Kuwata Keisuke. That is his hometown. (Been since 2014, evidently.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMeLLXifBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMeLLXifBY I noticed the tune when passing through. Otherwise I wouldn't know where the dude is from. Compare with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5xSs9jBlk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5xSs9jBlk
- murphyslaw 3y ago
  What I found really strange when I went there for a few weeks, was that the entire network ground to a halt before midnight. And this for a city of 25 million people. Which I guess is why I found people sleeping in their suits near Shinjuku station. I still wonder where all the bar staff and their customers went to after closing up for the night. I asked the hotel staff and they said they could sleep on-site.
  - po 3y ago
    Two important side-effect of this: First is that it drives people to head home earlier, and then they often stop at a second place in their local neighborhood. I honestly think part of why there are still bars in the smaller neighborhoods outside of Tokyo is because of this. You can feel a bar empty out around midnight, and the people who stay behind are all locals. In NYC, those people (the ones from NJ who had to catch the PATH at least) would be derided as "bridge and tunnel" folk, but here it's most people. Secondly, it gives the subway a full 5 hours or so to do maintenance and repairs. In NYC, they were constantly re-routing trains during late night hours to do this kind of work. It is pretty disruptive for passengers and they come up with crazy workarounds like taking a bus between stations which really don't even make sense.
    - zeroCalories 3y ago
      I have used both systems too, and while the NYC transit system is a shithole, I greatly appreciate the 24 hour service. There are also usually alternatives available for when things get shutdown.
    - Symbiote 3y ago
      Many European cities compromise, by running trains overnight on Friday and Saturday nights, but using only buses on Sunday-Thursday nights. (Tokyo seems not even to have buses running at night, which is really strange.)
      - midoridensha 3y ago
        No, the whole public transit system shuts down sometime after midnight. At that point, you can either walk, ride a bicycle (there are rental/bikeshare bikes available), or take a taxi.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jeemusu 3y ago
  > - In the deep subway stations they pump in bird sounds to make it not feel so deep The bird sounds are for visually impared people, to let them know they are approaching a staircase.
georgewsinger 3y ago
An underrated fact is that the Japanese train & metro system is largely privatized: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/why-tokyo-s-privately-owned-rail-systems-work-so-well https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/why-tokyo... > Japan followed a similar path as the West before World War II, but afterwards diverged. As in the West, railroading started out very laissez-faire in the 19th century, but came under state control in the beginning of the 20th. But after World War II, while nearly all railways and intracity buses in Europe and North America were nationalized, Japan stayed its pre-war course, with the railway industry retaining its sizable minority of private firms. They became further privatized in the 80s, and now there are multiple competing rail companies in Japan. It's my understanding that their business model is to build rails, run near breakeven on the actual trains, and then capitalize on the businesses that spring up around the lines (by purchasing nearby real estate and opening up shopping centers & restaurants).
- soamv 3y ago
  They are privately operated since the 80s, but the vast majority of their initial development was government funded. As far as I understand the privatized companies are monopolies-- these companies were formed from the JNR by geographic area served (hence "JR East", "JR West" etc.) The bloomberg story is really light on details for why and how the privatization occurred; for a much more in-depth view, see S.Y. Lee's Substack, for example this post: https://seungylee14.substack.com/p/the-death-and-privatization-of-japanese https://seungylee14.substack.com/p/the-death-and-privatizati... (An interesting fact is that most of JNR's debt at the time was retained by the government while the assets and revenue were privatized)
  - resolutebat 3y ago
    In major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, J(N)R is far from the only player in town, there are numerous "really" private railways like Keikyu, Odakyu, Keio, Tokyu etc. And they all followed the same very profitable playbook of snapping up rural land, building a train line to it, and then building/selling off rights to build apartments, shopping malls etc on the now much more valuable land.
  - 3y ago
TrackerFF 3y ago
It is really neat to visit cities with a functioning transit system. Whenever I'm on business trips, I actually enjoy purchasing a 3-7 day ticket (depending on how long we stay) instead of taking taxis or ubers around. Just getting on the train, go somewhere, and take a look. Still haven't been robbed, assaulted, or experienced anything too bad - but that of course depends on where you are. (Tokyo felt super safe)
- pluijzer 3y ago
  To be fair, when I visited New York for a couple of months, I traveled all over with their metro and haven't been robbed, assaulted or experienced anything too bad either. Except that on two occasions somebody shat in carriage, that's just gross.
teleforce 3y ago
Really nice video on roaming around Tokyo in a single full day (around 20 hours) covering 19 stations and 199 km travel in several train modes (on the ground, elevated, underground and tram). It seems that the OP missed the most relevant train station and area to tourists and HN crowds, namely Akihabara. One tip for traveling in train for tourists is to use your existing Japan Railways card or JR pass to travel around Tokyo not only for inter-city travels [1]. However, this limits your travels to only routes serviced by Japan Railways or JR company but you can choose to mix the routes (free JR pass and non free) for your preferred cost and convenient. All the train routes with expected time of arrival (ETA) can be planned via Google Map App that suddenly become Google Map on steroid due to its access to the real-time data of railway network provided by Japanese govt. Amazingly, you can plan your journey accordingly in real-time even if there is an unexpected train delay. I wish more countries provide this real-time transport data available to the public (residents and tourists) so they can travel as efficiently as possible around the country and cities. [1] JR pass: http://www.jrpass.com http://www.jrpass.com

I lived in Tokyo for a little over 3 years from 2017 to 2020, and this video brings back some really fond memories. Here's a few fun facts about Japan's trains: - Every single station has a different song that plays. Here is a sampling of some: https://youtu.be/470_2wt2t1o https://youtu.be/470_2wt2t1o - In the deep subway stations they pump in bird sounds to make it not feel so deep - The trains can be paid for with a specific card called the Suica card and/or pasmo card. This can also be used as a debit card at various shops. But recently due to the chip shortage these cards have been harder to get.

SoylentYellow 3y ago
Komagome is my favorite Yamanote line jingle: https://youtu.be/-GF_dku3Mgo?t=131 https://youtu.be/-GF_dku3Mgo?t=131
- kazinator 3y ago
  That's the famous folk song "Sakura, Sakura". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_Sakura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_Sakura
  - kazinator 3y ago
    And, aha, here is likely why that station has that tune. Komagome used to be called 染井村 (Somei Mura). It's supposedly the origin of that famous 染井吉野 (Somei-Yoshino) cherry tree.
- ekianjo 3y ago
  Ebisu station has the beer company jingle. Its quite nice too.
Taganov 3y ago
I always thought the bird sounds were more of a guide for blind people, to give them a reference point for where the platform is, because I've heard them on above ground stations too.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- matsimitsu 3y ago
  The bird sounds are indeed a guidance for blind people (to the escalators/elevators/exit).
throw0101b 3y ago
"Why Tokyo Has Musical Train Stations" which goes into the history a bit: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htXigbGsqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htXigbGsqQ The first jingles were by Hiroaki Ide: * http://connect.ajet.net/2020/04/11/one-man-and-a-history-of-jingles/ http://connect.ajet.net/2020/04/11/one-man-and-a-history-of-... A profile on Minoru Mukaiya, who has composed a lot of the more recent ones: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSG5IkRA9BE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSG5IkRA9BE * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Mukaiya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Mukaiya
1024core 3y ago
Yeah, those bird chirps threw me off in the beginning: I thought some bird(s) has set up nests in there. But then I realized how uniform the calls were and thus must be electronic.
jwells89 3y ago
> The trains can be paid for with a specific card called the Suica card and/or pasmo card. This can also be used as a debit card at various shops. But recently due to the chip shortage these cards have been harder to get. Something to note is that if you have a recent-ish iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), Apple Watch (Series 3 or later), Pixel (4 or later), or Pixel Watch, regardless of where they're sold those all have the Japan-specific bits in their NFC hardware required for the digital wallet version of Suica and other Japanese IC cards. For other Android manufacturers (Samsung, etc), you'll have to get ahold of Japanese models for that capability.
- yellow_lead 3y ago
  Garmin (Japanese model) watches have it too
- kansai 3y ago
  Worth noting that if you have a US-issued visa card, you cannot use it to pay for IC via Apple pay.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - a_t48 3y ago
    You can however buy a physical card (at a few of the major stations) then transfer it to your phone. Once it's there you still can't reload it directly, but you can use a recharge station (with cash) - just put your phone down where the card would go.
    - lhl 3y ago
      Sadly due to semiconductor shortage, physical Suica cards are very hard to come by atm: https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/sale-of-pasmo-and-suica-cards-suspended-except-those-for-tourists-080223 https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/sale-of-pasmo-and-suica-c... FWIW I've been using Suica on a Japanese Garmin smart watch and refilling it with Google Pay on an international card without too many problems (and before that with Apple Pay with the same card on iPhone/Apple Watch), although there are probably some gotchas (Apple Pay at POS seems to be pretty hit and miss for in Tokyo and I've never figured out why).
kazinator 3y ago
In the Chigasaki train station (Kanagawa Prefecture), the tune is from pop tunesmith legend Kuwata Keisuke. That is his hometown. (Been since 2014, evidently.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMeLLXifBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMeLLXifBY I noticed the tune when passing through. Otherwise I wouldn't know where the dude is from. Compare with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5xSs9jBlk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5xSs9jBlk
murphyslaw 3y ago
What I found really strange when I went there for a few weeks, was that the entire network ground to a halt before midnight. And this for a city of 25 million people. Which I guess is why I found people sleeping in their suits near Shinjuku station. I still wonder where all the bar staff and their customers went to after closing up for the night. I asked the hotel staff and they said they could sleep on-site.
- po 3y ago
  Two important side-effect of this: First is that it drives people to head home earlier, and then they often stop at a second place in their local neighborhood. I honestly think part of why there are still bars in the smaller neighborhoods outside of Tokyo is because of this. You can feel a bar empty out around midnight, and the people who stay behind are all locals. In NYC, those people (the ones from NJ who had to catch the PATH at least) would be derided as "bridge and tunnel" folk, but here it's most people. Secondly, it gives the subway a full 5 hours or so to do maintenance and repairs. In NYC, they were constantly re-routing trains during late night hours to do this kind of work. It is pretty disruptive for passengers and they come up with crazy workarounds like taking a bus between stations which really don't even make sense.
  - zeroCalories 3y ago
    I have used both systems too, and while the NYC transit system is a shithole, I greatly appreciate the 24 hour service. There are also usually alternatives available for when things get shutdown.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    Many European cities compromise, by running trains overnight on Friday and Saturday nights, but using only buses on Sunday-Thursday nights. (Tokyo seems not even to have buses running at night, which is really strange.)
    - midoridensha 3y ago
      No, the whole public transit system shuts down sometime after midnight. At that point, you can either walk, ride a bicycle (there are rental/bikeshare bikes available), or take a taxi.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jeemusu 3y ago
> - In the deep subway stations they pump in bird sounds to make it not feel so deep The bird sounds are for visually impared people, to let them know they are approaching a staircase.

georgewsinger 3y ago

An underrated fact is that the Japanese train & metro system is largely privatized: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/why-tokyo-s-privately-owned-rail-systems-work-so-well https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/why-tokyo... > Japan followed a similar path as the West before World War II, but afterwards diverged. As in the West, railroading started out very laissez-faire in the 19th century, but came under state control in the beginning of the 20th. But after World War II, while nearly all railways and intracity buses in Europe and North America were nationalized, Japan stayed its pre-war course, with the railway industry retaining its sizable minority of private firms. They became further privatized in the 80s, and now there are multiple competing rail companies in Japan. It's my understanding that their business model is to build rails, run near breakeven on the actual trains, and then capitalize on the businesses that spring up around the lines (by purchasing nearby real estate and opening up shopping centers & restaurants).

soamv 3y ago
They are privately operated since the 80s, but the vast majority of their initial development was government funded. As far as I understand the privatized companies are monopolies-- these companies were formed from the JNR by geographic area served (hence "JR East", "JR West" etc.) The bloomberg story is really light on details for why and how the privatization occurred; for a much more in-depth view, see S.Y. Lee's Substack, for example this post: https://seungylee14.substack.com/p/the-death-and-privatization-of-japanese https://seungylee14.substack.com/p/the-death-and-privatizati... (An interesting fact is that most of JNR's debt at the time was retained by the government while the assets and revenue were privatized)
- resolutebat 3y ago
  In major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, J(N)R is far from the only player in town, there are numerous "really" private railways like Keikyu, Odakyu, Keio, Tokyu etc. And they all followed the same very profitable playbook of snapping up rural land, building a train line to it, and then building/selling off rights to build apartments, shopping malls etc on the now much more valuable land.
- 3y ago

TrackerFF 3y ago

It is really neat to visit cities with a functioning transit system. Whenever I'm on business trips, I actually enjoy purchasing a 3-7 day ticket (depending on how long we stay) instead of taking taxis or ubers around. Just getting on the train, go somewhere, and take a look. Still haven't been robbed, assaulted, or experienced anything too bad - but that of course depends on where you are. (Tokyo felt super safe)

pluijzer 3y ago
To be fair, when I visited New York for a couple of months, I traveled all over with their metro and haven't been robbed, assaulted or experienced anything too bad either. Except that on two occasions somebody shat in carriage, that's just gross.

teleforce 3y ago

Really nice video on roaming around Tokyo in a single full day (around 20 hours) covering 19 stations and 199 km travel in several train modes (on the ground, elevated, underground and tram). It seems that the OP missed the most relevant train station and area to tourists and HN crowds, namely Akihabara. One tip for traveling in train for tourists is to use your existing Japan Railways card or JR pass to travel around Tokyo not only for inter-city travels [1]. However, this limits your travels to only routes serviced by Japan Railways or JR company but you can choose to mix the routes (free JR pass and non free) for your preferred cost and convenient. All the train routes with expected time of arrival (ETA) can be planned via Google Map App that suddenly become Google Map on steroid due to its access to the real-time data of railway network provided by Japanese govt. Amazingly, you can plan your journey accordingly in real-time even if there is an unexpected train delay. I wish more countries provide this real-time transport data available to the public (residents and tourists) so they can travel as efficiently as possible around the country and cities. [1] JR pass: http://www.jrpass.com http://www.jrpass.com