Japanese Transportation

October 24, 2016

Typically, it takes me 50 minutes to an hour to commute from my homestay to Oberlin University. The nearest train station is a 30-minute walk from my house. Then, I ride the train for 10 minutes, then hop onto the shuttle bus to school, which takes another 10 minutes. Sometimes, the line for the shuttle is very long, so I make sure to get to the bus stop early so that I’m not late for class.

Japan is renowned for its train system. It’s convenient, punctual, and fairly easy to navigate once you get the hang of it. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t terrified when I first saw the train map with its dozens of multicolored lines. I was so used to seeing the Boston MBTA map on a regular basis that seeing more than 8 lines intersecting and twisting in every direction just intimidated me. But I eventually learned how to navigate my way around train stations. Kind of.

The only downside to Japan’s public transportation is the number of passengers. Japan has a huge population. Tokyo alone has over 13 million people. And since the train system is so convenient, most people don’t even have cars. However, that means really crowded trains. The trains are always packed weekday mornings and evenings because of school and work. So if you commute during those times, expect to be squished between strangers.

Written By

Yvette Ortiz

Hello! My name is Yvette, and I am a fifth-year student here at Northeastern. For my final semester as an undergrad, I decided to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. One of the main reasons I chose to go abroad was my desire to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I figured traveling alone to a foreign country where my native language is rarely used would be a pretty effective way of doing that. Aside from improving my Japanese, my main study-abroad goal is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Since I will be immersed in a completely different culture, I will receive ample opportunities to initiate conversations with native Japanese speakers. I’ll probably make tons of mistakes, but that's okay, because that's what normally happens when you're learning a foreign language while living in a foreign country.