Metro-A-GoGo

Japan is known around the world for their incredible public transport system.  There are a system of buses, the JR line (train), in my area a two part subway system consisting of the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway.

Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway Map

JR East Map

Looking at a map of the rail and subway system is terrifying, but in reality it is very easy to use even though there is little signage in english, To buy tickets you use automated kiosks which can be set to English. You can buy a one use ticket or get a rechargeable card known as Pasmo (JR lines) or Suica (subway lines). I'm not sure why there are still two separate cards, as they can be used interchangeably, i.e. I use my Suica to take JR trains. Suica cards can also sometimes be used to buy items at combini and vending machines. You have to put down a 500 yen deposit for the card itself, and then can buy a commuter pass if you wish. Fares are a bit on the expensive side, and are dependent on how far you're traveling from your current location. If you're a student and have the proper documentation you can get a 75% discount on a monthly pass. My pass at a 75% discount is 8,790 yen, or 80.43 USD.

The average commute for a Japanese person is an hour each way. It's very clean, very safe, and very punctual. It's also how many people, including me, commute to work every day. This mean at rush hours (about 7-11 and 5:30-9:30) the trains can be packed. For my morning class at 9:20 some of the trains often look like this:

It looks pretty horrible, but it's actually not so bad. The only thing is you can't really carry a backpack and if you can't reach a handle it's easy to flop onto your fellow passengers as the train rocks. People don't really mind because it's unavoidable. You might have gathered I didn't take these pictures; even as a gajin I'm hesitant to take any photos on the trains or metro because of the one danger: pervs. A few years ago there was a serious problem with trash human beings groping women and taking upskirt photos on trains and at train stations. It's much less of a problem than it was, but it certainly still happens. Luckily I have not had any issues with such wastemen, which is probably best for them.

That is the only common worry on trains, otherwise it's so safe people sleep on them. On literally every train I ride there's someone sleeping. Usually a salaryman. Most people do this so much they automatically wake up at their station. I've fallen asleep once or twice, and the conductor announcing the station woke me up. The cars themselves are clean and mostly new-ish. The seats are unstained and comfortable. Some trains have no monitors in the cars, some have old LED style crawlers, and the newest ones have full color monitors. 

At Shinjuku Station

Like the signs in the stations themselves, the information in the cars is in romaji (roman letters) and kana/kanji (syllable symbols and Chinese characters). The above picture shows the signboards for trains arriving soon. About every minute or so they'll change to romaji. Because of this it is very easy to get around, as long as you know what station you need to get to. I think my initial difficulty didn't come from the language, but rather that I'd never had to ride public transport. Once I understood how trains and schedules and lines worked it was much easier. Despite the crowding and expense I love love love public transport here, and I'll be very sad to leave it.