The world’s most populous metropolis, Tokyo has a metropolitan space that sprawls over greater than 5000 sq miles. Fortuitously, due to a public transport system that’s environment friendly, dependable, clear and customarily protected, getting across the area is simple.
Of most use to vacationers is the practice and subway system, which is easy to navigate due to English signage and color-coded traces – even when some massive stations, most notably Shinjuku, could be a maze for the uninitiated.
However don’t really feel obliged to make use of trains for each journey. Regardless of unpredictable site visitors patterns, buses are usually equally punctual and may be helpful for brief journeys in quieter suburbs. Tokyo’s comparatively flat topography additionally means biking and strolling don’t require an excessive amount of of a sweat and will let you discover neighborhoods you’d in any other case bypass on the underground. And if you wish to mix your commute with sightseeing, take to the river on one in every of Tokyo’s beetle-like water buses, which journey between mainland Tokyo and the reclaimed islands of Tokyo Bay.
Right here is all you might want to find out about getting round Tokyo.
Take advantage of the world’s best practice community
Tokyo’s intensive rail community consists of Japan Railways (JR) traces, a subway system and personal commuter traces that depart in each course for the suburbs like spokes on a wheel. Journeys that require transfers between traces run by completely different operators price greater than journeys that use a single operator’s traces.
Main transit hubs embrace Tokyo, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno stations — all linked through the JR Yamanote Line that circles the Imperial Palace, Tokyo’s central level. Trains arrive and depart exactly on time and are usually clear and nice, although they get uncomfortably crowded throughout rush hours and late at night time. (For a brief window within the morning and early evenings, many trains have women-only carriages.)
Additionally value noting: Tokyo’s trains cease operating between midnight and 5am (give or take an hour, relying on the road) whereas many bars, golf equipment, karaoke rooms and izakaya (gastro pubs) stay in enterprise till the wee hours and even 24/7. So keep watch over your watch, or be ready to seek out one other technique of transport house.
JR Strains
The JR community covers the entire nation and consists of the shinkansen (bullet practice). In Tokyo, the above-ground Yamanote (loop) and the Chūō–Sōbu (central) traces are essentially the most helpful. Tickets begin at ¥133 ($1.20) and go up relying on how far you journey.
Subway
Tokyo has 13 subway traces, 9 of that are operated by Tokyo Metro and 4 by Toei. The traces are color-coded, making navigation pretty easy – though a switch ticket is required to vary between the 2 networks. A Pasmo or Suica card makes this course of seamless, however both manner a journey involving multiple operator comes out costing barely extra. Fares depend upon the gap traveled.
When to go to Tokyo
Seize a transport move for seamless journey
Referred to usually as IC playing cards or IC passes, pay as you go rechargeable Suica and Pasmo playing cards work on all metropolis trains, subways and buses (you can even use passes bought in different areas of Japan, such because the Icoca from western Japan or the Kitaka from Hokkaidō). Purchase these from any touch-screen ticket merchandising machine in Tokyo (together with these at Haneda and Narita airports); most have an English possibility and the playing cards are interchangeable. JR stations promote Suica; subway and impartial traces promote Pasmo.
Each require a ¥500 ($4.55) deposit, which is refunded (together with any remaining steadiness) if you return the move to any ticket window. Passes may be topped up at any touch-screen ticket-vending machine (not simply, for instance, at JR stations for Suica passes) in increments of ¥1000 ($9.10).
Should you’re planning a packed day, you would possibly take into account getting an unlimited-ride ticket. The Tokyo Subway Ticket permits limitless rides on each Tokyo Metro and Toei subway traces, with 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour choices accessible. This move is simply accessible to international vacationers on a vacationer visa; you’ll want to find out whether or not the trains you intend to make use of can be largely JR or metro to get your cash’s value.
Utilizing IC playing cards is easy: simply run them over the cardboard readers on the ticket gates upon coming into and exiting. Fares for move customers are barely much less (a couple of yen per journey) than for paper-ticket holders.
20 finest free issues to do in Tokyo
Buses are helpful on some events
Toei runs an intensive bus community in Tokyo, although it’s solely extra handy than the subway if you’re within the outer suburbs or making brief inside metropolis jaunts. A very helpful bus, the quantity 06, connects Shibuya, Hiroo and Azabujuban – three widespread cosmopolitan neighborhoods.
Fares are ¥210 ($1.90) for adults; there are not any switch tickets. Pay by IC move or deposit your fare into the field as you enter the bus; in case your move is out of credit score, you may cost it on the entrance of the bus (the phrase for “cost” is cha-ji). There’s additionally a change machine by the motive force’s seat that accepts ¥1000 notes. Most buses have digital signage that switches between Japanese and English; in any other case, hear in your cease. Sign the bus to cease prematurely of the approaching cease by pushing one of many buttons close to the seats.
Journey sustainably on hydrogen-fuel-cell buses
Japan is a world chief in hydrogen vitality, one of many world’s cleanest vitality sources, which emits solely waste water (even when some query the know-how’s cost-effectiveness). Some 85 hydrogen gasoline cell buses have been in operation since March 2021, touring primarily between Tokyo Station and the Tokyo Large Sight conference heart in Ariake, whereas passing by the favored Yurakucho, Ginza and Tsukiji neighborhoods. The native authorities is aiming to have greater than 300 hydrogen buses in operation by 2030.
Discover Tokyo Bay through water bus
Tokyo’s “water buses” appear like robotic beetles skimming throughout the placid waters of its japanese river networks. Because of their glass-walled exteriors, they’re an amazing possibility for taking within the sights of Tokyo Bay whereas touring between Asakusa and the likes of Odaiba, Toyosu and Hama-rikyū Gardens. Journeys will price between ¥460 and ¥1720 yen ($3.90–14.50), relying on distance, and are usually extra snug than their terrestrial public transport counterparts.
Solely use taxis if you happen to should
Getting a taxi in Tokyo solely makes financial sense for brief distances or when in teams of 4 – except you’re stranded through the lull in nightly practice operations. All cabs run by the meter, with fares beginning at ¥410 ($3.75) for the primary 1km (0.6 miles) after which rising by ¥80 (75 cents) for each 237m (777ft) you journey or for each 90 seconds spent in site visitors. When touring longer distances, this begins so as to add up at a relatively alarming charge, particularly if you think about nighttime surcharges of 20-30% between 10pm and 5am, and potential freeway tolls.
Drivers not often converse English, although most taxis have navigation programs. Have your vacation spot written down in Japanese – or, higher but, a enterprise card with an tackle. Most taxis now additionally take bank cards and IC passes; because the pandemic started many have launched automated cost programs connected to screens on the again of the principle passenger seat.
Prepare stations and accommodations have designated taxi stands. Within the absence of a stand, you may hail a cab from the road by standing on the curb and sticking your arm out; there are sometimes way more taxis roaming the streets than punters hailing them down.
There are few advantages to utilizing Uber
Uber finally arrived in Tokyo in Might 2018, although its boutique chauffeur service, Uber Black, dates again to 2015. The ride-share firm has partnered with three native taxi operators to offer rides in Tokyo’s central enterprise district and different busy areas. Despite the fact that Tokyo strictly regulates ride-sharing apps, different opponents are coming into the market, corresponding to town’s premier taxi app, JapanTaxi (which isn’t notably tourist-friendly). Given Uber’s unpredictable availability and a pricing construction to just like that of road cabs, there are few events the place utilizing the app is merited.
Professional ideas for utilizing cabs and discovering addresses
Japanese cab doorways are automated, and even after years of residence within the metropolis, many foreigners discover themselves struggling to open self-opening doorways. Train endurance!
As soon as within the taxi, you’ll discover how troublesome Tokyo’s streets are to navigate, even for locals. Solely the largest streets have official names, and so they don’t determine into addresses. As an alternative, addresses are derived from districts, blocks and constructing numbers. Central Tokyo is split first into ku (wards; Tokyo has 23 of them), which in flip are divided into chō or machi (cities) after which into numbered districts referred to as chōme (pronounced “cho-may”). Subsequent numbers in an tackle consult with blocks inside the chōme and buildings inside every block.
Because it’s close to unattainable to seek out your vacation spot utilizing the tackle alone, smartphones with navigation apps have been an actual boon. Many eating places and venues even have helpful maps on their web sites. Should you get misplaced, cops at kōban (police bins) have maps and may also help with instructions, although few converse English. On the very least, they need to have the ability to steer you again to the closest practice station from the place you may strive once more. Many companies have additionally began utilizing the What3Words app, which has divided the world into 3m-square grids to assist customers pinpoint a selected location.
Don’t be afraid to set off on two wheels
At first look, Tokyo doesn’t look like a bicycle-friendly metropolis: devoted lanes are nearly nonexistent on main thoroughfares, cyclists typically come up in opposition to pedestrian overpasses that should be scaled (although a couple of have ramps for strolling bikes up and down), and also you’ll see no-parking indicators for bicycles in every single place.
Regardless of all this, you’ll additionally see loads of pedaling locals. It is because Tokyo is a largely flat metropolis, and far bike-friendlier if you happen to’re biking by metropolis parks, in residential neighborhoods, alongside the river promenades close to Tokyo Bay or across the maze of backstreets. Cogi Cogi is a bike-sharing system with ports across the metropolis, together with some hostels. Regardless of directions in English, the system is somewhat sophisticated to make use of: you’ll must obtain an app, register a bank card and have wi-fi connection on the go to sync with the ports.
Keep away from vehicles except occurring day journeys
Contemplating the site visitors, the complicated and infrequently excruciatingly slender roads, and the ridiculous price of parking, it’s finest to not use a automobile for getting round Tokyo; even most Tokyoties don’t trouble proudly owning a car. Day journeys can simply be performed by public transport, although renting a automobile will broaden your choices and will let you discover areas not often visited by the touring plenty.
For leases, you have to an Worldwide Driving Allow, which should be organized in your personal nation earlier than you permit; sure situations should be met (see the Japan Vehicle Federation website for additional data). Rental firms with branches across the metropolis embrace Nippon Rent-a-Car and Toyota Rent-a-Car.
Professional ideas for automobile leases
Rental vehicles are usually inexpensive, particularly when the fee is cut up amongst passengers, and are economical with respect to fuel mileage. That mentioned, freeway tolls in Japan may be exorbitant – driving to Osaka and again, for instance, would price over $200 in toll charges, mitigating among the cash saved on skipping the bullet practice.
Additionally be sure you pay the additional price for injury insurance coverage. Within the occasion that you’re in an accident, irrespective of how small, you could first name the police to document the incident earlier than the car is returned to the store, otherwise you’ll danger incurring hair-raising monetary penalties. Rental operators are pretty unsympathetic to those that don’t observe these guidelines; it’s value bringing a translator to undergo the small print to keep away from any such mishaps.
Prime 5 day journeys from Tokyo
Accessible transportation is bettering in Tokyo
Tokyo is making steps to enhance common entry – or bariafurī (“barrier free”; バリアフリー) in Japanese. It’s a sluggish course of, although it acquired a lift from preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. It’s estimated that no less than 95% of Tokyo’s roughly 700 practice stations have non-step services and accessible bathrooms, whereas 94% of buses had been additionally wheelchair accessible.
Newer buildings have wheelchair-access ramps, increasingly subway stations are introducing elevators (search for indicators on the platform as not all exits have them), and yellow braille traces direct visually impaired passengers by main stations and information them safely alongside platforms. Prepare-station employees may also assist wheelchair-using passengers on and off trains with a short lived slope.
A good variety of accommodations, from the upper finish of midrange and up, supply a barrier-free room or two (be sure you guide nicely prematurely). Be aware that what constitutes “barrier-free” just isn’t at all times constant, so examine the main points rigorously. Bigger sights, malls and purchasing malls are likely to have wheelchair-accessible restrooms. Should you want a wheelchair (車いす; “kuruma isu”) whereas in Tokyo, lodge employees may also help you hire one.
Accessible Japan is the very best useful resource for accessible journey. It additionally produces an book with numerous element.
Click here to obtain Lonely Planet’s free Accessible Journey information.
