Name: How We Get Around in Japan | Life in Japan Episode 78
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T15:26:30.000Z
Duration: 10 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The mountainous islands and dense cities of Japan create a huge transportation challenge for this country,

but the way Japan has handled it has catapulted it into one of the world's leading countries when its comes to public transportation.

In this episode we're going to take a look at all the ways we get around here in Japan,

and talk about which ways have served us the best.

Of all the ways there is to get around in Japan, the most famous by far is the public transportation here.

You can get almost anywhere in this city by foot, train or bus.

It is incredible. And it's clean — it's even fun I would say!

Once you live here for awhile, it's easy to take for granted the fantastic public transportation, or even worse, complain about it!

But whenever I travel abroad, I immediately remember why I love Japan's system so much.

I rode the Odakyu Line for 2 years while I was going to language school in Shinjuku.

In a mere 20 minutes I was at the world's busiest train station, Shinjuku station,

a station that served an average of 3,590,000 people per day in 2018.

With so many people, you'd think it would be a congestion nightmare,

but because of good planning and design, people move around to where they need to go with little fuss.

Today I'm meeting up with Ruth after her language school.

So I met up with the girlfriend, and we're going to go try a new pizza place today, very fun!

Public transportation is great for anything far away,

but it your destination is relatively close, the most practical form of transportation is the bicycle.

For just getting around, one or two people, bikes are awesome.

So yeah, bikes are super practical in Japan.

And if you forgot how to ride them, well you learn real quick!

What are we up to today? What are you up to today?!

As a mother of 4, a full-time Japanese student and a busy worker for our Paz team,

Ruth certainly has earned the right to be pampered.

When our kids were small, these kinds of things were nearly impossible,

but now that the kids are bigger, I'm glad to see she can enjoy them.

Yoshiko is a good friend of ours and she does a great job.

We enjoy promoting the people and local businesses around us.

2020 has hit many small businesses especially hard, so make sure to support those local businesses around you!

Ruth's going to continue her treatment there while I have to go and pickup Joshua.

I can't wait to hear from Ruth what she has to say about that.

What's awesome about Japan is that we can get to all these things so fast.

You just hop on a bike, you just walk to it. All these things are so close to us.

Walking is by far what you do the most in Japan.

When we moved here in 2014, we had no bikes, no car so we walked a lot!

If we wanted to buy anything, we had to walk to the store and get it.

With kids in tow, there was nothing easy about it.

When the rainy season came, we needed another option, and that's when we got our car.

After 6 months of lugging our kids around by foot, we found a used 2004 Toyota Noah that worked perfect for us and bought it.

Vehicles in Japan are smaller than their counterparts in America, but this van had just enough space for our family and luggage.

In Japan you need to pay for nearly all parking and a majority of the highways that you drive on.

hat being said, the cost of a long trip on a tollway is about the same that you would pay for one person on a bullet train,

so if you have your car full of people, it comes out to be quite a bit cheaper.

But be aware: the process for getting your license in Japan is grueling, and many people have to try several times before they pass.

So sometimes when you're parking in Japan, things can get a little expensive.

Can you help me with parking today, maybe just a little bit?!

That's one that's just really old that we use just as a joke sometimes.

The parking fee is 600 Yen (~$6) Now that's more like it.

Cars are great for trips, but for taking little kids around with you locally, nothing beat the discovery of the mamachari.

It's very nice because I can put Joshua in the front,

And we actually fight over who gets to hold the handle bars because he thinks he should drive it.

To get it started I have to first unlock it.

So this bike comes with 3 speeds (modes),

The middle is automatic, so it's just pretty consistent.

When I start pedaling, it helps me keep that pace.

If I'm going up a hill, I just pedal normal and it does all the extra work.

Then there's also one that uses less battery but you have to work a little more.

And there's one that uses more battery and it's like a little mini scooter.

There's also three setting with the gears.

So there's lower gear, the middle gear and the higher gear.

And to charge the battery, you have to take it off, take it inside and plug it in.

Hey guys! Oh my goodness, what are you doing?

Yeah, we fight for hand space. Ringing the bell?

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How We Get Around in Japan | Life in Japan Episode 78

incredible

awesome

recommend

practical