Japan ! Transport - Metro - Train - Taxis

Diary :

Tokyo has an excellent metro transport system. Everybody loves it. The fee is a little costly but it becomes cheaper the further you travel. You can go pretty much

anywhere in Tokyo, until midnight... If you go out late at night until morning, you can take the first subway at around 5 a.m. or you can get a taxi between midnight and 5a.m. but be careful as it can be quite expensive. In Tokyo, taxi doors open and close automatically which is very convenient when you are drunk (Do not try to open or close it yourself as it will irritate these poor taxi drivers). Apart from that, the driver can, if you ask him, give you an estimated price to commute to your destination thanks to GPS.

Several companies own the public transports :

It can pass for an anecdote, but in fact, having several companies that share the market will complicate the task.

You’ll have to pay several times on your journey. For each change of metro line, you have to switch to a different card, walk to a different metro line (You can walk in the tunnels of metro for several minutes to find your line. The network is like a huge maze but with signposts). Then tap your card, a different one, and so on for each change. 

Several solutions are available to you in terms of speed, but also price! Well Yes, some lines are more expensive than the others!

 Wifi, although present at nearly all the stations, is not quite stable or even unavailable during a trip from one station to another. If you are addicted to your wifi, you might need to take a break.
To get by train from Kamakura to Kyoto (400 km), I had to buy 2 tickets, while travelling in the same single train! Good to know: do not buy your railway ticket at the ticket vending machine, but go to the counter. Once you have 2 tickets, insert both tickets at the same single time in the input terminal (Yes it is possible).

Prepaid cards :

This is the choice to make. I saw also a few subscriptions for 1 day, but it's more expensive unless you take the metro several times a day and commute far every time.

When you take the train or the metro, you pay according to the distance. So firstly you have to queue (horrible during the rush hours) for the ticket vending machine, then find your destination on the map (often just in Japanese) for the rate, and finally put the exact amount in the machine, then, of course, start over with each change of metro or train lines. Save time, purchase a prepaid card, load it at the machine (Minimum of 1,000 yen, in addition to a deposit which is returned when you return the card at the counter) and use here. You won’t lose the top-up amount you don’t use, because you can reimburse the balance in your prepaid card. The same prepaid card works on all metro lines and most of the trains.

Prices : 

The fees on metros and trains in Japan are expensive. Do you ever complain about the metro/train fee in your home country? When you are paying for the train in Japan, you will think that finally you are luckier than them! And if you visit Tokyo through the metro, it eats up your budget pretty quickly as the minimum amount is around 170 yen just for a few stations to a lot more if you go any further. A single trip can cost you easily more than €5 (a dish of Ramen at a restaurant), and because everything is not centered in the same place in Tokyo (Remember, it's the largest city in the world with 40 million livers), you'll take the metro several times a day.

Buses: 

In Japan, you would be disappointed if you thought the bus was affordable. In my example, a ride from Kamakura to Kyoto costs around 8000 Yen for the bus instead of 10,000 -12,000 Yen for the train. So the train will cost you from €80 to €100 per person for 3 to 4 hours (including public transport to go to the station) whereas the bus, which will cost you about €60, will take 8-9 hours. In short, it's all about time and money. You should consider if you would rather pay a little more to save time. Basically, to save €40 you will lose 5 hours and will need a whole day to reach your destination.

Sometimes the plane is cheaper.

The JR pass:

For the Roma pass in Rome, I would recommend you to take it because it is a cheaper option, but for the JR pass in Japan, I'm not so sure. And I will tell you to be very careful because firstly it's quite expensive and the time is limited. There are 2 options: first class (green) and normal class. Each class has different passes for adult and child. What gets complicated is the time limit: you can have 7, 14, or 21 days. If you don't visit one or 2 big cities, such as Osaka or Kyoto from Tokyo, it will not be worth it. To purchase a one-week pass and make it worthwhile, for example, you have to take the train for 4 times and make a journey of at least 300 km for each trip within a week. If you plan to visit a few cities and spend 1-2 days in each city, I would recommend you to purchase the JR pass, otherwise it is probably not a good deal.