The Good: Trains Run on Time
I could praise public transportation in Japan up and down for being efficient, affordable, and punctual. Trains arrive and depart on the dot, usually no more than a minute or so off from their scheduled time. There are some exceptions (due to weather, accidents, and so on), but I’ve had a far better experience here than with the perpetually late buses and BART back in the Bay Area.
Although the cost is pretty standard for the most part, it’s also common for companies to have a transportation allowance for their employees. So, even though you might be spending 700 yen a day to take the train to work, you’ll be reimbursed for your commuting expenses in your paycheck (in addition to your agreed-upon salary).
Community Buses are Great for Everyday Transportation
There are also community buses available in some areas. These are much cheaper than the city buses and have routes that are much more in tune with the locals’ actual lifestyle and transportation needs. For example, the city bus goes to obvious, centralized locations like the train station, a hospital, the library, and so on, while stopping at convenient places along the way.
My local community bus, on the other hand, will visit the nearest department store, a branch municipal office, a grocery store, and so on – the kind of places that you need to get to on a regular basis if you’re a local.
The Bad: Public Transporation is Aaaaall in Japanese
The bad part (for us foreigners, anyway) is that almost everything on buses, trains, and online regarding public transportation is in Japanese. Even if you’ve taken the time to learn how to speak Japanese, reading the script (whether kanji, hiragana, or katakana) is a whole other beast. In some of the bigger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, there will often be announcements made in English after the Japanese – but pretty much anywhere else, you’re on your own.
But It’s Not All Bad
Even if you don’t know any Japanese, though, there are some resources online that can help. One godsend I use pretty regularly is Hyperdia. (Update: as of September 2022, Hyperdia isn’t working anymore. Try Japan Transit Planner instead.) As long as you know which train station you want to start and arrive at, this website will give you a comprehensive schedule of times, trains, and fares for the trip. And, best of all, the website is available in English.
Cities also usually have their own website for bus transportation, as well. In some rural and suburban areas such as Gifu, there’s the Gifu Bus Navi, which – while only available in Japanese – comes with a map function. If all else fails, you can pull up Google Maps and figure out which bus stops and buses you need to take by comparing the maps. From there, you can enter the dates and times of your desired departure and return, and it will give you a schedule with times, bus numbers, and fares. It has been another lifesaver for me.
Oh, but that’s right, I’m still crying tears of sleet
The way that city buses work in more remote areas is that they branch out from the central train station without intersecting. What this means is that, if you want to travel between two places far from the station, there’s a good chance you’re in for a super long trip where you take a bus to the train station and transfer to a different bus to get you there.
Thankfully, there are also the community buses, but oh wait… what is this? The website is astonishingly inconvenient and it takes forever to figure out which bus routes are in your area if you’re not already intimately familiar with the layout of the city?
And… wait a second, I found something… holy crap, someone added a map so you can actually see where each community bus route is located in the city as a whole!
Pass me the bucket, these tears are going to take a while. Tears of joy. It’s still not as convenient as Hyperdia or the Gifu Bus Navi, but it’s a start.
I’m Gonna Need Another Bucket
Anyway. At the end of the day, I can’t complain too much. The pros outweigh the cons, and it’s gotten much easier as I’ve learned more Japanese and have become more familiar both with the layout of the city and the way that public transportation here works in general.
Update 10/19/22: Hyperdia is no longer working, but Japan Transit Planner is a good alternative.
