Catch the Train! Sunday, 22 May 2011

Every foreigner living in Japan, especially those living near big cities such as Tokyo or Osaka will likely highly values the convenience provided by Japan  railway network. Living near Tokyo could be either a blessing or a curse, based on where you live and where you work. The cost of living in the outskirt of Tokyo is cheaper, especially cost needed to afford for  apartment, which could soar high if you live inside Tokyo. But living outside Tokyo, means you need to know how to use the train – which line you should take, which direction and what time – and, of course, make the full use of it.

Here, I will tell you my story how I use train extensively, and use timing to get in to the right train, and arrive at the office as fast as possible.  Remember that you should not try it if you don’t have the habit of running down and up the stairs, and you are NOT in a hurry.  I was doing this routine for some time and now using a much slower pace.

I live near Kita-Urawa station, approximately 2 kilometers away from the east side of the station. Usually, it would take me 8-10 minutes to go by using bicycle based on the traffic condition, and the parking lot availability I usually made use of. The train from Kita-Urawa station to Tokyo and Yokohama (see the blue line on the image above; the name of the line is Keihin-Tohoku Line 京浜東北線) departed at 8:27 AM (Nowadays readjusted to 8:28 AM). From Kita-Urawa station to Urawa Station, it takes 3 minutes. The Utsunomiya Line that goes to Ueno (see the orange line) stops at Urawa station at 8:30 and leaves at 8:31. It means that if you want to change line from Keihin-Tohoku to Utsunomiya line, you have an extra ONE minute. Seems a lot? Well, NOT if you have to go downstairs (from the height of 5 meters, and the x-axis distance of  12 meters, thus the actual distance is 13 meters), and then go to another stairs which is separated 6-7 meters away, and then climb another 13 meter-long  stairs and get in the right car of the train. Not only that, there will be hundreds of people going down the stairs, and for God’s sake, they walked sooooooo slowly.

So, here’s what I did. Whenever I took the train from Kita-Urawa, I’ll choose car no.8 and the 3rd door . I’ll be standing at the very rear of the queue so that I can get out first and, yes, run! The door I chose was the nearest door to wider stairs, and therefore it will be easy for me to run down as fast as possible. Running down the stairs is a bit dangerous, and I could only run every 2 steps, and sometimes 3 steps (which is a bit dangerous). Running from the end of one stairs to another was very easy because you just need a sprint technique to do that.  Running upstairs is no problem at all if there is no one coming down from the platform. The problem is, when I reached the other side, people were already running down the stairs, and they did not (and I believe the still do not) give room for those who are going upstairs. You have to run as fast as possible before that happens. Remember, you have only precious ONE minute, which sometimes even less.

Another problem, is that I had to find the correct car, so at Akabane station I could just get out and run again to catch Shonan-Shinjuku Line 湘南新宿ライン (see red line that goes from Omiya to Ikebukuro) or Saikyo Line埼京線. Shounan-Shinjuku line usually arrives at and departs from Akabane around 8:44. And by using Utsunomiya line I would have 3-4 minutes extra. But If I choose to take problematic Saikyo Line, which usually goes faster from Akabane to Ikebukuro, I only have ONE minute. Well, the train departs at 8:41, and the next one will be around 8:45 or 8:46. And, it is the most crowded line that goes from Saitama to Tokyo. I really didn’t want to use that line,  but now I am using it because I no longer use the same route as I mentioned here.

From Akabane station to Ikebukuro takes about 15 minutes or less. And when I arrive there, I need to change to Yamanote line 山手線 that goest to Shinjuku/Shibuya from Ikebukuro. There, I need to climb the stairs and go down again to another platform. And, yes, if you need to arrive as soon as possible, you need to RUN. Yamanote line is always crowded in the morning so that you need to wait for the next train even after you were queuing  for current train for about five minutes. At last, I usually arrived at 9:05 at Takada no Baba station, and went to the office which is only two minutes walk from the station. The working time starts at 9:30, but I am proud that I can arrive earlier, even compared to Japanese people. But for now, I think that arriving at 9:15 is okay. I still rush for Saikyo Line, but at a later time. Run! And Catch The Train!