Finding my way at the Train Station
The hardest part about getting to Tokyo by train is figuring out how to purchase the ticket at the machine. It is funny that there is a "panic" button for foreigners. I've hit the panic button and then a man "smiling face" pops out of a little square in the wall next to the ticket machine. You tell him where you want to go and then he punches the buttons for you and you insert your money. Everything is in Kanji and hiragana so it is hard to read the map for directions and which transfer stations to take. It is easy to come back, but make sure you take the correct train line back because if you don't, you'll do what I did. When you exit the train station, you're supposed to surrender your ticket to the ticket machine, and for a second, the gates will open for you to let you out. When I turned in my ticket, the machine started beeping and screaming at me in Japanese. Luckily, it had some instructions in English to go to the correction machine... Yes, another machine... That machine takes your ticket and spits out whatever money is owed to you if you paid too much. If you owe money, such as when you paid the 250 yen minimum, then it will tell you to insert more money. Well, with my luck, I ended up at the wrong train station in the right city that I wanted to end up in. The correction machine went crazy and instructed me to go to the ticket counter. I ended up paying full price for another ticket... :( Overall, taking the trains in Japan is complicated for foreigners and Japanese alike. But once you figure out how to pay for your ticket, it is easy to reach your destination with an English map.
Train on a Saturday Night
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