{"id":3267,"date":"2012-08-22T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T09:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insidejapanblog.com\/?p=3267"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:29:22","slug":"pleasure-of-going-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/22\/pleasure-of-going-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Pleasure of going public"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Like this post? Help us by sharing it!<\/h4><ul class=\"wpfai-list\"><li class=\"wpfai-list-item facebook\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267&amp;t=\" title=\"Facebook\" class=\"wpfai-facebook wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-facebook fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item twitter\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267\" title=\"Twitter\" class=\"wpfai-twitter wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-twitter fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item pinterest\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267&amp;description=&amp;media=\" title=\"Pinterest\" class=\"wpfai-pinterest wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-pinterest fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item linkedin\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267&amp;title=\" title=\"Linked In\" class=\"wpfai-linkedin wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-linkedin fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item envelope\">\r\n      <a href=\"mailto:?subject=&amp;body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267%20-%20\" title=\"E-Mail\" class=\"wpfai-envelope wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-envelope fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item stumbleupon\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stumbleupon.com\/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267\" title=\"Stumble Upon\" class=\"wpfai-stumbleupon wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-stumbleupon fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><li class=\"wpfai-list-item reddit\">\r\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidejapantours.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F3267\" title=\"Reddit\" class=\"wpfai-reddit wpfai-link wpfainw\">\r\n        <span class=\"fa-stack fa-lg\">\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-square fa-stack-2x\"><\/i>\r\n          <i class=\"fa fa-reddit fa-stack-1x fa-inverse\"><\/i>\r\n        <\/span>\r\n      <\/a>\r\n    <\/li><\/ul><p>Amy Tadehara is one of the latest additions to the talented IJT team taking her place in the US office. This Colorado born girl spent four years living in wonderful Sendai and you may guess from her name that she some Japanese ancestry. However, just because Amy is a Japanese American, it doesn\u2019t mean that she would instantly be use to life in Japan \u2013 there are some big differences between the US and Japan.\u00a0 One of those differences is public transport.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My first solo experience with the much-lauded public transportation of Japan didn\u2019t go quite as planned. The first sign something was not quite right was when I didn\u2019t see any of the laboriously-chosen \u201clandmarks\u201d\u2014the<a title=\"Tsutaya\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tsutaya.co.jp\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Tsutaya<\/a> video store, the <a title=\"combini\" href=\"http:\/\/www.circleksunkus.jp\/company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunkus konbini<\/a>, the Big Hill Climb\u2014that I carefully picked out that morning as I took a green city bus from my apartment to downtown Sendai. The second sign was my bus driver telling me with polite concern that we were at the last stop and that I may wish to disembark? &#8211; I was in an area where houses gave way to open space and rice fields. This was most definitely not my apartment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3269\" title=\"A Sendai city bus -Similar to the one Amy was riding that fateful night\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075-720x538.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075-390x292.jpg 390w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/800px-sendai-city-bus-1075-780x583.jpg 780w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Growing up in Colorado, I had formed the opinion early on, rightly or wrongly, that public transportation was only for poor and\/or elderly people who couldn\u2019t afford a car. This was America, after all; having a car is practically a birthright. Not many people look forward to the day when they can ride a bus on their very own. When I was accepted to the JET Program, I was a little uneasy about not having a car for the first time in my life, but was willing to give public transportation a go for the \u201cexperience\u201d of it all. I was placed in Sendai, the largest city between the Tokyo metropolis and Hokkaido; how bad could it be?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3271\" title=\"When traveling, knowing the kanji for 'direction' is not to be underestimated\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-720x540.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-390x293.jpg 390w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-780x585.jpg 780w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/p5040121-900x675.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t at all, really, though I\u2019ll admit that those first few weeks were a bit hairy at times, what with all the kanji I didn\u2019t recognize (which is why I ended up in the rice fields in the middle of the night). The biggest hurdle was learning how to decipher Japanese timetables\u2014why had I never learned the kanji for \u201croute\u201d?\u2014followed by simple procedural things like how to get on\/off, how to pay the fare, how to balance precariously while the change machine spat out coins so I could pay the fare, etc.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/busrid1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3270\" title=\"Japanese change machines: invaluable once you know what you're doing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/busrid1.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/busrid1.jpg 356w, https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/busrid1-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nEventually, it became so second-nature that not only could I tell my fellow JETs which bus or train they should take, but I was also telling Japanese oba-sans how to ride the bus\/train; I wasn\u2019t sure if I should be proud or freaked out.<\/p>\n<p>And so I was converted to the merits of public transport in Japan and embraced it wholeheartedly, which as you might suspect made coming back to the US a tragedy of sorts. I was really happy to be home, but public transportation in Colorado is to Japan what a ditch is to the Grand Canyon: namely, a big letdown. Fortunately, I\u2019m old enough to see the irony in wishing for a Japanese-style transport system when I have a car to take me anywhere, anytime (subject to gas prices) even if I can\u2019t appreciate it all that much. What\u2019s funny is that it\u2019s not just the punctuality, the cleanliness, or the safe feeling that I miss, but the prepaid cards. I\u2019m not even joking; breaking a 1000-yen note just to pay a 230-yen fare is really annoying, especially when you only needed 10 yen.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and since you\u2019re probably curious, I did manage to get home in the end. But only because the bus driver\u2019s pity for the lost foreigner and the bus\u2019s return route to the city happened to coincide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think that this is one of the big differences about Japan. Not only does Japan have a vast public transport network that runs on time and gets to its destination when you expect it to, it is actually a pleasure riding these clean vehicles which are usually driven by polite and helpful staff. The rest of the west have yest another thing to learn from Japan.<\/p>\n<h4>Like this post? 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Help us by sharing it! Amy Tadehara is one of the latest additions to the talented IJT team taking her place in the US office. This Colorado born girl spent four years living in wonderful Sendai and you may guess from her name that she some Japanese ancestry. However, just because Amy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2359],"tags":[1207,1208,1372,1678,1720,2005,2242],"class_list":["post-3267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transport-and-travelling-in-japan","tag-japan-trains","tag-japan-travel","tag-bus","tag-japan","tag-japanese-culture","tag-public-transport","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3267"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36289,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions\/36289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidejapantours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}