True Tokyo-ites...
When you first come to Tokyo, you are so overwhelmed by the number of trains that you are just proud you can get one and get off at the right place. When you've been here longer, you start to know the difference between the train lines and subway lines. This is because the card passes you use are different!
Around this time, you've learned of the websites/mobilesites you can use to plot your route according to fastest time, or cheapest, or least number of transfers. They are most often in Japanese but there is one with an English version:
http://www.hyperdia.com/
Let's check out commuting distances.
1. Our first place in Tokyo was in Fujigaoka (Kanagawa) and I had to travel to Myogadani (Tokyo)
2. My next commute was from Hiro to Myogadani.
3. Then it was Hiro to Hanzomon
4. Then it was Azabujuban to Yotsuya
5. Now... I walk!
Did you check out the commute times? You can see how things have been getting A LOT better for me in terms of commute.
Okay, but real Tokyo-ites don't need that website. They basically know the fastest way to get anywhere in the city. But that's not all! They also know where to stand on the platform to make the transfer to the next station the shortest. This is without looking! For example, they know that if you get on at Hiro but will transfer to the Chiyada line, you should get on at the car closest to the entrace and the Chiyoda line transfer will be close to that!
There is a cheat sheet in stations that show every station on the line, and where the exits and trasfer points are at that station in reference to car number.
As an American, learning all of these tricks of the train-riding trade has taken 3 years... and I still need the cheat sheets and websites to do it. Happily, still not a true Tokyo-ite.
