Sigh. Something else on my to-do list is to take the train across Japan...I also want to take a train across Europe....and Canada. Not all in the same journey though!
I suppose the best I have is Cross Country at the moment. And that is rapidly becoming too expensive for me.
We're going to Australia next year...Sydney then somewhere like Melbourne or Adelaide..haven't decided yet. Been trying to convince my wife to take a day out to take the train between the two cities but she ain't having it.
Passenger train categories of British Rail
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Re: Passenger train categories of British Rail
Seeing as I'm going there to study Japanese for a year, I should be ok to buy a ticket in (albeit quite basic) Japanese 
- I was just wondering the procedures for buying a ticket (I can read Hiragana and Katakana fluently, and now know how to write 391 Kanji 
)
But yes - thanks
- ICOCA sounds just like an Oyster Card. So you pay the base fare with the ICOCA and the supplement on board the train to the conductor right?
(Pity that apparently the private line at my 2nd closest station at Ichijoji doesn't accept ICOCA
)
- I was just wondering the procedures for buying a ticket (I can read Hiragana and Katakana fluently, and now know how to write 391 Kanji )But yes - thanks
- ICOCA sounds just like an Oyster Card. So you pay the base fare with the ICOCA and the supplement on board the train to the conductor right?(Pity that apparently the private line at my 2nd closest station at Ichijoji doesn't accept ICOCA
)Any opinions expressed are purely mine and not that of any employer, past or present.
Re: Passenger train categories of British Rail
That is at least my experience with the one time, but that was with Kintetsu and not JR although they seem to be extremely lenient with "stupid" foreigners.JamieLei wrote:So you pay the base fare with the ICOCA and the supplement on board the train to the conductor right?
Re: Passenger train categories of British Rail
True... - having a Gaijin card might put me at a disadvantage rather than an advantage compared to a tourist...Rubidium wrote:That is at least my experience with the one time, but that was with Kintetsu and not JR although they seem to be extremely lenient with "stupid" foreigners.JamieLei wrote:So you pay the base fare with the ICOCA and the supplement on board the train to the conductor right?
Any opinions expressed are purely mine and not that of any employer, past or present.
Re: Passenger train categories of British Rail
This really has nothing to do with british rail categories, but I cannot resist speaking up!
Rubidium: JR Nara line has got to one of my favorite lines, globally. It might be the flat green 103s that run it, but something about it seems quaint and endearing to me, as if being in the shadow of the more trafficed Kinetetsu line has let it escape some of the pressures of time. On the JR pass, I could never justify taking the Kintetsu to Nara, even though it has a much more convieniently located station in that city. Being as it is a private company, I guess it did not get optimal platform placement at JR Kyoto. I find the dichotomy between the new station and headhouse, and the older shinkansen concourse, to be fairly amusing - the new station being so open, with amazing views, and every spot in it having a unique feel, while the being in the shinkansen area feels like any and every mainline shinkansen station built from 1970 on. And, fittingly, despite its more humble scale, the shinkansen building faces the sprawl of postwar highrise development toward osaka, while the new station opens up to the "real" Kyoto (as far as tourists are concerned) of world heritage site after world heritage site.
As to the airport ticket offices, I thought they represented the whole confederacy of JR companies, as a special case. I do not recall the one at Narita being a "JR East" office specifically. At any rate, they are quite helpful.
Jamie: I think you should do fine if you can speak some basic Japanese already. 391 kanji is more than enough to cope for the first few weeks, (unless you cope by reading newspapers and novels), and no one you ask for help will expect you to spell out something complicated in kanji. (even being able to do this didn't help me find the nakgin capsule tower in Ginza, lady at the metro station info desk had never heard of it. She eventually had to consult some kind of neighborhood plan book from the 70s that was sitting in the back of the kiosk). Simple, but clear, spoken japanese, and some hiragana should work just fine, after all, millions of japanese school children are able to get around this way every day.
The great thing about cards like suica and iocca is that you can use them at vending machines on the platforms!
Best,
Rubidium: JR Nara line has got to one of my favorite lines, globally. It might be the flat green 103s that run it, but something about it seems quaint and endearing to me, as if being in the shadow of the more trafficed Kinetetsu line has let it escape some of the pressures of time. On the JR pass, I could never justify taking the Kintetsu to Nara, even though it has a much more convieniently located station in that city. Being as it is a private company, I guess it did not get optimal platform placement at JR Kyoto. I find the dichotomy between the new station and headhouse, and the older shinkansen concourse, to be fairly amusing - the new station being so open, with amazing views, and every spot in it having a unique feel, while the being in the shinkansen area feels like any and every mainline shinkansen station built from 1970 on. And, fittingly, despite its more humble scale, the shinkansen building faces the sprawl of postwar highrise development toward osaka, while the new station opens up to the "real" Kyoto (as far as tourists are concerned) of world heritage site after world heritage site.
As to the airport ticket offices, I thought they represented the whole confederacy of JR companies, as a special case. I do not recall the one at Narita being a "JR East" office specifically. At any rate, they are quite helpful.
Jamie: I think you should do fine if you can speak some basic Japanese already. 391 kanji is more than enough to cope for the first few weeks, (unless you cope by reading newspapers and novels), and no one you ask for help will expect you to spell out something complicated in kanji. (even being able to do this didn't help me find the nakgin capsule tower in Ginza, lady at the metro station info desk had never heard of it. She eventually had to consult some kind of neighborhood plan book from the 70s that was sitting in the back of the kiosk). Simple, but clear, spoken japanese, and some hiragana should work just fine, after all, millions of japanese school children are able to get around this way every day.
The great thing about cards like suica and iocca is that you can use them at vending machines on the platforms!
Best,
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