Today I listened to a whole slew of lessons from talk about the internet to the bus stop. This included SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 20, 21, and 22, and JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrase lessons 17, 18, 19, 31 and 36.
This is an example of one of the buses that stops right in front of the JPod101 HQ! It’s so fun and colorful! [Photo by Emily Carsch]
The first thing I want to touch on and reiterate is to not be worried about your safety in Japan. One of the lessons dealt with thieves and muggers. This is rare! I know I mentioned it in my last blog and will say it again; Japan is very safe, and I have yet to feel uncomfortable at all. I venture to say that the only reason you would need to make an emergency call to 110 would be if someone got hurt, not because someone was endangered by another.
Another lesson dealt with bus stops. I have yet to use the bus! Undoubtedly, the trains are the way to go around here, and I don’t foresee myself ever needing to use the bus here around Tokyo. The only bus I rode was from Narita Airport, or Japanese, “kokou“, into the city.
Narita is located just over an hour’s drive away from central Tokyo. It can be difficult taking the crowded trains into Tokyo if you have a lot of luggage, and a taxi is very expensive. I was told to take a basu, or bus. As soon as you walk out of customs, there are bus counters. We walked up to one and told them where we needed to be. The woman at the counter smiled and printed our kippu, or tickets. I believe it cost $30 USD, or 3,000 JPY.
We waited at the basutei (bus stop) for no more than twenty minutes and got on the bus. It took us straight into Akasaka. For the most part, it was comfortable and convenient. I’m glad I took the bus instead of alternative options.
Unfortunately, since I had not yet heard the survival phrase lessons, I couldn’t try out what I had learned, but the sales representatives spoke English and understood what we needed.
As a side note, in the buses in Japan, the driver sits on the migi gama, right side, and the passengers climb aboard on the hidari gawa, left side. This was a change from the US.
That’s really all I have for today on this subject matter, but if something changes I’ll be sure to comment.
Mata-ne!
