Throw 3 kids (under 7 years old) with a buggy into the mix of numerous subway interchanges involving kilometres of walking between platforms and the insane number of people who commute on this network daily - it was pretty daunting and exhausting getting around. For for the first 6 weeks we took a lot of taxi's which are expensive; about 710Y (nearly $10) before you get in. Busses although easier with our baggage are way too complicated to figure out as their route maps and schedules appear to be in Japanese only.
One Saturday evening we arrived at Shinjuku station (thankfully the children were home sleeping with a babysitter) and were stunned that it took us about 20 minutes to walk from the train platform to the station exit! Turns out Shinjuku station is the busiest metro station in the world with over 200 exits and 3.6 million commuters a day. Just a little more intense than Bondi Junction at rush hour. Typical choice for our quiet date night away from the kids.
Despite the highly complex subway map consisting of hundreds of squiggly lines in different colours and routes many of the signs are in English and although I wouldn't recommend a claustrophobic individual or one who suffers from panic in crowds travel Tokyo's metro - Japan's network takes the cake in terms of efficiency and handling so many millions of people.
People are patient, courteous and there is an amazing train etiquette: no talking, no mobiles (playing on them is ok, but no talking at all) so much so that you can hear a pin drop on the subway, no food, no drink, no talking to fellow passengers, no loud music blasting and definitely no pushing. I am stunned everyday at the amazing politeness at all times on the metro. Mind blowing in fact.
We've had a few laughs that when ones changes platforms in any given Tokyo subway station it's absolutely no guarantee you're anywhere near your next train. Strong possibility you'll need to walk a distance of up to a kilometre underground. This is definitely not a stroller friendly system either. We often find ourselves transporting scooters, kids, baby bags, and a mountain buggy ....only to realise there are no elevators and endless amounts of stairs we need to climb.
So we found our second hand car in the school newsletter. An expat family was moving onto their next post in Kenya and we bought their Honda Odessy during our second week here. A 7 seater that had done around 37, 000km. Much to our ignorance, we were actually about 3 weeks away from actually owning the car.
Atholl could write a book on how he decided to avoid the $500 dealer fee to manage the paperwork and transfer the vehicle privately into his name. Not sure many expats have lived to tell this experience. So much so that when he told his Japanese work colleagues he was taking this on himself, they were stunned, even the locals find this process a challenge, described as an impossibility.
So I'm extremely proud to say that my husband undertook the following challenge: a trip to the Australian embassy in Tokyo to verify his signature, 2 trips to the local police station with proof that our home has a legal car space (this is such an issue here, as space is so scarce) a few trips to the local ward office in Shibuya (our council) to verify our new house details, about 10 calls and emails between the current owner, filling in endless forms in Japanese, obtaining international drivers permits (as the Japanese licence was way too complex) and finally a day trip to the registration office which he described to me as watching himself in a Japanese Benny Hill movie: moving between various office buildings to get papers and forms stamped and then stamped again! So despite an amazing subway that works like clockwork we have now experienced the red tape and ludicrous process that comes with buying a car in Japan. But he accomplished this with great effort and an excess of 30 admin hours.
Atholl collected the car and took a wrong turn trying to get home only to find himself driving across the famous Shibuya crossing. Go Ath. Our tank was on red so the next challenge was to try find petrol. Most of the petrol stations are not obvious to westerners as the pumps are suspended from the ceiling. What appeared to be a car wash was actually a gas station.
So our Honda is happily sitting in our garage - the girls were so excited to see a car but I must admit I only looked at it after about 4 days. I've braved the subway with my kids but driving in a city where streets have no names, our GPS is half english and half Japanese, road signs are in Japanese and you need a foreign degree to work out parking regulations and meters driving my kids around feels a bit daunting to be honest.
Although I'm proud of how fit the girls are after 6 weeks on foot, it's getting colder and as winter approaches I will need to get into the drivers seat. I reckon it's like any first time and will get easier. I'm also hoping that if I do get caught out by one of the thousands of traffic wardens who roam the streets, I'll have my 'gaijin' (foreigner) ignorance as my shield to save me some yen in traffic and parking offences.
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