Taking the Train in Japan

Every week, Seth and I ride the train from Okazaki (where we live) to Nagoya (where Mustard Seed Christian Church meets). We also take it during the week to meet with our teammates in Nagoya. We've learned how to do this on our own, and I'd thought you'd want to take part in the process too!

These are our bikes! You'd be amazed what all can fit in those bike baskets. We take these to class, the grocery store, the mall, everywhere! It's so nice to have a bike.

Step 1: We loaded up for a trip to Nagoya.

Step 2: Ride to the train station (about 15 minutes). Then park your bike. This picture doesn't begin to capture how big the bike parking lot is. Be sure to memorize what aisle your bike is in, or you could be searching for a long time.

Step 3: Inside the station, you go to the machine to buy your ticket.

You pay based on where your destination is, for our trip it is 650 yen per person, one-way. That's very roughly $6.50 per person.

Step 4: go to the platform for the train line you are taking and the direction you are going.

Step 5: Take a peak at the schedule if you're not sure when the next available train is coming. It's written by hours on the left side, then once you find the hour, those are the minutes that a train comes, and they are color coordinated based on which type (local, express, rapid, etc)

Step 6: Hop on your train and get off when you need to. Here is a pic of when we got off and changed lines in order to get to our destination.

Step 7: Then finally ride to your destination!

We're hoping to get a hold of the train routes more over time. For now we mostly have our routes memorized, but eventually we'll understand everything a bit better and we can explore more places! And luckily we have teammates to call if we get lost. : ) So far so good!