My first impressions of Japan are mainly related to the differences between the Japanese culture and my own in the U.S. This is the reason I have chosen to take a picture of the Japanese public transportation system. Back home, everyone and their dog drives when they need to go somewhere farther than their front porch. Some might ask how a country such as Japan evolved to nurture the public transportation system and let it grow into a full fledged spider-web of interconnecting railways and bus lines when the U.S. never did. I think the answer lies in landmass. Because Japan is so small, it has come to realize that it needs to maximize its area for building. This in turn causes the roads to shrink. As population increases and roads shrink, the only solution is to create a mass transportation system that takes up little room but transports many people. The U.S. has so much area that especially in the west, it has room to build far apart. Roads can stay large and because of larger roads and longer distances, cars are a much more convenient and faster form of transportation.
This major difference in our cultures has proven for many an adventure for me in the last 2 weeks. Just this last weekend, I fell asleep on the train from Kyoto to Hirakata and almost ended up in Nara. Another time I was coming back from Kyoto, I thought I would be sneaky by catching an express to Hirakata-Shi and then take a train back a couple stops to Makino. This would have been a good idea had I not gotten on the wrong train coming back and ended up on a totally different line going a different direction.
Oh no, did you end up on the Katano Line? You're not the first one to have made that mistake!
ReplyDeleteI think another reason for the Japanese inclination towards extensive public transportation is that their economy isn't as dependent on the auto industry, as is moreso the case in the US. We have so many companies competing for the driver demographic that a significant decrease in car usage would damage the industry. Thus, our auto companies fight against public transportation as hard as they can. Japan has relatively few major car manufacturers (everything besides Toyota, Honda, and maybe Subaru cater to a dependable niche), so there's much less competition for the smaller driving demographic.
Also, it's cleaner. Japan's got less air to go around and they'd rather not smog it up any more than they need to.
But yeah, size is probably the biggest factor. I hope you enjoy what will become an extensive career in riding trains while you're in Japan. :)