- Yellow Productions presents how to ride the subway trains
and Shinkansen in Osaka Japan.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun,
informative, and entertaining.
This is part of my series on Osaka,
and after watching this video, you'll be an expert
on how to ride these trains.
At first, they can seem confusing.
There's a lot of tracks, there's a lot of trains,
there's a lot of people, but after watching this video,
you'll be a pro.
I'll break this video down into a few different sections.
First we'll start with just things you need to know
about the train system in general, then we'll talk about
what you need to do to buy tickets, and then we'll
talk about riding the train, finding the train,
and finally, getting off at your destination,
and then finding the correct exit from the station,
because there are many exits.
Alright, here we go.
Okay, let's start by talking about some general things
you should know about public transportation in Osaka.
The first one you need to know is there are
a lot of different rain companies.
Japan Railways is the major operator and I'm just
up above where I was before in Osaka Station.
They operate the major trains throughout Japan,
but there's a lot of private train operators as well.
So the subway's operated by a different company.
There's the Hankyu line, there's other lines
operated by different companies, and so if you're
trying to buy tickets to each one of those lines
and you transfer, it's really expensive.
So the first thing you should do
is you should get an IC card.
We'll talk more about that later in the ticket section.
Something else that having all the different companies
leads to is stations being named a little differently
depending upon the company that operates it,
and the stations, there really often
aren't just one station.
It's usually a conglomeration of five stations
by five different companies that all end up in the same
place, again, with slightly different names.
This station, Osaka Station, that's the JR name of it,
but some of the private companies the run in here
call it Umeda Station.
There's three major stations you'll wanna be concerned with
when you're taking trains around here.
Obviously, Osaka/Umeda Station.
The second big station in the city is Namba Station.
That one has a few different companies
and those stations are disconnected.
They're not on top of each other.
And then the third major station you'll be concerned about
is Shin-Osaka, because Shin-Osaka is where the Shinkansen,
or the bullet train, comes into.
So note, if you are taking the bullet train into Osaka,
you will not be arriving at this station, Osaka Station.
You will be arriving at Shin-Osaka Station,
which is a different train station altogether.
So speaking of all those lines, there's two lines
that you'll probably find yourself on
quite a bit as a visitor.
One of them is the Subway Midosuji Line.
It runs right through the center of the city,
and many of the major tourist attractions are on that line.
The other line you might find yourself on
is the JR Osaka Loop Line.
That one runs to Osaka Castle, and if you're on some of
the outdoor trains like that one, make your way
to the first car.
It's pretty neat to see the view from the first car,
and you can watch the conductors, how they operate it.
Okay, so now that you know a little bit about the system,
now you're deciding some place to go,
and you are some place.
You need to figure out how to get there.
You've probably looked at the route maps and
maybe your mind has been blown.
Good news: Google Maps is your friend.
Google Maps will do a pretty good job if you put in
where you are and where you wanna go to give you
some pretty reasonable routes.
It may not give you all of them and it may not give you
the fastest one, but it'll put together a route
that is pretty good to tell you at least
what stations to get to.
Another option: there's an app
and a website called HyperDia.
Another option, something that I like to do if I'm
starting at my hotel and I wanna go some place,
I will ask the hotel staff, hey, how do you get there?
For example, I was going to Osaka, and I asked them,
hey, how do I get to Osaka Castle?
And you'll often get answer like, well, you can take
the JR line to this station, or you can take the subway
to this station, or you can take this line to this station,
which I'll generally say, well, if you were to go,
how would you go?
And they might say, well, I'll take the JR line
because when I get there, there's a lot more food
around the JR line.
So there's many options to put together,
but kinda know the stations you're gonna go to,
'cause if you get to the station and you're just trying
to look at the maps, that will be quite difficult.
The best way to buy tickets for public transportation
Osaka is with a reloadable IC car.
It's called Icoca in Osaka.
It's compatible with Suica and many of Japan's
other IC cards.
Simply put, you want to get one of these cards.
You can buy them from any one of these vending machines
at pretty much any subway and train station.
It costs 2000 yen with a 500 yen deposit.
You can reload it as you go.
This will make your life so much simpler.
Okay, so let's say you don't take my advice
and you want to buy individual tickets.
Well, every ticket station will have ticket machines
and a map that shows you how much the fares are
from the station.
On this map, I'm right here where the red is,
and those numbers, that's how much the tickets are in yen
to get to the different stations.
So you'll see as I back out here, as we get farther away
from this station, the ticket prices
get more and more expensive.
If you wanna buy one of those tickets you would come up
to this machine, you would push the button that says
English, and things would turn to English.
You would say purchase a ticket, and then you would
pick the amount of yen that you saw on the map up there.
So let's say we wanna go 390.
Then you would just go ahead and insert your money there
and you would get a little ticket
that would come out of this machine.
From these machines, though, you should really purchase
the Icoca card, 2000 yen, and you'll
get one of those IC cards.
The one time you will want to buy tickets is if you're
traveling on a reserved seat train.
For example, some of the rapid trains, like the Haruka
to the airport, you can reserve a seat.
In that case, you'll wanna head to the ticket counter.
They typically say tickets and they'll have a little icon
that's green of a reclining seat.
While there are vending machines that are usually
green in color that you can buy reserved seat tickets from,
they ca be a little confusing, so I'd suggest
you head to the manned counter.
You'll also need to go to a manned counter
if you're buying a ticket to the Shinkansen,
and if you're buying reserved seat tickets,
many trains have a regular class and a green class,
which is there equivalent of first class,
that'll have an extra surcharge.
Okay, so you've got your IC card and you're ready to ride.
How do you get in?
Well, you find the wicket, one that doesn't have an X
but one that has a green arrow.
You find the IC thing, you tap it on, and then it'll
tell you how much money you have left on your card.
If you are traveling with a JR pass,
don't insert it into the ticket gate.
Instead, go to the manned ticket lane and show your JR pass.
They'll just let you through.
If you are traveling on the Skinkansen, the bullet train,
it will have its own special entrance
and own special ticket gates.
In that case, go to those ticket gates
and insert your ticket or tickets into those wickets.
You might have multiple tickets for the Shinkansen,
one for the base fare, one for the seat,
one for the express.
In that case, put two or three into the wickets.
You'll then pick all of them up out the other side
because you'll need to show your tickets
on the train as well.
So now that you're through the ticket gate and into the
station, you'll need to find the track
that your train is going on.
They'll typically have signs in the ceiling that tell you
what trains and lines are on which tracks.
For the subway, it's pretty easy, 'cause it's usually just
two directions, one line.
For the JR station, it's more complicated.
This station, the JR Tennoji Station, has 18 tracks,
and in the ceiling, take a look at the line.
It'll tell you what lines are what track
and then what direction.
For example, here on 17 and 18, Yamatoji Line
for Shin-Imamiya and JR-Namba local and rapid service.
And pay attention to the direction, too, because the other
direction on the Yamatoji Line is on
a completely different platform.
The JR stations will also typically have a big,
illuminated sign board that tell you the times
and the destinations of most of the close, upcoming
departures and what tracks they're on.
So if you wanna avoid walking around the whole station,
you could take a look at one of these sign boards.
If you're riding the subway, one of the nice things
is all the stations have letters and numbers
so you can just tell whether you're going in the
increasing letters and numbers
or the decreasing letters and numbers.
Okay, so now that you've made it to your platform,
you need to figure out where to wait for your train.
Something to pay attention to if you're on the JR lines:
there are some cars that are reserved for women only,
and if you see women only on the platform, that means
if you're not a woman, you shouldn't stand there.
These little marks that are along the side,
these essentially show you where the door is going to be,
and so this is where you would stand to wait for the train.
If it's a busy time, there will generally be lots of
people here, and here's one where there's a train here.
You would essentially wait to the right
and to the left of the door.
When the train arrives, doors open, everybody kinda stands
to the side, lets everybody get out, and then you get on.
You'll know the train arriving, 'cause there will
typically be music of some sort to let you know it's coming.
Make sure you stand behind the yellow line
so you don't get hit by the train.
I want you to keep watching my videos,
and if you got hit by the train,
you wouldn't be a very good video watcher anymore.
I should also mention that when you're waiting
for your train,
take a look at the times on the sign board.
If your train is at 1:15 and it is 1:13 and there's a
train there, chances are, that is not your train.
There are often many trains that arrive on these tracks
just a few minutes apart, so make sure
you are getting on the correct train.
If you are taking the Shinkansen, your ticket will be
for a certain car and a certain seat, and so if that's
the case, on the Shinkansen tracks there will be signs
to tell you where that particular car is going to stop.
Make sure you wait at the correct car stop,
because the Shinkansen is nearly a mile long.
I'm slightly exaggerating, but it's a super long train.
You won't be able to run to your car in the length of time
that the Shinkansen actually stops there.
So once you've got on the correct train, if it's not
very busy, then just go ahead and grab a seat.
They'll be open.
Just make sure you don't sit in the priority seats.
Those are for elderly, pregnant women, people carrying
children, unless you're in one of those categories.
If you are, there will be special signs
to tell you where those priority seats are.
If it's busy and all the seats are taken,
then you can stand in the middle around the doors,
there are some poles there.
If you're standing where the seats are and you're
holding the grab bars, then make sure you face the people
sitting in the seats, so your belly
will be facing their face.
Do not stand the other way.
You don't wanna put your rear end in people's faces.
That's the etiquette of riding the trains in Japan.
Also, when you're on the train,
silence your cell phone and try to be quiet.
That's what they do here.
When you're riding the trains and subway,
you'll find that pretty much everything is announced
in Japanese and English, so as long as you're paying
attention, you won't have a hard time
hearing what your stops are.
Also, all the stops have signs in them in English.
The subway is extra easy because those ones are
lettered and numbered, so it's very easy to count
how many stops you have left.
I haven't found Osaka to have a lot of digital signage
in the subway, but they'll all have maps right above
the doors, so just pay attention to roughly
how many stations you need to go.
You can count them and then get off once your count
has reached five, if that's how many stations you're going.
Okay, so you're at your destination station.
You've got off the train.
Now you need to figure out how to go out.
What do you mean how to go out?
Don't you just go out, Chris?
Well, these stations in Japan have many different exits.
For example, Namba Station has 32 different exits, so if
you know your exit, just look for the sign and find it.
Otherwise, consult one of these signs at the stations
that'll tell you what exit, where you waNna go.
So right now I'm going to Dotombori and it says
go out exit 14, and then you can look at the map
that says you are here, and then exit 14,
not really in chronological order, is over here.
So now, as I go out, I'm gonna look at the ceiling signs
that say where is exit 14.
Here's one of those signs, it says exit 1-13 is that way,
exit 14-32 is this way.
That's where I'm going.
Also, it tells you where the bathrooms are
and other lines, maybe if that's where I was going.
So then you'll look for the yellow sign in the ceiling
that says where the exit is, and it says it's
out this wicket to the right, so I get my IC card
that I tapped in with, I go to the wicket, I put it
over the yellow thing, it opens the gate, and then tells me
I have 1935 yen left on my card.
If you go to exit the station and you don't have enough
money on your IC card, well, you can use one of these
fare adjustment machines.
They're at the exits to almost all the stations.
They typically have a button for English.
You push IC card charge, take your IC card,
and you insert it into the slot right here,
and then it will come up and it will tell you
how much money you have on your card.
You can pick how much money you want to add,
and then you just go ahead and put your money
in the bill slot right here, up to 10000 yen.
You'll get change back in bills and coins,
so don't worry, it won't eat all your money.
And then eventually, you'll find
the yellow sign for your exit.
If you're lucky, it'll be an escalator.
If you're unlucky, it'll be a staircase.
Oh, and speaking of luggage: if you are planning
to bring luggage with you on Osaka's public transportation,
you should bring luggage that you can carry up a
staircase, because chances are, you will encounter
a staircase at least once on your public transit journey.
Another great thing about Japanese train stations
are coin lockers.
If you've got too much stuff that you're carrying with you
and you wanna leave it for awhile, find these coin lockers.
They are in every major JR train station
and many of the other companies as well,
and the way you use is basically you can press here
to get English, and then you can put in your luggage,
and you put in your luggage, you pull down a lever,
you put in your IC card, it locks it, and you get charged
when you unlock it when you get back with your IC card.
Pretty fancy, no keys needed.
But one note on the lockers: the train stations
are really big and there's lots of lockers,
so remember which locker you put your stuff in,
otherwise you might be wandering around
without your luggage for a long time.
Last thing I wanted to point out is that while Osaka
is not quite as busy as Tokyo, the trains can get busy,
particularly during morning and evening rush hours,
so if you want to avoid getting squashed onto a train,
and I like to avoid that, don't ride between eight
and nine in the morning, that's the morning rush hour,
and then shortly after five o' clock.
That's when you'll find the trains to be most crowded.
Well, that's all there is to it.
Super easy.
Now you'll be a pro at riding the trains and subway
when you come to Osaka.
Well, thanks for watching.
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