Living in Japan - Commuting and Transportation

Japan is one of those countries with a very efficient transportation system. In big cities like Tokyo, trains arrive almost every 5 minutes; on time. Commuting by train can be a bit difficult during weekdays because there are so many people taking the train to work. I'm quite lucky because I usually use a local line when commuting which is not as crowed. When I went to Tokyo for a training, I was overwhelmed seeing the sea of people in the station, platforms, and inside the train.

When I go out, when I go to Yokohama for example, I normally take a local line to the bigger station. While bigger stations like Yokohama station have many tracks, local stations are different. There's usually just one track for each direction. Local stations look like this during weekends. 

Asano station of Tsurumi line

train bound for Tsurumi

I purposely came to the station earlier because I wanted to take photos around the area.

Tsurumi is the fourth station from Asano and it is also the final station. From Tsurumi, I can transfer to Keihin-Tohoku line whenever I need to go somewhere. I only went out to buy a week's supply of food in the supermarket, so I didn't have to transfer. I could actually go to a nearby supermarket but I woke up craving for some donuts so I did my grocery shopping in Tsurumi.

the bicycles parked outside the station

Tsurumi station from afar

I forgot to mention earlier that local lines don't have frequent trips during weekends. I once missed the train and I had to wait for almost an hour for the next train to arrive.