As usual, perpetuating oneself in front of important spots in other countries was a natural habit. So before entering Tokyo Station, I took a time to pose in front of its gate. It was right in front of the “Yaeshu North Entrance”.
“If you go to Tokyo. You rarely met people above the surface, Donny. But once you enter the underground station, Tokyo residents are like bees in it. Try to prove Donny if you don’t believe it!”, that was what an officemate said who had gone to Tokyo. I was surprised at that time.
Now I was in Tokyo and hoping to prove it. As it turned out, a thing on the surface which people would rarely meet….That was clearly wrong. Tokyo was still a busy city in the world with high population mobility on it. Then, the “underground beehive”….Yeah, that was right. Even before I got to the bottom room, Tokyo station was full of people. Extraordinary.
When entering station building, I prefered to stand attached to a large pole and recorded the back and forth of train passengers who were very tightly packed….. Super busy. Maybe I became the most relaxed human being that morning throughout Tokyo station because I still had time to stand for a long time recording the activities in it.
Now was the time to hunt for train tickets. I had intended to get a one day pass so I could explore Tokyo until midnight. Queued myself at a ticketing vending machine. In the queue, I kept a close eye on how everyone operated the machine. However, when it was my turn, I still didn’t understand. All screens were full of buttons and numbers representing ticket prices. I didn’t know where that destination was. I looked back, I was annoying the queues because I was looking for tickets for too long. I gave up, I stepped back and let other passengers who seemed very rushed with their time. I continued to stand a bit away from ticketing vending machine and watched them when using it. Still confused…. because they chose to use kanji characters.
In the end I decided to look for the other side of station which was quieter. I found it in the left hallway. The ticketing vending machine was empty. I slowly approached, quietly and I watched carefully every button. Finally I found the “ENG” button which would lead me to use an international language. But I didn’t immediately find the word “One Day Pass”.
I kept looking in the “Discount Card” directory and the words “Tokunai Pass” popped up. Luckily, I had read an article about Japanese railways before setting out on an adventure. In the article it was mentioned that the One Day Pass for Japan was called the Tokunai Pass. So happy I solved the problem. Oh, it turned out that it was easy. I pressed it and then paying for 750 Yen.
As far as I know, the Tokunai Pass ia available at all JR Line stations. And can be used to ride all local JR Line trains (within Tokyo city) whose rails are located above ground level. So it can’t be used for Tokyo Subway underground train.
As soon as I got the ticket, I headed straight for the platform in the direction of Nakano.
Nakano is located east of Tokyo with a distance of 15 Km and travel time by train is around 20 minutes. I purposely looked for a place to stay that was a bit far from the city center because its price was cheap.
I took the Chuo Line to Nakano. At 13:30 hours, I arrived at Nakano Station. And get ready to walk to Yadoya Guesthouse.