Yumi & Alex SE Asia trip: Tokyo eki

One of the main points of our trip was for Yumi to spend time with her family, while I studied up on Japanese. And so we dont drain our travel budget, we were planning for Yumi to get a job as a Pharmacist in Japan (for a month or two). I had hoped she would get a job close to her parents house so we could spend time with the family while I attend school, but that proved pretty much impossible. So we decided for her to take a job a few hours away - deep deep country side – with the added benefit of country side pay (much higher than metropolitan areas) – Supply and demand baby!!!

Yumi has a job interview at Tokyo station and I thought I would wait for her at a familiar place, a place where I can comfortably use a laptop to catch up on our blog, the mighty Starbucks. It’s not quiet as welcoming as I had expected it to be. You’re welcome to use a laptop for as long as you have battery life, all of the power plugs are either removed or blacked off and access to wi-fi shall remain a mystery to me.

This is just a snippet of the Tokyo subway system. I’ll find a map of the whole thing at one of the tourist bureaus. Suffice to say, I know why so many tourists find themselves confused. If I could offer one advice, it’s to start your trip with a visit to tourist office and picking up a comprehensive map of subway system. There are something like 8 different companies running trains in Japan, and most trips require transfers between companies, but only few of the maps show the combined network.