Well, for starters, the second best investment I have made in Japan (#1 being my Phone) is my bicycle. You can get anywhere of importance by bicycle. A close train station, grocery store, a million restaurants, karaoke, and convenience store are all within a 15 minute bike ride. My bike came with a lock on it, basket, and its a comfortable ride- and I got it for about 5000yen. (In hindsight I should have bought one with a back seat, the ladies love it)
Anyway, bikes aside, buses are extremely convenient. Buses run many many places and its usually around 220yen per ride, not too shabby. There are buses running to and from neighborhoods, stations, airports, malls, you name it. And the best part is, they are typically not late by more than 10 or 15 seconds. Yeah, seconds. The cherry on top is the bus driver telling us stupid foreigners when we are at our destination when we don't pay attention. Isn't that nice???
Trains. What can I say except they are quick, punctual (more so than the buses), and cheap. The system is pretty easy and you can essentially get to any major (and minor for that matter) city by train. Nobody needs a car here. Why bother with driving when you can sit back and relax while you travel for WAY cheaper than driving? I have not been on the Shinkansen yet, but I will be sure to share that story asap.
My only complaint is that the trains stop running around 12:30am. This makes night life a little troublesome but clubs and bars are typically open until 5am;when the trains start up again- So no worries. Kudos Japan!
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