Another Reason Why the Japanese are so Thin: The Subways

Okay, I'll give away the punchline right here.  The second reason why the people in Tokyo are so thin is because they walk alot.  BUT, the subway has a lot to do with it.  Here in Toronto, the Transit Commission has been taking a lot of flack for... well... sucking.  It's not until I had a chance to see another city for myself, however, that the contrast sunk in.  Compared to Tokyo, Toronto's transit system is like a child.

Here, the TTC has maybe four lines and I'm being generous.  In Tokyo, there are over a dozen.  We're not talking rinky dink affairs with five or six stops like our Sheppard or Scarborough line.  We're talking routes that span halfway across the city or more.  These lines also cris cross each other at regular intervals, so transfer between subway systems are incredibly easy.  It also means there's alot of places in Tokyo you can reach just by riding the trains.  Indeed, that's what we did.  Everywhere we went was by train.  We never had to take a bus or a street car or even a taxi.

But the thing is... what do we do once we reach our destination by train?  Why, we walk!  And that's the point of this blog.  Tokyo's transit is so efficient and far reaching that owning a car is probably optional in the city.  We see so many people taking transit that I'm convinced it's the default mode of fast transportation.  So my guess is that the people of Tokyo do what we did.  They walk to the subway, get where they are going, then walk the final steps to their destination.  That's a lot of walking.  For some places on our itinerary, we had to walk 15 to 20 minutes to get to.  Most, however, are within 5 minutes.  We got lucky with our hotel which has a two-line junction station less than a minutes walk apart!

But what if, you say, it's too far to walk? What if you live in the middle of nowhere but still must take the train?  Well, there's the bus.  But there's also something else. 

Bikes!  I think this is the second half of the equation.  A lot of people walk in Tokyo, but a great many also bike.  There are so many bikers that pedestrians are constantly threatened of being run over.  In fact, it's nearly happened to us multiple times.  Bike racks are also everywhere outside train stations and a lot of times are filled to capacity.  You can see such example of bikes on the right side of this picture.  People just leave them there and hit the train station.  So even if you cannot walk to or from a station because it's too far, biking is always an option.

That's not all.  The train system itself is ripe with opportunities to do a little walking exercise.  Remember how I mentioned the multiple lines and how you can transfer between them at certain stops?  Well, imagine if you have a stop that's a junction for two, three or even four different lines.  The station itself would have to be huge, wouldn't it?  And that's exactly what we saw.  Alot of the bigger stations are comparable to the PATH we have in downtown Toronto.  It's a maze of shops and hallways leading hither and yonder.  And what does that mean for the citizens' health?  It means a lot of walking.  In some of these big stations, to transfer from one train to the next you often have to walk several hundred meters.  This is true for subway entrances, too.  We've seen signs for the subway in places where you still have to walk several hundred meters for the nearest train.

Tying neatly into my last blog, a lot of these stations are quite vertical with multiple floors.  This means riders are also taking a lot of steps.  Alot of stations even have stairs with no escalators.  You walk up or you don't go up at all.  These are rare, however, but be prepared to really have to travel even if you are within a subway station already.

And this concludes this blog.  I've still go one more reason why the people of Tokyo are so fit, so stay tuned!

P.S.  Below is something the TTC sorely needs.  These platform gates open and close only when a train is on the other side. Rush hour in Japan can get packed, so my guess is they are there so people don't fall onto the tracks by accident.