Let's take the train!

When I was my boys age, which Liam is convinced was sometime around the 1940's, the primary mode of transportation was riding my bike or walking.  There wasn't the opportunity to catch a bus or train to go anywhere.  Ellington CT was a small little farm town.

Now Japan has an extensive train and bus system.  The roads are small and congested.  You can pull over and park your car, IN THE TRAVEL LANE, to run into a store for 5 minutes to get milk or something.  While you're inside travelers stuck behind you either have to wait for your return or try to pass against the on-coming traffic!  Can you imagine trying to pull that in the states?  In addition to that all the highways are toll roads, so the subliminal message is...take the mass transportation.

Okay, so getting around on the train looks daunting, it's mostly symbols and numbers and not easy to decipher the first few times, but it actually isn't that bad.  Once you figure out that the symbols "skinny man, fat man, TV" are the symbols to get to Yokosuka...no sweat!  Oh and the colors, the color of the lines are very important...catch the black line and hit every stop, catch the green and skip most stops and only hit certain major ones...huge difference in time.

So I decided that it was time to push the birds from the nest and see if they could fly!  I told them a couple of Saturdays ago, that I wanted them to catch the train to Yokosuka and back.  From our house, that equates to one train for two stops, change trains and hop on another train.  It's a small station where they change trains, so not a huge concern.  The idea went something like this...

Me: Boys, I have an idea, why don't you take the train to Yokosuka?
Boys: When are we leaving, what are we going to eat?
Me: No, you guys go by yourselves.
Boys: Can we get something to eat?
Me: Yeah, I don't care.  Take the train, check out Blue Street, get something to eat and come back.
Boys: Can we eat where ever we want?
Me: Yes, fine, I don't care where you eat, I just want you to ride the train and make it back alive!
Boys: Can we have some money?

So being a concerned parent, I resorted to Aviator mode and had a very thorough 'pre-flilght' brief.  I had a white board with multiple color markers, a pocket size train map, a time table, a list of landmarks and made sure they had fully charged cell phones (aka survival gear, because Google Maps on the iPhone is AWESOME).  Then I gave them a bunch of yen, don't ask how much, it was probably enough to buy a hotel on Park Avenue...it is just monopoly money!

Out the door they went and after a few hours they returned.  They only made a couple small mistakes but they made it back!  The high-light of their day was not that they took the train by themselves, but that they got to go to McDonald's and KFC for lunch!

Since then, they hit the train a lot.  They take it home from practice without me if I am running late.  Last weekend they took the train to Yokosuka then up to Yokohama!  That's a big trip.  It's about a 30 minute train ride and Yokohama is a major city!  They explored the city, or at least part of it, because the city is huge!  Needless to say a majority of their adventure involved food.  At least this time, they ate at an Indian place, curry and cheese naan, but they spent a good chunk of time looking for a Krispy Kreme near the Yokohama train station.

Of course we'll definitely avoid the trains during rush hour in Tokyo.  The train attendants wear white gloves.  Here's why...

Is there room on that train?