We ended the day at Shibuya, about eleven hours after we started. In those eleven hours, we didn’t really stop to sit down for more than fifteen minutes. Our bodies were tired. We learned that Tokyo is much too big to walk around to see everything, so we are sort of forced to use the transit system. Because it was rush hour (around 7pm), we did not get a seat, and had to stand the whole way, for about an hour, which wasn’t comfortable after walking for about eleven hours.
Although the maps are in English, and we pretty have it figured out, I don’t like the transit system in Tokyo (this is after only one day; perhaps after I have given it a chance, my opinion will change). I am used to the New York system which is unified and uniform. That is, in New York, it is all one system, which means I buy one ticket for one price, and go wherever I want. For one thing, The Tokyo system is such that I pay different prices based on where I want to go; the further I go, the more I pay. Another thing is that the Tokyo system is not unified. It is several different companies working in the same city. If I want to go to a particular place, I have to figure out what company line to use. This means that sometimes when I transfer within one station, I have to exit one company’s line, buy another ticket, and get on another company’s line to get where I want to go. Furthermore, this means that the price out of my pocket is going to be more, thus, worse for the consumer.
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Allow me to explain. If I wanted to go (let’s say) 5 stations away on one line, I would probably pay about 200 yen (2 dollars). But if I want to go 5 stations away, and I had to transfer between different companies, I would probably have to pay 160 yen (the minimum price for a ticket) twice, which is 320 yen.
Now, on the face of it, one might think that that this flies in the face of contemporary economic theory. After all, we are taught that more companies in the market better serves competition, thus lowering the price, thus better for the consumer. However, although we have several different companies in the transit industry that are, seemingly, in one market (Tokyo), this is not the case. The city of Tokyo is not the market, but rather each individual station is a market in itself. That is, each route is a unique product that only one company is allowing service to. That is, if I am at Tsuruse station (near our home), and want to get to Ikebukuro, there is only one company I can use, the Tobu line. Again, if I want to go from Ikebukuro to Shibuya, only one company has service, the Japan Rail line. Thus, instead of having one state run system that serves the whole market (all the stations in the city), as is the case in New York, there are instead several different monopolies running in Tokyo. I should have apologized in advance because I don’t have a degree in economics, but to this uneducated commuter, the Tokyo system seems so much worse for the consumer than a state run system.
(A quick correction: I suppose that the system that I described above might be better called an oligopoly rather than "several different monopolies," especially since there is definitely evidence for collusion.)
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One definite crappy thing about our apartment is that there is no hot water. After walking around in the humid Tokyo environment for eleven hours, we were a bit ripe, and needed a shower. The water seemed to be freezing cold, but sometimes you have to man-it-up, and just do it. I think that I even read somewhere that cold showers are somehow better for you. I don’t know if that is true, but after we figure out who we need to talk to about this, I won’t be taking advantage of that possible health benefit much longer (I hope).
After our cold shower, we fell right to sleep.
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