On the City Bus...
Jun. 7th, 2012 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranSo, you want to catch a Kyōto City Bus? It's quite easy.
The first trick is to remember to get on via the rear door. The front door is for alighting. For bus routes within the city centre (identifiable by having coloured route numbers), the fare is a flat fee of 220 yen per ride and you pay when you get off.
Alternatively, if you're planning to make more than two rides in a day, you can buy one day bus card for 500 yen.
The signs at the bus station are very clear. You can also choose between the normal commuter routes (for example the route shown in brown) or the "Raku Bus" routes which focus on the main tourist sites ("Raku" is another old name for Kyoto). From memory, the green line below is a Raku Bus route.
If you happen to get on a bus that goes outside the city centre (identifiable by having the route number in black), you will need to get a ticket from the machine near the rear door. When you leave, you'll need to insert the ticket and your fare into a machine near the front.
Here's another bus. It's got a coloured route number, so it's a flat fare.
All you have to do when you get in is sit down. Note the machine at the front where you need to pay. There are actually about four different slots for different purposes, but the bus driver will tell you what to do. Coins (and tickets if you have them) go in the slot at the top. Bus cards go in the next slot down. I believe the bottom three slots are for breaking notes and coins into smaller change, but I've never used them.
When you hear your stop called, press the button nearest you to get the driver to stop. The light says "Tomarimasu" which tells you, politely, that the bus is going to stop at the next stop.
At some stops, there will also be electromechanical signs showing which bus is approaching next. In this example, you can see that the next bus will be the 205 all the way to Kyoto Station, and not the 205 which will stop at Shijō Kawaramachi (which is, as you might now guess, the intersection of Shijō street and Kawaramachi street).
On the bus, keep an eye out for Mr Chuui, who is always getting hit by bicycles.
If only you'd stayed on the left, Mr Chuui!
The first trick is to remember to get on via the rear door. The front door is for alighting. For bus routes within the city centre (identifiable by having coloured route numbers), the fare is a flat fee of 220 yen per ride and you pay when you get off.
Alternatively, if you're planning to make more than two rides in a day, you can buy one day bus card for 500 yen.
The signs at the bus station are very clear. You can also choose between the normal commuter routes (for example the route shown in brown) or the "Raku Bus" routes which focus on the main tourist sites ("Raku" is another old name for Kyoto). From memory, the green line below is a Raku Bus route.
If you happen to get on a bus that goes outside the city centre (identifiable by having the route number in black), you will need to get a ticket from the machine near the rear door. When you leave, you'll need to insert the ticket and your fare into a machine near the front.
Here's another bus. It's got a coloured route number, so it's a flat fare.
All you have to do when you get in is sit down. Note the machine at the front where you need to pay. There are actually about four different slots for different purposes, but the bus driver will tell you what to do. Coins (and tickets if you have them) go in the slot at the top. Bus cards go in the next slot down. I believe the bottom three slots are for breaking notes and coins into smaller change, but I've never used them.
When you hear your stop called, press the button nearest you to get the driver to stop. The light says "Tomarimasu" which tells you, politely, that the bus is going to stop at the next stop.
At some stops, there will also be electromechanical signs showing which bus is approaching next. In this example, you can see that the next bus will be the 205 all the way to Kyoto Station, and not the 205 which will stop at Shijō Kawaramachi (which is, as you might now guess, the intersection of Shijō street and Kawaramachi street).
On the bus, keep an eye out for Mr Chuui, who is always getting hit by bicycles.
If only you'd stayed on the left, Mr Chuui!
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Date: 2012-06-11 10:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-11 09:02 pm (UTC)