Tokyo, and Japan as a whole, is considered to have one of the best public transportation systems in the world. The main means of transportation in Japan is trains, but there are also public buses, many airports, and ferries throughout the country. One can also see a lot of people biking around and there are many parking lots just for bikes.
The rail transportation system in Japan is mostly privately owned. There are more than 27,000 km of rail crisscrossing the country. Japan Railways, the biggest corporation, owns approximately 70% of the total railways in the country. Together, Japan's railways carry over seven billion passengers per year. In comparison, Germany has over 40,000 km of railways but carries only approximately two billion passengers per year. While Germany and America use their railways more for transporting freight, Japan's railways transport people.
The train system is very punctual, and one can always see people running around in the stations trying to catch their trains. Punctuality is taken to an extreme. Many people talk about specific trains by the times in which they leave a specific station rather than the name of the train itself. The train lines go all the way from the top of Hokkaido, the largest northern island, to the bottom of Kyushu, the largest southern island.
