OK, so I'll admit, I didn't see these vending machines on the streets every day. And believe me, I was looking. These were on the island of Miyajima. I understand that most of the beer vending machines were no longer used, so I'm particularly pleased I could find a few to show you.

I'm not a beer fan but I thought someone might get a kick out this anyway.

When I was there, the $1 US would get you 118 yen, so that Bud there is about $2.60 US.

It took some getting used to but it's "doable."

The good thing about these maps is that they're really big and you can see it. The bad thing about these maps is that they were often in Kanji ONLY. So you had to be good at knowing where your stop was in order to figure out how many yen to deposit into the machine.

For the lucky few (that would be ME!) an extremely handy Japan Rail Pass would gain you access to nearly any train your heart desired.

Another map showing more of the lines in Tokyo

All trains in Tokyo have ads in the cars. They line all walls and very neatly numbered for easy replacement. Most have lots of animated stuff and often you can't tell (unless you can actually READ the ad) what the ad's actually advertising. This ad, as you can see, hangs down from the ceiling. This is normally perfectly fine as the bottom of the ad is about 3" from the top of most Japanese heads. The exception comes when some tall Westerner gets on the train and he's about 6'3" and grazes the top of the train not to mention the entire hanging ad. If I'd been brave enough I would've taken a picture of that because it was pretty funny!

This sign appeared in every car on every train (in some form if not this form) at special seating locations. I love the little characters --- especially the pregnant lady. LOL! What was especially poignant about that is I saw....maybe two pregnant ladies in all my travels. They just don't exist in Japan.

And actually this isn't the way it looks typically. It's usually crowded and you can't even see the seat. But the people were always polite, quiet and respectful regardless of how many were crammed on the car. You RARELY ever heard a cell phone but you saw nearly everyone with one. I think my entire travels (on trains, in the streets, in the shops) I heard maybe two cell phones ring. That’s out of millions of people, folks! In the States, there’s one ringing every ½ second! But back to the trains - you also saw folks listening to their music, MP3s I'd imagine, but you'd never hear any of it. The people are incredibly polite.

This was the Keio Line to Tokyo, but I imagine most train controls looked like that.

Normally the trains just pulled up to the platform and people got on and off when the doors opened. At this station, and I'm sorry I can't remember which one in Kyoto it was, actually had a barrier between you and the train so there were two sets of doors - the ones on the barrier and the actual ones on the train. Odd - didn't see this anywhere else but that one station.

"The Bullet Train" http://www.japanrail.com/

Excellent ride. I highly suggest Green Car if you can get it.