Riding JR Yamanote Line

If you are in Tokyo and want to get around by public transportation, you are likely to ride JR Yamanote Line. When I first came to live in Tokyo, all I rode for the first week was Yamanote Line. Yamanote Line is easy and you can also see outside, so it is good for orientation.

Yamanote Line is a loop line operated by JR and stop at major area of Tokyo such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno, Akihabara, Tokyo, Yurakucho (Ginza), Shinagawa. There are 30 stations and about 2 minutes between stations on average. One circle is an hour and it goes clockwise and counter-clockwise.

from Creative Commons you can download from here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yamanote_Line_(April_2020).svg

Yamanote Line symbol color is lime green and station numbers start with JY (JR Yamanote Line) plus number. For example, Tokyo Station is JY01.

On the platform, you’ll find this kind of signboard

from wikicommons you can download from here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JREast-Yamanote-line-JY01-Tokyo-station-sign-20170824-182036.jpg

It has station name in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. it also shows the current station number (In this case Tokyo station is JY01) and it is going toward Kand JY02.

When you are looking for the platform, make sure the Yamanote Line you are getting on is going to the right direction. You can tell by

Major Station ahead (Usually sign says Yamanote Line for Ueno, Ikebukuro)

If you are in Meguro going to Shinjuku for example, you should look for the Yamanote Line for Shibuya and Shinjuku.

But don’t worry, even if you make mistake, it will come back to the same station one hour later. Actually, when I first came to live in Tokyo, I tried the whole cycle of Yamanote Line once and it was interesting. You can see people getting on and off change as you go.

Yamanote Line Stations and station number The major stations are in bold