One of the decisions you have to make when you live near Tokyo is how late you want to stay out when you’re spending a night out on the town. Your choices are simple:

1) Go home early.
2) Stay out all night.

You can not stay out “later than usual”. If you try to do this, you will stay out all night.

This is because Tokyo’s train system begins shutting down between 11 and midnight. If you have to catch two or more trains, you have to be aware of the last train on each line. The last train from the closest station may depart at 12:45 a.m. but the last train you can take to get home may leave at 12:30 a.m.

If you miss one key train you will miss all of them and may find yourself taking a taxi home or back to the bar.This makes for odd schedules. The Yahoo Transit site tells me that 12:45 a.m. is the last train from my Ikebukuro heading my direction. It stops about half way and then the instructions tell me the next connection leaves at 4:59 a.m.

This also makes for odd evenings.

I remember meeting a friend from high school and university who’d been living in Japan since the 80’s. I hadn’t seen him in decades, but after only a few drinks and some reminiscing, I had to leave for home at 10 because the bar was in a strange location and I had four trains to catch. It was either “Sorry but I turn into a pumpkin at 10:00”  or I had to say “I know I haven’t seen you since the Reagan administration but can I crash at your place?” (It might have worked with him; it doesn’t work with ex-girlfriends, though.)

The other choice is to stay out all night. The first trains start around 5:00 a.m.

What typically happens around last train time is the working people, the Cinderellas, rush to the train to get home or their wives will throw pumpkins at them (something like that). To reach the train they have to human slalom around the college students and party animals (Vampires) who have the energy to stay out all night and are just heading to the clubs.

The last train is typically one of the worst rides you can take. It’s crowded and full of drunk people. It’s one of the few times I feel nervous riding the train.

If you’re not interested in playing Vampire but don’t have any one who will throw pumpkins at you the next day, there are other options, but they are expensive. There are capsule hotels and, if you can find one that takes singles, Love Hotels. They are safer than the last train and the prices are usually comparable to taking a taxi home.

In fact, I suspect it’s the hotel and taxi industry that lobby to keep Japan Rail and the private train lines from operating all night.