Aside from surface rail like the Yamanote (which I'm gathering would be called Heavy Metro - I think the cars and track are more or less JR standard), and the subway, there is one monorail line in Tokyo (which makes a short run from a Yamanote line station to Haneda airport, Tokyo's domestic hub), and there are several streetcar lines.
Streetcars are a holdover from the days of yore, and are enjoying something of a revival recently. In fact, an old line was just re-opened last year. The cars are really quite small, no longer than your average bus, and some of them are REALLY old - warped wooden floors and railing in places attest to the age. I've ridden these a few times in Tokyo, and they seemed quite popular - standing room only every time, which admittedly was not hard given the small car size. I've also ridden streetcars in Kagoshima and Kumamoto, both of which also continue to operate legacy lines from the early or mid 20th century.
As things stand, the first diary will be up probably on Tuesday, so the rapid transit one on thirsday or Friday.
I've STILL never figured out how to post photos properly
Do you need any help beyond the New User Guide?
Yamanote (which I'm gathering would be called Heavy Metro
Well, categories are blurred... With lots of standing space and an elevated line, it really looks more like a (heavy) metro, but being JR standard and being part of JR East, and not being considered part of the subway network (which is heavy metro), I'd say let's stay with 'rapid transit'. By the way, here is a 2004 list of Japanese (or just Tokyo?) rail lines with weekday ridership over one million, you see that suburban rapid transit beats subways:
So not many late-seventies-to-present modern trams in Tokyo, then? Maybe in other Japanese cities? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
A note here. The ridership of a line is a rather loose measure of traffic density. traffic volume (in passenger-kilometres) per line length would be more like it if you want averages, or numbers for individual stations to get the maximum. But the picture with those measures is not that different when comparing similar type lines. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
