ゆりかもめ

Overview

Yurikamome (U) runs 14.7 km in 16 stations from Shimbashi, over the Rainbow Bridge and through the reclaimed islands of Odaiba, Aomi and Ariake, to Toyosu. It is an automated guideway transit line rather than a conventional railway: rubber-tyred trains steered by guide rails along a concrete track, running automatically with no driver aboard in normal service, and every station has full-height platform doors. Its formal name, 東京臨海新交通臨海線, is almost never used. The nickname is the black-headed gull, Tokyo's official bird since 1965 and the miyakodori of classical poetry, chosen, the operator says, so the line would become as familiar to Tokyoites as the bird.

The line opened on 1 November 1995 between a temporary Shimbashi station and Ariake. It was meant partly to serve the 1996 World City Expo, which was cancelled before it opened, and it found its passengers anyway. The Shimbashi terminus moved to its present site in front of the JR station on 22 March 2001, Shiodome opened on 2 November 2002, and the extension from Ariake to Toyosu opened on 27 March 2006, along with the U station numbers. On 16 March 2019 Fune-no-kagakukan was renamed Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, and Kokusai-tenjijo-seimon became Tokyo Big Sight.

Along the route

Shimbashi, where Japan's first railway started in 1872, is the transfer to JR, the Ginza Line and the Asakusa Line. The line heads south past the towers of Shiodome, built on the old national railway freight yard, and meets the Oedo Line at Shiodome station. Takeshiba serves the pier for ships to the Izu and Ogasawara islands, and Hinode and Shibaura-futo follow along the waterfront.

After Shibaura-futo the track turns a full circle. The guideway mostly runs 10 to 15 m above the ground, while the Rainbow Bridge stands far higher so ships can pass beneath, and the loop lets the line climb at a gentle gradient before crossing the bridge's lower deck. On the Odaiba side come Odaiba-kaihinkoen, beside the beach park, and Daiba, the stop for Fuji Television's headquarters. Between Daiba and Tokyo International Cruise Terminal the line passes briefly through Shinagawa ward without a station.

Telecom Center and Aomi follow, then Tokyo Big Sight for the convention centre, and Ariake. Ariake is the official transfer to the Rinkai Line, whose station a short walk away is called Kokusai-tenjijo, so the route planner treats the two as one interchange. The Rinkai Line's Tokyo Teleport is also within walking distance of the line, but neither company lists a transfer there, and the planner does not offer one.

The 2006 extension turns north: Ariake-tennis-no-mori, for the tennis park and Ariake Arena; Shijo-mae, for Toyosu Market, which took over from Tsukiji in 2018; Shin-toyosu; and Toyosu, on the Yurakucho Line. Look at the stations themselves too: each has its own traditional pattern, repeated on its signs and platform doors, from great waves at Daiba to a lion's mane at Ariake.

Why play it

Sixteen names and 182 keystrokes, and the readings are where it bites. 青海 is あおみ, not せいかい — four keys that are easy to overthink. 市場前 is しじょうまえ, not the everyday いちば. 新橋 is signed Shimbashi, but ん only takes n, so you type shinbashi. お台場海浜公園 ends on ん with nothing after it, so it needs nn to finish.

Then the loanwords. 東京国際クルーズターミナル is 30 keystrokes, and the long marks in くるーず and たーみなる are both typed with the hyphen key. テレコムセンター ends on one, so the last key of the name is a hyphen. 東京ビッグサイト doubles its g for the small っ, biggu, and 有明テニスの森 slips a hiragana の between katakana and kanji.

Kanji mode has its own trap at the fifth station. 芝浦ふ頭 writes 埠頭 half in kana, so if your IME turns ふとう into 埠頭 the name will not match — the ふ has to go in as hiragana.