After taking buses in Kyoto, kanazawa, Hiroshima (Costco) , Tokyo outskirts(to get to kawasaki Costco, plus odabian area back to central tokyo), not a big fan of buses and would prefer train/subway if it's comparable.

1) Kyoto, overcrowding/timetable unreliable/slow (known problem).
2) Hiroshima/Tokyo - slow/stuck in traffic, especially when trying to navigate in/out of the train station/bus depot area
3) yes, many buses are feeder routes going to/from train stations - a few others connect different train stations. But given Tokyo's train station density, not that big of a surprise
4) it's not always entirely English friendly.

A) These are all different branches of #21 - if you're not familiar with katakana/kanji, slight learning curve/aymbol matching. It's not that bad though

B) Google maps may mix English and kanatana/kanji stop names, some buses only have the scrolling LED panel(they flash each name and disappear after a few seconds) versus the large lcd screen. Rely on gps then to know when to get off . I've seen more egregious examples, but so far I can see these offhand

That said, I don't find it particularly difficult, and haven't gotten accidentally lost (or gotten off wrong stop accidently). Part of it is data problem, and does this happen for trains too? Maybe



(No English at the bus stop sign, though it's 4 years old and could have been updated)
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Location...ure_Kanto.html