The Shinkansen, better known as the "bullet train," is a high speed railway found all over Japan and was started in 1964 (same year as the Tokyo Olympics)! When the Shinkansen first started running it was a symbol of future drive for Japan and today still remains a source of national pride. In the past week we took the Shinkansen from Yokohama to Kyoto, from Kyoto to Hiroshima, and then from Hiroshima back to Yokohama! It was all pretty awesome! If we were to have driven from Yokohama to Kyoto it would have taken us about 4+ hours, BUT on the Shinkansen it took us about an hour and a half!!! It is definitely a great way to travel and I understand why so many people here in Japan use it. 
We boarded the train very early in the AM in Yokohama on our first Shinkansen trip. Everyone lined up before the train arrived on the platform and once the train arrived it was all very orderly and everyone was on the train and settled within a few minutes... very different from any Amtrak experience I have ever had!!!! A study was done a few years ago and found that each Shinkansen train arrives and departs within 6 seconds of the scheduled time.... this is NOT a typo... 6 seconds!!!!! It is truly unbelievable how efficient this country is!!!!!!!! The inside of the train felt a little bit like an airplane, we paid extra for reserved seats so that we didn't have to stand for 2 hours, and it was a very nice ride. The seats were relatively comfortable, and reclined just like on a plane. We had tables that came down from the seat in front of us, and we had A LOT of leg room. All in all it was a very comfortable journey and pretty smooth considering we were on a train! They even have people coming around with carts of food you can buy... sort of like a flight attendant. 
The Shinkansen we traveled on go anywhere between 149-186 mph, but it doesn't feel that fast because it is such a smooth ride. Many Shinkansen travel daily between Tokyo and Osaka the two biggest business hubs in Japan. About 13 trains an hour during the day travel between these two cities. On the 16 car trains (like the ones we took) there are 1,323 seats!!!! These trains even have an automatic braking system on the train in case of a major earthquake... thankfully that didn't happen while we were traveling! The Shinkansen was an amazing experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Japan to visit and travel, however, the tickets for our 3 trips were just as expensive as airline tickets if not more... part of that is because the Yen rate absolutely SUCKS, but you are also paying for the convenience of fast travel throughout the country. 
On all of our trips, we bought food in advance (and beer or chu-hi's) to bring with us on the train. This seemed to be what everyone else did too. On our way back from Hiroshima (stay tuned for that blog), it was about 3 hours and 45 minutes, but really didn't feel that long at all. we made a few stops at some of the other major cities, but I didn't mind. We stopped in Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya on our train trip back, but now I can say I have been to those cities... hahaha!!! We had a great trip and I have a lot more blogging to do... Kyoto, Myajima Island, and Hiroshima!!! Japanese Word of the Day:
Chiketto (chick-etto): Ticket
No comments:
Post a Comment