Japan: June 10-19, 2018. Shinkashen: bullet train
One of the exciting experiences we had was on the Shinkashen, or bullet train. If there was one word to describe the whole experience, it would be efficiency. If there was a word to describe what it looks like, it would be "eel."
The Shinkashen station is at the same place as the subway stations; the booths for purchasing tickets have a person instead of a machine. Sometimes the person speaks a little English, but we found that doesn't matter anyway. In Tokyo, we purchased tickets -- with reserved seats -- for ourselves within 10 minutes of the train's arrival/departure. We walked through the gates, lined up at a sign with our car number clearly marked. The sign offering directions on the train platform appeared in Japanese, but also rotated through English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. The marvelous parts? We could read the numbers depicting time and train number. If we looked confused, someone would step forward to help us.
The train was perfectly on time, stopped for no more than 3 minutes while others walked off, we walked on, found our seats, stowed our bags, and settled in.
We gathered speed swiftly and smoothly; there was no side-to-side clatter or movement of the train as we sped across the land. I believe the average speed was well in excess of 130 mph; there were times we traveled in excess of 200 mph. It felt as though we were flying low. We watched houses, mountains, rice patties, trees go by in a blur; if we blinked, we missed something. Experiencing the Shinkashen headed in the opposite direction about 5 feet away was something we tried to video, but could not. We certainly saw the country side -- towns, hills, farms, rice patties and even Mt Fugi.
The Shinkashen station is at the same place as the subway stations; the booths for purchasing tickets have a person instead of a machine. Sometimes the person speaks a little English, but we found that doesn't matter anyway. In Tokyo, we purchased tickets -- with reserved seats -- for ourselves within 10 minutes of the train's arrival/departure. We walked through the gates, lined up at a sign with our car number clearly marked. The sign offering directions on the train platform appeared in Japanese, but also rotated through English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. The marvelous parts? We could read the numbers depicting time and train number. If we looked confused, someone would step forward to help us.
The train was perfectly on time, stopped for no more than 3 minutes while others walked off, we walked on, found our seats, stowed our bags, and settled in.
We gathered speed swiftly and smoothly; there was no side-to-side clatter or movement of the train as we sped across the land. I believe the average speed was well in excess of 130 mph; there were times we traveled in excess of 200 mph. It felt as though we were flying low. We watched houses, mountains, rice patties, trees go by in a blur; if we blinked, we missed something. Experiencing the Shinkashen headed in the opposite direction about 5 feet away was something we tried to video, but could not. We certainly saw the country side -- towns, hills, farms, rice patties and even Mt Fugi.
5 minutes prior to our stop, a voice spoke in Japanese then English (perhaps the other three languages listed above, but I am not savvy enough to be able to tell): "We will stop briefly in Nagoya. Please be prepared to exit the train." Indeed, we were prepared; we exited swiftly, others entered and the total length of the train stop was very, very brief. These trains are always on time.
Our night in Nagoya, we had a fancy tall hotel that overlooked the train station. From the 33rd floor, we could see the sleek white eel come and go with frequency that fit the time of day: every couple minutes during rush hour, every twenty to thirty minutes through the night.
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