Lets start with the Shinkansen, also known as the Japanese bullet train. The Shinkansen, which literally means New Trunk Line, has been around almost as long as I have. The Tokaido Shinkansen, which connects Japans three largest metropolitan areas, Tokyo/Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka/Kyoto opened in 1964. The Shinkansen trains run on their own dedicated tracks at speeds of up to 320km/h (200mph).
The ride is incredibly smooth and it never feels as if you are travelling at such high speeds.
All Shinkansen platforms have half height platform screen doors, as you can see in the video clips below, that provide additional safety for passengers waiting on the platforms. You will also notice from these clips how quiet the Shinkansen trains are.
My love for Japan and all things Japanese is inexorably linked to the Shinkansen train. I was fortunate enough to work for, first Toshiba and then later Mitsubishi on the Taiwan High Speed Rail project, which was the very first Shinkansen rail system to be built outside of Japan. It was while working on that project in Taipei that I met the woman who would later become my wife. For this reason the Shinkansen holds a special place in my heart and a high speed train ride in Japan is something I always look forward to.
I have travelled on the Shinkansen between Nagoya and Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto and Kanazawa and Toyama. There’s no getting away from the fact that the Shinkansen is expensive, so if you are on a limited budget but really want to ride the Shinkansen. I suggest you take it on the short route between Nagoya and Kyoto which will set you back about £50 for a one-way trip with a reserved seat.
If you want the most picturesque Shinkansen journey I suggest you take it between Nagoya and Tokyo, this will cost around £100 for a one-way trip with a reserved seat, however the route takes you right past Mount Fuji. Both Nagoya and Tokyo Shinagawa stations have English speaking counters for the Shinkansen bookings. You can even reserve a seat on the Mount Fuji side of the train to get the best views. Although even being on the right side of the train may not always be enough to get a good view of Fuji-san, it is a mountain and as such is often obscured by clouds.
The thing to remember about all Japanese trains is that they always, always run on time. They are so punctual that commuters plan their journeys to the minute and if trains do depart early senior rail company executives are forced to issue apologies because travellers will have missed their connections. Bear this in mind when booking your train, especially if you are already at the station, be sure to book on to a train that will be able to catch, many stations in the big cities are enormous and travelling from booking hall to platform can be an adventure in itself. I recently transferred from the Osaka Airport train to the Kintetsu line at Osaka Namba station and distance wise its about a 20 minute walk, but it is also a very crowded station and houses a shopping mall the size of which would rival Westfield Stratford and this made it more like a 30 minute walk.
Most trains, other than strictly local trains, are very comfortable and are equipped with reversible seats, which means you need never be facing the wrong way or if you’re travelling as a group you can turn the seats to face each other. The train company will always re-configure the seat arrangement at the end of the line, prior to the return journey to ensure the seats are always set in the direction of travel, but you can change them if you want.
Buying a ticket for non-shinkansen train travel always seemed quite daunting to me, but I forced myself to do recently, rather than rely on my Japanese speaking family member to do it for me. The first thing to understand is the concept of the Limited express service. An express train service will get you to your destination, but it will stop at every station on the route. A limited express service will only stop at some stations, hence the term ‘Limited Express’. From the Yokkaichi Station timetables above you can see there are 4 different types of train operating this station, the Limited Express in Red at the top, the Express, the Semi-express and the local trains. Unless you want long slow journey or are only going a short distance, I recommend using the Limited express service where you can.
The above picture shows the fares for the Express and Limited Express services operating from Yokkaichi station. To travel on the Limited Express service you have to pay the Express fare and the Limited Express fare. So, for the journey I made from Yokkaichi to Ise-Nakagawa the price for the journey is ¥690 for the Express fare plus ¥900 for the Limited Express fare, making a total of ¥1590 for a one-way journey with a reserved seat.
Most stations will have automatic ticket selling machines that can be selected to operate in English.
There are usually kiosks selling food and drink on the platforms of most stations and sometimes there are vending machines actually on the trains.
If you drive in Japan you will soon realise that there are many more level crossings than we have in the UK and it wont be long before you have to wait for a train to pass. We are always amused when we see a local train that consists of just a single carriage.
To travel by train is to truly experience Japanese life, they are always clean, punctual, reliable, expensive and thoroughly enjoyable. Japan is better connected by train than any other country and to me it is always a joy to travel by train in Japan.
The stations can be cavernous with many different train companies operating out of them, with shopping malls and endless streams of travellers no matter what time of day or night. Some like Namba in Osaka would take you days to fully explore. There are always places to eat at anything other than the smallest stations and you can often find some wonderful Sushi carousel restaurants at stations. I wholeheartedly recommend that you take a train journey when you are in Japan, even if it is just a short trip so that you can marvel at how implausibly punctual the trains are. After all, when you take the train, it is a chance to sit back and admire the beauty of Japan as the train speeds downs the tracks.