Travelling on the Shinkansen
On the recent trip to Japan we traveled to Kyoto on the Shinkansen, the world famous Japanese bullet train. We traveled the 500km to Kyoto on the Tokaido line, which was the first high speed line to open in 1964, the year I was born. The trip took just over two hours, which literally flew by at speeds of 320kph / 200mph.
Speeds of 440kph /275 mph were recorded in 1996 and a new world record of 603kph /375 mph was set in 2015 by the new maglev trains.
One of the things that I noticed was the frequency of the trains. On the way down from Tokyo there were services every 20-minutes. On the way back from Kyoto there were four trains to Tokyo in a 30 minute period. And they all ran with typical Japanese efficiency and punctuality.
Now I have travelled a lot by train in the UK and in France and the first thing that struck me on entering the carriage was the width. In the Europe the seats are usually two each side of the aisle. On the Shinkansen the aisle is wider and there are three seats on one side and two on the other.
I was lucky to have a window seat on the way down to Kyoto so I spent a lot of time watching the world go by. The sunny weather gave us a spectacular view of Mount Fuji from the window as we sped past towns and fields.
One thing was the lack of sensation of moving at speed. Looking out the window I could see that we were moving very quickly but it didn't feel like 200mph and the carriage didn't bump or roll like they do at 90mph on British trains!
On arrival in Kyoto we disembarked and headed off to get some lunch before the afternoon excursion to the Golden Pavilion.
The following afternoon we took the same 500km journey back to Tokyo, which was equally quick and easy. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to travel by the Shinkansen in future.
CLICK HERE to go to the Central Japan Railway Company website (in English) for more information on the Shinkansen.
All images taken on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the XF16-55mm f2.8
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