The high-speed rail network in Japan is exactly what I dreamed of seeing with my own eyes. These bullet trains are fired from Japanese train platforms every three minutes. Their average speed on the route is 270 km/h, the maximum is not worth mentioning - new records are broken too often.
Below the cut is a very short post about the main competitor to air travel and the most punctual passenger transport on the planet - the Shinkansen.
The long-awaited acquaintance with " Japanese miracle” took place at Odawara Station, where our journey through Japan begins. Hikari No. 503 promised to take us to Kyoto in just an hour and a half.
1.
Shinkansen, literally translated from Japanese as “new main line”, is the general name for high-speed railways connecting the most important cities in Japan. This road was called the “New Line” because Japanese builders for the first time, when laying the Shinkansen, moved away from the practice of narrow gauge railways - the standard gauge became 1435 mm. Before that, everything was Japanese railway network It was narrow-gauge (gauge - 1067 mm).
2.
The first section of the Shinkansen Tokyo-Osaka (“Tokaido Shinkansen”), 515 km long, was opened in 1964, on the eve of the opening of the XVIII Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The first trains reached speeds of 220-230 km/h.
The high-speed network is controlled by the Japan Railways Group. JR Group is the backbone of Japan's railway network (controls 20,135 of the 27,268 km of roads, which is ~74% of all highways). Her share is large share intercity and suburban railway communication. Initially, the Shinkansen lines carried freight and Passenger Transportation day and night. Now they serve only passengers, and from midnight to 6 a.m. traffic is stopped for maintenance and repair work. There are very few night trains left in Japan, and they all still run on the old railway, the tracks of which are laid parallel to the tracks of the “bullet train” and connect big cities countries.
Today there are three categories of high-speed trains in use in Japan: nozomi, hikari and kodama. Nozomi Express is the fastest. The 500 series trains operating on these lines appearance, and especially the elongated bow section, 15 m long, creating the necessary aerodynamics, resemble spaceships. Their appearance on Japanese railways completely changed the standards for high-speed roads. In some areas, the “nozomi” reaches speeds of up to 300 km/h and stops only in large populated areas. “Hikari”, the second fastest, makes stops at intermediate stations, and “kodomi” - at all stations. However, the speed of the “kodomi” exceeds 200 km/h, although when passing through some areas and settlements Shinkansen speed is limited to 110 km/h.
3.
Despite the high speeds, the Shinkansen in Japan has proven itself to be an extremely reliable mode of transport: over the years of operation, starting in 1964, not a single accident has been recorded. fatal(excluding suicides). The “punctuality” of Japanese high-speed trains is also exceptionally high: the average annual delay is less than a minute, and even at peak loads it is no more than 3-4 minutes. Having become a convenient and affordable mode of transport, the Shinkansen is in many cases today the most optimal way to travel around Japan. At the same time, the traffic interval during morning and evening rush hours is 5-6 minutes!
4.
Now high-speed trains are the same symbol modern Japan, as well as high-quality electronics, reliable and durable cars.
5.
High speed trains here it is much more popular than air travel within the country, since to travel on the Shinkansen there is no need to waste time on the road to the airport, check-in, etc. Shinkansen saves time in everything!
6.
These high-speed trains are also called bullet trains.
7.
A little higher, I already noted that these trains compete with airplanes only in time savings. Comfort and price are about the same! Yes, riding Shinkansen trains is not cheap - a short trip can cost a decent amount. What should a tourist do?
The most economical way to travel around Japan is the Japan Rail Pass. Such a travel ticket is simply necessary for an independent traveler.
The Japan Rail Pass allows unlimited travel on JR roads, buses and ferries (not valid on the Nozomi Super Express). This ticket is valid for 7, 14 or 21 days and can be purchased only outside Japan.
8.
The JR Pass can only be purchased by foreigners, and only before arriving in Japan. Prices for the regular JR Pass Ordinary “adult” JR Pass are $237,438 and $562 for 7, 14 and 21 days, respectively. Naturally, the criminal JR Pass Green 1st Class will be more expensive - about $150.
So if you are planning to travel around Japan a lot, I advise you to purchase such a pass in advance.
9.
10.
No one goes beyond the yellow line on the platform.
11.
12.
N700 trains reach speeds of up to 300 km/h, and the ability to tilt allows them to maintain speeds of 270 km/h on curves with a radius of up to 2500 m, where speeds were previously allowed at 255 km/h. Another feature of the N700 is that it accelerates faster than other Shinkansen trains, with an acceleration of 0.722 m/s², allowing it to reach a speed of 270 km/h in just 3 minutes.
13.
Magnetoplane trains are currently being tested in full force in Japan. In April 2015, a magnetic levitation maglev train broke its own speed record, reaching 603 km/h during tests near Fuji. JR Central, which owns the trains, aims to have them on the Tokyo-Nagoya route by 2027. The distance of 280 kilometers is planned to be covered in just 40 minutes.
14.
15.
I didn't take any photos inside the train. I will only note very comfortable seats, personal sockets and sealed smoking capsule rooms. A country for people!
16.
N700. Each such train has 16 carriages and 1323 comfortable passenger seats.
17.
And here is another video about the N700 series Shinkansen flying over:
If you want to know everything about Shinkansen trains, then you should come to Varlamov.
Japanese railway miracle "Shinkansen"
1 0
Exactly 50 years ago, in October 1964, the world's first high-speed train, the Shinkansen (aka bullet-train), was launched in Japan, capable of reaching speeds of up to 210 km/h and forever becoming one of the symbols of the “new” Japan and its growing economic power. The first line connected the two largest Japanese cities - Tokyo and Osaka, reducing the minimum travel time between them from 7.5 to 4 hours.
I express my deep gratitude for the opportunity to visit different parts of Japan. Representative office of the National Tourism Office of Japan in Vladivostok and S7 Airlines.
More materials from the trip:
If the weary soul of a traveler becomes completely sad in the realities of a modern metropolis, you can always go on vacation in Hakone. Hakone is a resort area located near Tokyo, within national park Fuji-Hakone-Izu, between Mount Fuji and the Izu Peninsula. In good weather and under favorable circumstances, in general, if luck smiles on you, you can observe the famous Fuji-san - in fact, this is what many travelers come here for.
In the vicinity of Hakone there are also many thermal springs - it is not for nothing that this town not far from Tokyo has been one of the most popular resorts in Japan since time immemorial. Today, there are more than a dozen hot springs in the region, feeding the baths of many hotels and ryokans in Hakone. About everything in order under the cut.
Finally, the time has come to write reports on the results of the trip to beautiful Japan. The first point of my trip, of course, was the huge metropolis and capital of Japan - Tokyo. Below the cut I suggest you look at pictures about my two days in the most modern metropolis in the world.
On April 28, a new direction was added to the route network of S7 Airlines - a direct regular flight connected Vladivostok and the Japanese city of Osaka. I was among the first passengers on this flight.
Flights to Osaka now operate weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays. The plane departs from Knevichi airport at 13:30, and arrives in Osaka at 14:40 local time, that is, two hours in the air - and you are in Japan. The plane departs back to Vladivostok from Osaka Kansai Airport at 15:45, and arrives at its destination at 19:05. Flights on the new flight are carried out on Airbus A320 aircraft equipped with economy and business class cabins. Below the cut is a little about the airport and the new flight of the green grasshopper plane of S7 airlines.
Japan for residents Far East for obvious reasons, it has always been one of the most popular foreign destinations for business and leisure travel. This year, due to the significant simplification of the visa regime, interest in this country should grow significantly. Well, it's time for me to visit too.
Yes, it turns out there is still a Far Easterner who has never been to Japan :))
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These high-speed trains are also called “Bullet train”, from English “bullet train”, they depart from Tokyo Station in the Japanese capital, and cover almost all of Japan with a wide network. Japan built its first high-speed train back in 1964, and now the length of the high-speed train network railway tracks for Shinkansen it is about 2500 kilometers. They cover with their network the main Japanese island Honshu, the southern island of Kyushu, and undersea expressways to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido are already under construction.
In Tokyo, I lived at Shinagawa Station - this is a large transport hub, and the “bullet train” made a short stop there in just 1.5 minutes. Tokyo is a densely populated city and Japanese bullet trains operate with short stops at the city's most important transport hubs and at major intermediate stations between cities. Japan is industrially developed quite evenly and there is life here too in the suburbs, people live, work and move around. It is clear that in Russia, it is not clear why and where the high-speed Sapsan stops on the way from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Shinagawa Railway Station Pavilion.
I was traveling by train from Tokyo to Kyoto, it was an early crossing and in the morning all the Japanese were rushing to work. At the station it was very difficult to squeeze through the crowd of “robots” trying to make it in time for the “first bell.” Indeed, the population density in Tokyo is enormous, even with their extensive transport network, in the morning “biomass traffic jams” occur at stations.
A ticket to Kyoto cost about 130 US dollars. In order to get to the high-speed train platform, you need to go through turnstiles, somewhat reminiscent of the turnstiles of the Moscow metro.
Shinkansen in Japan are usually not late, but arrive minute by minute. After all, if the train stops at the Shinagawa intermediate station for only one and a half minutes, then being late is unacceptable. In 2012, the average deviation of trains from schedule was only 36 seconds. Shinkansen to different destinations arrive at Shinagawa Station approximately every five minutes, and a specially trained Japanese person monitors the departure of these high-speed trains at the station.
Islamic-looking Japanese woman at Shinagawa Station. Shinkansen literally means "new highway" in Japanese. The name "bullet train" is also a literal translation from Japanese "dangan ressha", this name was originally in the 30s of the 20th century, when high-speed railways Japan, were still in development.
The Japanese are a very law-abiding station and they board the train STRICTLY according to general queue, and on the platform there is even a marking on how they should stand, and the place where this or that car stops is also written on the platform itself. Squeezing forward, pushing through the line, is considered very uncultural here, and it is unlikely that a law-abiding Japanese would ever do this.
No one rushes anywhere without a queue; everyone gets off or boards high-speed trains in a sedate and orderly manner. In 1965, with the launch of the Shinkansen, the Japanese were finally able to " one day trips" between its two industrial centers - Tokyo and Osaka.
And finally, slowly, our Shinkansen arrives at the station.
Externally, from the front it even looks a little more beautiful than our famous Sapsan.
Sometimes Shinkansen can even "kiss".
In the end I do last photo my "hippy Japanese" neighbor, and I jump on the train to Kyoto.
The doors of the Shinkansen open to the side, like in our Russian metro, after which passengers board. Shinkansen are very, very safe transport in Japan. In its 49 years of existence since 1964, carrying 7 billion passengers, there has not been a single fatality due to a train derailment or collision. Injuries and one death were recorded when people were pinned by the doors and the train began to move. To prevent this, there is now an employee on duty at each station who checks that the doors of the high-speed train are closed.
Japan is a very earthquake-prone country and all Shinkansen have been equipped with an earthquake prevention system since 1992. If earth vibrations or tremors are detected, the system itself very quickly stops this train. All trains are also equipped new system"anti derailment".
And of course, a train is much more environmentally friendly than a car. If now Shinkansen can reach speeds of up to 320 km/h, but in fact they travel on average 280 km/h, then by 2020 they plan to increase the top speed limit to 360 kilometers per hour.
An example of the layout of a car in a high-speed train in Japan, on one side there are three seats, and on the other two.
The train has machines selling mineral water and tea, so beloved by the Japanese.
Urinals on Japanese trains are equipped with transparent glass.
In addition to urinals, there are also ordinary toilets with a “normal” door, maybe simply because the Japanese believe that women are embarrassed to pee with transparent glass, but men are not)).
There are also separate small rooms where you can wash your hands.
In addition to water and tea vending machines, trains periodically sell drinks and snacks. Even the cheapest purchase can be paid with a credit card; there will be no problems with “plastic money” in Japan.
You can enjoy cold beer or hot coffee.
In Japan, as well as in Russia, several types of dried squid are sold, I always thought that dried salted squid was pure Russian theme, but no, in Japan this is also very common. The squid is very tasty, as is the Japanese beer "Asahi".
Each seat is also equipped with a power outlet, just like on New Zealand trains, meaning you can work on a laptop without time restrictions.
Controllers are also a constant occurrence on Japanese trains, since the Shinkansens make virtually no stops along the way; running out onto the platform of an intermediate station and “running around” the controller, as we do in Russia, will not work in Japan.
There is no way to avoid checking purchased tickets.
When the train travels from Tokyo to Kyoto, 45 minutes after departure everyone runs to take pictures famous symbol Japan - Mount Fuji. The Japanese show national symbol of their country to young children.
If someone wants to call and doesn't have mobile phone, I wonder if there are still such comrades in the 21st century, then there is a payphone on the train.
WITH detailed instructions by use.
Another feature of high-speed “Japanese” trains is that the seats are not fixed in place, as for example in our “Sapsan”, but can freely rotate around their axis by 360 degrees. The rotating mechanism is activated by pressing a special pedal under the seat. And behind the seats there are special nets in which you can put your things, so someone put away his Canon camera - which, as they say folk wisdom, is the "poor man's Nikon".
You can turn the seat 90 degrees and drive looking straight out the window the whole time.
The population density in Japan is enormous and when you travel from Tokyo to Kyoto you don’t even have time to catch the feeling of changing cities, since the industrial zone seems to never end, and the agricultural land is not visible at all. Outside the windows is the factory of the famous Japanese beer “Kirin”.
If, for example, you’re tired of looking out the window, then you can turn the seats another 90 degrees and play cards with your neighbor.
The Japanese in their high-speed trains have not forgotten about the “smoking junkies”; for them, special “aquarium chambers” have been made on the train, which can accommodate a maximum of two people and, in privacy, they can truly enjoy the vomit smell of nicotine.
It’s not for nothing that they say that time flies on the road. While I was walking around the train, I didn’t notice how I arrived in Kyoto. In Shinkansen, you need to carefully monitor the city of arrival, since stops at train stations, even in big cities, usually no more than 5 minutes, you need to pack your things in advance, get ready, and get off the train at the desired station. The first photos at the station in the Japanese city of Kyoto.
After leaving Kyoto, we boarded a train with the goal of getting to a place called Yamanouchi, which is difficult to pronounce. To do this, we first needed to get to Kanazawa Station, and then take another train to Nagano. Holding suspicious 3 tickets in my hands instead of the prescribed two, I felt like there was some kind of catch, and so it turned out. Therefore, I will dwell in more detail on the “ambushes” that can await you when traveling on Shinkansen (Japanese high-speed trains).
So, you have decided to travel on this miracle of railway technology. It is important to know that in Japan most of the railways are narrow gauge (1067 mm), in Russia such railways are exists only on Sakhalin. A significant exception is the Shinkansen (literally "new gauge") train system, which uses the European 1435 mm gauge.
Japan is a very earthquake-prone country and all Shinkansen have been equipped with an earthquake prevention system since 1992. If earth vibrations or tremors are detected, the system itself very quickly stops this train. All trains are also equipped with a new "anti-derailment" system.
Passenger trains in Japan can be divided into four categories: local trains (local trains), express trains (rapid trains), long-distance trains and Shinkansen bullet trains. Long-distance trains are not popular and are few in number. The Tokaido Line Shinkansen, for example, are in turn divided into those that go with all Shinkansen stops (the so-called Kodama), those that go with almost all stops (Hikari), and those that go non-stop or almost non-stop (“Nozomi”). A ticket for "Nozomi" is more expensive than for "slow" super express trains, and in real life all "Nozomi" still make one stop - in Nagoya.
The fare ranges from $15 to $440 depending on the travel distance and class of train. A ticket for a short distance trip can be purchased in the same way as a metro ticket - in special ticket machines.
If you doubt that you can handle buying such a ticket on your own, then feel free to go to the box office where real people sit, and they will certainly sell you a ticket in the right direction.
But before that, you need to navigate the schedule. The site helped me a lothttp://www.hyperdia.com/
It’s easy to understand, the only caveat is that be sure to take into account that the time for transfers from one train to another is extremely short, because everything is aimed at the Japanese, who know where they need to go to transfer and do it with ease. eyes closed. We, who are faced with such problems for the first time, will need a lot more time, especially since trains stop for no more than 1.5 minutes at stations.
With the purchased ticket you need to find the sign “Shinkansen Gate» - if you are traveling by Shinkansen orJR- if by train. The ticket must be lowered along the arrow and be sure to make sure that it comes out further at the turnstile and do not forget to pick it up from there.
Having lowered my ticket, I saw that it did not fly out at the turnstile; fortunately, an employee immediately approached me and saw that there was a problem. He asked me about my second ticket. As it turned out, due to the fact that I was traveling with a transfer, as you remember, I was given three tickets:
two tickets were for two sections of the route, but the third was a general one, which indicated the amount I paid for the entire journey, and this third ticket had to be folded together with one of the tickets needed for this section of the route and put together in the turnstile window. Who knows these rules? Thanks to the employee who explained all this to me - thus putting these tickets in my place. When you make a transfer, you need to roll both tickets at the turnstile again and at the end of the journey, when you have reached the final point of the journey, send them back to the turnstile again for good. Such are the subtleties. My husband, by the way, had problems because he somehow ignored the closed doors of the turnstile and walked through with one ticket, he left the second one somewhere and then there was a small showdown with the employee. But seeing that we were respectable and elderly people and still had some remaining tickets on hand, he still released us at the final destination. Why does he need a huge “origato”?J
So, having dealt with the turnstiles, we look for the desired path from which the train leaves. Don’t be afraid of the Japanese scoreboard, after a few seconds it always switches to English and life will become more fun...
I’ll give an example of one of my tickets with explanations so that everything is clear in detail, so:
1. direction Nagano-Tokyo
2. date - January 7
3. Departure time from Nagano 11:
15, arrival time in Tokyo 12:44
4. name of the train -KAGAYAKI 508
5. car number - 10
6. seat number in the carriage - 7E
7. cost - 8400 yen
The carriage number is always indicated in some way on the platform; in the photo you can see that I am standing right under the sign where carriage 10 should stop.
Passengers board the train, always lining up in a queue, even if this queue consists of only 2 people. The Japanese are very organized in this regard.
What else is important to know?
There are always two types of toilets in shinkansen - European and Japanese, which will be written about (“Japanese style” and “Western style”). With European (Western) everything is clear, but with Japanese it is even more clear for us - Russians, because these are public toilets with a hole in the floor, familiar to everyone since Soviet times.
I took a photo of the toilet control panel just in case for those curious.J
The leftmost button - which you don’t need to press, you just need to put your palm up and everything will work - flush. Next from left to right are the “stop” buttons, two bidet options (it’s clear in the picture for which part of the body) and the last right button is to raise the seat. It’s better not to use the lower small ones, if you don’t understand, I haven’t fully studied it myself, but there may be water pressure, seat heating buttons, etc.
On trains there are always vending machines with drinks, and waiters also walk around with carts and offer food and drinks, but everything costs many times more, so it’s better to buy food in the station shops.
Here's another note about drink machines - if you see that the price tag for a drink is red, this means that the drink will be hot, if the price tag is blue, then the drink will come out ice cold!
Now, I am sure that after my instructions no one will get lost or confused on the Japanese railways.
Broad gauge supporters managed to bring their projects to life on the railway laid by the Japanese in the early 30s. in colonized Southern Manchuria. In 1934, the legendary Asia Express was launched between the cities of Dalian and Changchun (700 km), an indicative symbol of the Japanese imperialist power of that time. Capable of reaching speeds of over 130 km/h, it was far superior to China's railway system at the time, and was even much faster than the fastest express train in Japan itself. And on a global scale, Asia-Express had impressive characteristics. For example, the world's first air-conditioned carriages were equipped there. The dining car was equipped with refrigerators, and there was also a special carriage - an observation deck with windows along the entire perimeter, furnished with leather chairs and bookshelves.
This example probably became the final argument in favor of broad gauge and gave rise to the first high-speed rail projects in Japan. In 1940, the Japanese government approved a project of incredible scale. Even then, the project envisaged the creation of a train capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h, but the Japanese government did not intend to limit itself to laying lines only on Japanese territory. It was planned to build an underwater tunnel to the Korean Peninsula and extend the tracks all the way to Beijing. Construction had already partially begun, but the war that began soon and the subsequent deterioration of military and political positions̆ Japan put an end to imperial ambitions. In 1943, the project was curtailed; the same year was the last for Asia-Express. However, some sections of the Shinkansen lines in operation today were built in the pre-war years.
They started talking about the construction of the Shinkansen again 10 years after the war. Stormy the economic growth created a great demand for freight and passenger transportation throughout the country. However, the idea to revive the project turned out to be completely unpopular and was sharply criticized. At that time, there was a strong opinion that road and air transport would soon replace railway transport, as happened, for example, in the USA and some European countries. The project was again in jeopardy.
In 1958, between Tokyo and Osaka, on a still narrow gauge, the direct ancestor of the Shinkansen, the Kodama business express, was launched. At maximum speed at 110 km/h, it covered the distance between cities in 6.5 hours, making one-day business trips possible. In Japan, where business culture is based on face-to-face meetings, this was a very convenient solution. However, he did not serve very long. The incredible popularity of the Kodama left no one in any doubt about the need for high-speed lines, and less than a year later the government finally approved the Shinkansen construction project.
[:RU]High-speed trains in Japan are called Shinkansen (“new line”) or also “Bullet train,” which translates from English as “bullet train.” These trains depart from Tokyo Station in the Japanese capital and cover almost all of Japan with a wide network. Japan built its first high-speed train back in 1964 with a speed of 210 km/h, and now the length of the Shinkansen high-speed railway network is about 2,500 kilometers. They cover with their network the main Japanese island of Honshu, the southern island of Kyushu, and underwater high-speed routes are already being built to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
In Tokyo, I lived at Shinagawa Station - this is a large transport hub, and the “bullet train” made a short stop there, just 1.5 minutes. Tokyo is a densely populated city and Japanese bullet trains operate with short stops at the city's most important transport hubs and at major intermediate stations between cities. Japan is industrially developed quite evenly and there is life here too in the suburbs, people live, work and move around. It is clear that in Russia, it is not clear why and where the high-speed Sapsan stops on the way from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
2. Shinagawa Railway Station Pavilion. 
I was traveling by train from Tokyo to Kyoto, it was an early crossing and in the morning all the Japanese were rushing to work. At the station it was very difficult to squeeze through the crowd of “robots” trying to make it in time for the “first bell.” Indeed, the population density in Tokyo is enormous, even with their extensive transport network, in the morning “biomass traffic jams” occur at stations.
3.
A ticket to Kyoto cost about 130 US dollars. In order to get to the high-speed train platform, you need to go through turnstiles, somewhat reminiscent of the turnstiles of the Moscow metro.
4.
Shinkansen in Japan are usually not late, but arrive minute by minute. After all, if the train stops at the Shinagawa intermediate station for only one and a half minutes, then being late is unacceptable. In 2012, the average deviation of trains from schedule was only 36 seconds. Shinkansen to different destinations arrive at Shinagawa Station approximately every five minutes, and a specially trained Japanese person monitors the departure of these high-speed trains at the station.
5.
Islamic-looking Japanese woman at Shinagawa Station. Shinkansen literally means "new highway" in Japanese. The name "bullet train" is also a literal translation from the Japanese "dangan ressha", this name was originally in the 30s of the 20th century, when Japan's high-speed railways were still in development.
6.
The Japanese are a very law-abiding station and they board the train STRICTLY according to the general queue, and there are even markings on the platform where they should stand and the place where this or that car stops is also written on the platform itself. Squeezing forward, pushing through the line, is considered very uncultural here, and it is unlikely that a law-abiding Japanese would ever do this.
7.
No one rushes anywhere without a queue; everyone gets off or boards high-speed trains in a sedate and orderly manner. In 1965, with the launch of the Shinkansen, the Japanese were finally able to make “one day trips” between their two industrial centers - Tokyo and Osaka.
8.
And finally, slowly, our Shinkansen arrives at the station.
9.
Externally, from the front it even looks a little more beautiful than our famous “Sapsan”.
Sometimes Shinkansen can even "kiss".
10.
In the end, I take one last photo of my “hippie Japanese” neighbor and jump on the train to Kyoto.
11.
The doors of the Shinkansen open to the side, like in our Russian metro, after which passengers board. Shinkansen are very, very safe transport in Japan. In its 49 years of existence since 1964, carrying 7 billion passengers, there has not been a single fatality due to a train derailment or collision. Injuries and one death were recorded when people were pinned by the doors and the train began to move. To prevent this, there is now an employee on duty at each station who checks that the doors of the high-speed train are closed.
Japan is a very earthquake-prone country and all Shinkansen have been equipped with an earthquake prevention system since 1992. If earth vibrations or tremors are detected, the system itself very quickly stops this train. All trains are also equipped with a new anti-derailment system.
And of course, a train is much more environmentally friendly than a car. If now Shinkansen can reach speeds of up to 320 km/h, but in fact they travel on average 280 km/h, then by 2020 they plan to increase the top speed limit to 360 kilometers per hour.
12.
An example of the layout of a car on a Japanese high-speed train, with three seats on one side and two on the other.
13.
The train has machines selling mineral water and tea, so beloved by the Japanese.
14.
Urinals on Japanese trains are equipped with transparent glass.
15.
In addition to urinals, there are also ordinary toilets with a “normal” door, maybe simply because the Japanese believe that women are embarrassed to pee with transparent glass, but men are not)).
16.
There are also separate small rooms where you can wash your hands.
17.
In addition to water and tea vending machines, trains periodically sell drinks and snacks. Even the cheapest purchase can be paid with a credit card; there will be no problems with “plastic money” in Japan.
18.
You can enjoy cold beer or hot coffee.
19.
In Japan, as well as in Russia, several types of dried squid are sold, I always thought that dried salted squid was a purely Russian theme, but no, in Japan it is also very common. The squid is very tasty, as is the Japanese Asahi beer.
20.
Each seat is also equipped with a power socket, just like on New Zealand trains, meaning you can work on a laptop without time restrictions.
21.
Controllers are also a constant occurrence on Japanese trains, since the Shinkansens make virtually no stops along the way; running out onto the platform of an intermediate station and “running around” the controller, as we do in Russia, will not work in Japan.
22.
23.
There is no way to avoid checking purchased tickets.
24.
25.
When the train travels from Tokyo to Kyoto, 45 minutes after departure everyone runs to take photographs of the famous symbol of Japan - Mount Fuji. The Japanese show their country's national symbol to young children.
26.
27.
28.
If someone wants to make a call and does not have a mobile phone, I wonder if there are still such comrades in the 21st century, then there is a payphone on the train.
29.
With detailed instructions for use.
30.
Another feature of high-speed “Japanese” trains is that the seats are not fixed in place, as for example in our “Sapsan”, but can freely rotate around their axis by 360 degrees. The rotating mechanism is activated by pressing a special pedal under the seat. And behind the seats there are special nets in which you can put your things, so someone put away his “Canon” camera - which, as popular wisdom says, is “the poor man’s Nikon”.
31.
You can turn the seat 90 degrees and drive looking straight out the window the whole time.
32.
The population density in Japan is enormous and when you travel from Tokyo to Kyoto you don’t even have time to catch the feeling of changing cities, since the industrial zone seems to never end, and the agricultural land is not visible at all. Outside the windows is the factory of the famous Japanese beer “Kirin”.
33.
If, for example, you’re tired of looking out the window, then you can turn the seats another 90 degrees and play cards with your neighbor.
34.
The Japanese in their high-speed trains have not forgotten about the “smoking junkies”; for them, special “aquarium chambers” have been made on the train, which can accommodate a maximum of two people and, in privacy, they can truly enjoy the vomit smell of nicotine.
35.
It’s not for nothing that they say that time flies on the road. While I was walking around the train, I didn’t notice how I arrived in Kyoto. In Shinkansen, you need to carefully monitor the city of arrival, since stops at train stations, even in big cities, are usually no more than 5 minutes; you need to pack your things in advance, get ready, and get off the train at the desired station. The first photos at the station in the Japanese city of Kyoto.
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The high-speed train model N700 is now one of the most modern, it began to be used only in 2007.
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High-speed trains are also essentially “electric trains”, and they have this type of “contact element on top”. The Shinkansen uses 25,000 volts of alternating current for propulsion.
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When the Shinkansen leaves the station, a specially trained dude looks out from the rear control room and makes sure that “no one gets hurt” on the platform.
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Arrival in Kyoto.
