8th August 2010
Ah, what is more symbolic of Japan than the bullet train? Apart from cherry blossom.. and Sake.. and sushi.. Well it’s still up there in the top ten of ‘things that represent Japan’ anyway. My first trip by shinkansen took place on the way to my placement town from the Tokyo orientation. As I didn’t book the trip myself (it was done by the JET crew) I don’t have any tickets to show for it.. although in Japan the ticket machines tend to eat your ticket at the end of the journey, so you can’t keep them as souvenirs anyway. Sad face. This also means that I don’t know how much the journey actually cost, but some pre-departure research suggested it was in the region of about £100. Ouchy.
I would have paid it, however. In fact, I don’t expect that was my first and only trip by bullet train, I do intend to return to Tokyo at some point this year to visit my friend Mai. We met when she did an exchange year at my University when I was in first year and we lived together for a while. This is a very pleasant upside of this placement, seeing people I never thought I would see again!
I digress. At the request of someone back home, I took the opportunity to take a few photos. So here they are! Firstly, an arty attempt (I stress ‘attempt’) at a diagonal shot of two trains side by side:
Here is a more serious attempt:
With an added shot of the carriage for good measure:
So you get the idea really. Very aesthetically pleasing, sparkling clean, plenty of leg room, and discreetly speedy! I say discreetly as it never really seemed to be going that fast, though the distance covered in a couple of hours suggested that it clearly was. For those of you who are interested, here is a video clip of the scenery, just for a minute or so. Nothing much happens in the clip, I just thought it might be nice to capture the landscape as the train rushed by:
As one final point to add, the Japanese sell lunchboxes at train stations, often including the local delicacy of the area. At 1,000 yen I can’t help but feel the lunchboxes at Tokyo were slightly overpriced (and they do seem to be cheaper in small towns). I had the surprising good fortune to find a box containing only vegetables and rice! It was even easy to spot amongst the meat alternatives, as you can see:
All in all, a great experience! Why can’t we have such great trains??
Ah, what is more symbolic of Japan than the bullet train? Apart from cherry blossom.. and Sake.. and sushi.. Well it’s still up there in the top ten of ‘things that represent Japan’ anyway. My first trip by shinkansen took place on the way to my placement town from the Tokyo orientation. As I didn’t book the trip myself (it was done by the JET crew) I don’t have any tickets to show for it.. although in Japan the ticket machines tend to eat your ticket at the end of the journey, so you can’t keep them as souvenirs anyway. Sad face. This also means that I don’t know how much the journey actually cost, but some pre-departure research suggested it was in the region of about £100. Ouchy.
I would have paid it, however. In fact, I don’t expect that was my first and only trip by bullet train, I do intend to return to Tokyo at some point this year to visit my friend Mai. We met when she did an exchange year at my University when I was in first year and we lived together for a while. This is a very pleasant upside of this placement, seeing people I never thought I would see again!
I digress. At the request of someone back home, I took the opportunity to take a few photos. So here they are! Firstly, an arty attempt (I stress ‘attempt’) at a diagonal shot of two trains side by side:
Here is a more serious attempt:
With an added shot of the carriage for good measure:
So you get the idea really. Very aesthetically pleasing, sparkling clean, plenty of leg room, and discreetly speedy! I say discreetly as it never really seemed to be going that fast, though the distance covered in a couple of hours suggested that it clearly was. For those of you who are interested, here is a video clip of the scenery, just for a minute or so. Nothing much happens in the clip, I just thought it might be nice to capture the landscape as the train rushed by:
As one final point to add, the Japanese sell lunchboxes at train stations, often including the local delicacy of the area. At 1,000 yen I can’t help but feel the lunchboxes at Tokyo were slightly overpriced (and they do seem to be cheaper in small towns). I had the surprising good fortune to find a box containing only vegetables and rice! It was even easy to spot amongst the meat alternatives, as you can see:
All in all, a great experience! Why can’t we have such great trains??
