Travelling Shinkansen

In the 1990s, Japan became famous for its bullet trains, called Shinkansen. They could go a few hundred kilometers per hour and in a few hours they could travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima, or 800 kilometers. At that time, in Poland from Upper Silesia to Szczecin, about 10-12 hours rode, not including delay, on average about an hour. It was unbelievable.

Currently, apart from the Japanese Shinkansen, there are other exprsses, like the famous French TGV and even Polish Pendolino. So it's not ver rare, but most of the people are still impressive by trains in Japan. So how is it?

JR pass

Japanese railways (Japan Rail provides an option of buying a ticket for the entire railway network for 7 days, 14 or 21. Prices are high, but if you travel a lot at that time, it pays off. It is interesting how you buy such a ticket. It is purchased on the JR website, then comes the voucher by mail, with which you should go to Japan and replace it with a small, green, paper ticket with which you travel about the whole country. Did you notice that? For example, sending a paper voucher to Poland after buying an on-line product? Yes, I also think that in some places there are still 90s of the 20th century.

Separate stations in stations

Another interesting thing is the way the stations are organized. Japanese Railways have large and complex stations, with separate platforms, waiting rooms, and even kiosks with obentō (meal in a box) for passengers with shinkansen tickets. This gives the funny effect that you often come through several different ticket control gates before you get to your train.

Ticket checking, marking of carriages on platforms

And this is actually where ticket checking ends, i.e. at the gates at the station. There are railwaymen on the train, they even walk around the carriages while it is running, but I have never seen any of them ask a passenger for a ticket or a seat reservation.

Exactly. Most carriages require a prior seat reservation (free of charge, at JR offices or in machines at the station), but each train also has one or several carriages without a mandatory seat reservation. Voice announcements always provide information about which carriages are affected.

And since we're on the subject of carriages, knowing which seat we have, we should wait on the platform in the place marked for that carriage. The train will stop exactly where it should, with a precision of 30 centimetres.

Impressions of a fast ride

After watching many promotional films about shinkansens, I imagined that these trains glide so smoothly along the rails, and all sounds are muffled. But physics is not so easy to cover up, so my impressions of the ride are that the train rocks, even shakes (you can't write by hand) and rumbles a little. But it's really fast. The English name "bullet train" is not accidental.

Travelling with large luggage and sending it by courier

Another thing that is organised differently in shinkansens than in our express trains is large luggage. The ticket includes a shelf above the seat. Space for larger luggage must be reserved and paid for in advance. Alternatively - which is very convenient - send your large luggage by courier to the town you are going to. You just have to do it two days in advance.

Customs on board

Shinkansens do not have restaurant cars, so passengers take their own food with them, usually in the form of a box of sushi or other cold food (obentō). And when they eat, they fall asleep. The noise and rocking on these trains are so sleep-inducing that it is hard to find a person who would not succumb to it. And I will go to sleep too. Happy rocking :)