Steve's Photoblog
My Favorite Train
Posted by Steve Rice (Olympia, United States) on 16 October 2007 in Transportation.
The Shinkansen or "Bullet Train" as we sometimes call it is my favorite way to travel in Japan. These trains come in various shapes, some are boxy while others are rounded like a jet airplane fuselage. They are fast, fairly quiet, and expensive but worth every yen in my opinion.
And, they run on time. When the recording announces, "We will be making a brief stop at . . . ", take that information seriously and start moving toward the exit. The typical stop involves the doors opening for a few seconds, people getting off, others getting on, the doors closing and the train immediately rolling out of the station. Very efficient!
Csong from Tempe, United States
They speak English and Japanese from overhead speaker?
17 Oct 2007 2:11am
@Csong: In most stations, the announcements are in Japanese and English. However, I found it important to know the exact departure time of the desired Shinkansen in order to avoid getting on the wrong one. Trains come and go frequently. If I had a question, I would ask a JR rail employee, in uniform, if this was the train to wherever I was going. They were always helpful. This is also true of the smaller, private train lines. I managed to never get on the wrong train.
For some reason, I found Hiroshima Station rather confusing. I always had to ask which platform for my desired train. I didn't feel too bad after a student, a Japanese person, told me she and some friends got on the wrong train there and ended up in a town far from their intended destination.
Once on the train, a display at the front of each Shinkansen car has messages in both Japanese and English. As you approach a station, the announcement is in English and Japanese. The local JR trains are a little trickier since they usually don't have the message boards. So, you have to listen harder to the conductor's announcements which are in Japanese. Also, the station names are in English and Japanese so you can double check as you are preparing to get off. Here again, by paying attention, I never missed my stop.
