Posted January 18, 201114 yr bullet train ride from tokyo to kyoto minnasan wa kyoto e ikimasu yo! you all are going to kyoto! enjoy the ride….! :banger: marunouchi neighborhood in tokyo tokyo eki (station) in the 1920’s (partly destroyed in WW2, notably the domes) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dky%C5%8D_Station tokyo station today (1914) the staff waits here she comes… …and its here just like that! nozomi N700 -- the newest shinkansen & the world’s fastest & bestest train! Nozomi (のぞみ?) is the fastest train service running on the Tōkaidō/Sanyō Shinkansen in Japan. The service stops at only the largest stations, and along the stretch between Shin-Osaka and Hakata, Nozomi services using N700 series equipment reach speeds of 300 km/h (186 mph). The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres, takes 2 hours 26 minutes on the fastest Nozomi. 700 series trains were introduced on Nozomi services in 1999, and N700 series trains were introduced from July 1, 2007. The word nozomi in Japanese means "hope" or "wish." More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozomi_(train) the staff greets the debarkees inside the green car leaving tokyo views monorail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Monorail tokyo station food court sushi a very nice view of a very nice fuji sama aka mt. fuji *** timeout for comparison -- here is a very, very angry fuji sama after i climbed down from it! taken from the fujikyu train on the way out of there… the idea is, you go acclimate and then climb all night to see the sunrise somewhere on the mountain. all was fine at first, except then it turned ungodly just as the sun came up -- howling gale! only about five of us made the summit that day and the gusts at the top were so bad as we hunkered down up there i saw two of them blowing sideways like flags in the wind -- frightening! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Fuji these people wisely turned back a few hundred meters from the summit - i dk how i even took this one! looking inside a warm mountainside hut on the way up while i am huddling in the freezing rain outside! fyi - you take the jr chuo train from tokyo’s shinjuku station to otsuki, then the fujikyu train goes to kawaguchiko, then you take a bus up to mountain station five -- i wish you good weather! back to the thread… *** shinkansen views, countryside, rice paddies, urbaness, etc more tasty train food kyoto station (1997) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Dto_Station http://www.kyoto-station-building.co.jp/index.htm kyoto station iseten dept store depachika (fancy food court) inside kyoto station looking south from the roof north views looking back into the station from the roof chuushoku -- japanese lunch at the station chikatesu aka the subway outside kyoto station finally, a trip down kyoto’s memory lane: the first kyoto station (1877-1914) trains first reached kyoto in 1876 the second kyoto station (1914-1950) burned down the third kyoto station (1952-1995) *** i hope you enjoyed a smooth ride from tokyo to kyoto & the bonus side trip up mt. fuji ***
January 18, 201114 yr Thanks. Fantastic tour. I just finished reading "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" . The setting is the year 1799, Nagasaki. Excellent.
January 20, 201114 yr A bullet-train from Cincy-CBus-Cleve.? Yeah! In about 2150 AD... Hey, a great picture-thread; now we all know what we want for Xmas!
January 20, 201114 yr Awesome stuff. I'm always surprised at how many signs in Japan are bilingual with English. I helped a friend who ran a railroad video company edit his release on Japanese railroads. The video was called "Railroad Island." It was the first time I saw detailed footage of Japanese railroading -- the rail corridors are 10 tracks wide in many places with converging or diverging tracks going up and over each other like Los Angeles freeway interchanges -- but with rail. And the large number of overnight sleeper trains in Japan was another big surprise. There are dozens and dozens of them. The shocker was that the Shinjuku Station in Tokyo sees 3 million people per day. Thus in four days it sees more people than Hopkins International Airport sees in a whole year. And while Shinjuku Station is the world's busiest railroad station, the world's second-busiest is only a couple of kilometers away -- Tokyo's Ikebukuro Station. BTW, I understand that aerodynamics require the duckbilled Nozomi 700 (as well as Talgo 350 in Spain) but I think they're ugly as hell. For my money, the Series 500 Nozomi is Japan's most bad-ass train... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Series_Shinkansen And yes, you can buy one for your kids (although the dad will probably end up playing with it more!).... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 20, 201114 yr ^ yeah i asked around about the various shinkansen, but the rail otaku (fanatics) consensus was that although funnier looking the N700 was all-around the best ride. that opinion is very japanese of course, being they are always most into the latest thing. no idea how the others compare, but the N700 was smoooth as butta. btw my understanding is the -- thankfully -- extensive addition of romaji (english) at rail stations is fairly recent. its now almost everywhere, but at the odd times when it isnt there it can keep you on your toes! i have to say while the breath of the japanese rail is awesome, what really impressed the most was the depth and diversity. you almost always have multiple options to pick your rail speed and price. along with the shinkansen bullet train choices, rail routes commonly have tokkyuu (express), kyuukou (rapid) and futsuu (local) options -- japan is a just an awesome disneyland for public transit.
January 21, 201114 yr ^ yeah i asked around about the various shinkansen, but the rail otaku (fanatics) consensus was that although funnier looking the N700 was all-around the best ride. that opinion is very japanese of course, being they are always most into the latest thing. no idea how the others compare, but the N700 was smoooth as butta. btw my understanding is the -- thankfully -- extensive addition of romaji (english) at rail stations is fairly recent. its now almost everywhere, but at the odd times when it isnt there it can keep you on your toes! i have to say while the breath of the japanese rail is awesome, what really impressed the most was the depth and diversity. you almost always have multiple options to pick your rail speed and price. along with the shinkansen bullet train choices, rail routes commonly have tokkyuu (express), kyuukou (rapid) and futsuu (local) options -- japan is a just an awesome disneyland for public transit. Yes, it certainly is. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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