Sunday, September 26, 2010

Take A Ride On The Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train)

If you plan to spend at least 4-5 days in Japan - either in the Osaka/Kyoto region (Western Japan) or the Tokyo/Yokohama region (Eastern Japan), you owe it to yourself to take a ride on one of the world's fastest and most efficiently-run trains: the Shinkansen, or Japanese bullet train. (The Chinese characters for shinkansen are 新幹線, which together literally mean "new trunk line.")

There are actually a number of different shinkansen train routes connecting various key cities in Japan. To travel between Osaka and Tokyo, you would want to take the Tokaido Shinkansen. This is a JR Central line that covers a distance of about 515 kilometers (320 miles). This route shuttles about 151 million passengers per year. It is the most heavily traveled high-speed train route on the planet, with 4.5 billion cumulative passengers having ridden the train by March 2007.

Three different types of trains run along this line between Osaka and Tokyo: the Nozomi, the Hikari and the Kodama. The fastest, the Nozomi, travels the distance between these two business power center cities of Japan in 2 hours and 25 minutes.

It is important to note that you cannot ride the Nozomi as a tourist using the Japan Rail Pass. You would have to purchase a full ticket at the regular price. But, if you have the time during your next visit to Japan, riding any one of these types of trains - or any of the other shinkansen routes for that matter - is highly recommended.




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