This section of our blog is dedicated to the public transportation in Japan, available for free to all Japan Rail Pass holders.
If you want to learn more about how to locate and take your trains from Tokyo or Kyoto stations; how to arrive in central Tokyo from Narita Airport, by taking the Narita Express (N’EX); how to ride the JR buses in the major cities or take the Miyajima ferry from Hiroshima, this section is for you.
You will also enjoy a number of comprehensive routes on how to arrive from one city to another; where to look for accurate online timetables; where and how to transfer between stations and more.
The next generation of Shinkansen bullet trains has already begun testing. The state-of-the-art ‘Alfa-X’ travels up to 400 km/h (almost 250 mph!) and has a range of groundbreaking features.
Journalists were first treated to a trial run of the experimental craft on 27th October 2020, between Sandai and Morioka stations on the JR East Tohoku Shinkansen line, which links Tokyo with Aomori Prefecture in the north of Honshu, Japan’s largest island.
Natural hot springs, beaches, mountains, and scenic coasts. This is just a taste of what the Izu Peninsula has to offer. Located conveniently near Tokyo and the Mount Fuji area, this resort area is the perfect getaway during your next trip to Japan. Start planning your vacation today using this helpful guide.
The Shinkansen are Japan’s gleaming symbol of technological development, its fast and efficient means of transportation. The Shinkansen are bullet trains that connect cities throughout Japan¡s high speed railways.
Most visitors to Japan desire to experience the Shinkansen trains, which attain top speeds in excess of 320 kilometers per hour (199 miles per hour), although most regular trains don’t go beyond 300 km/h. Tourists may not realize, however, all that has gone into making this unique rapid transportation possible.
Today’s bullet train system is over sixty years in the making. It is also one of the safest means of transportation, one of the few transit systems in the world that can boast of having no fatal accidents across its long history. In this article, we will consider some of the major events that have made Japan’s rail system the one you can today enjoy with the Japan Rail Pass.
The Tokyo Monorail Haneda Airport Line, often called simply the Tokyo Monorail, began operation in 1964. It was the first commercial monorail system in the world. The elevated straddle-beam monorail line parallels the coast of Tokyo Bay. Travelers can enjoy seaside views, and on clear days, Mount Fuji is visible in the distance.
Haneda Airport is ideal for travelers wishing to reach Tokyo, as it is much closer to the city center than Tokyo’s Narita Airport. It is also the busiest airport in Japan. The Tokyo Monorail is there to ease this inherent congestion and make travel to and from the airport an excursion in itself.
In March of 2016, the Hokkaido Shinkansen, linking Aomori on Japan’s main island of Honshu with Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido via the Seikan Tunnel, was inaugurated.
Until then, access to Hokkaido was challenging, but now with only one transfer, you can get there faster. The Hokkaido Shinkansen will be extended to Sapporo, and it is scheduled to open by 2039.
