Trains & Transportation

Japan is famous for its high-speed bullet trains. The fastest of these is the Hayabusa Shinkansen, which can be found on the Tohoku Shinkansen line in Honshu. An interesting feature of several Tohoku Shinkansen trains is that they offer only reserved seating.

This is rare among the shinkansen, so if you wish to travel on this line, be sure to make your reservations early! Green cars and Gran Class cars are available on most trains, as are standing tickets when all seats are booked. Continue reading “%s”

The Shonan-Shinjuku line, inaugurated in December 2001, is a Japanese passenger train service operated by JR East that connects multiple destinations in the Kanto region of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, with the capital city of Tokyo.

Services on the Shonan-Shinjuku line run along sections shared by the Ryōmō Line, Takasaki Line, Utsunomiya Line, Yamanote Line, Yokosuka Line, and the Tōkaidō Main Line, and most can be freely used with the JR Pass. Although the line has no dedicated track of its own, it is treated as a separate service on railway maps and station information boards.

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The Kyushu Discover Rail Pass is a discount regional train pass that Japan Rail is making available for a limited sales period, from December 11th, 2020 until March 29th, 2021.

Holders of this pass will be able to take advantage of the impressive discounts it offers to travel around the southernmost island of Kyushu during a limited usage period, which ends on March 31st, 2021.

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JR East has announced that it will introduce driverless Shinkansen in Japan by the mid-2030s. JR Tokai could launch self-driving bullet trains even earlier, by 2028.

As part of its Change 2027 program, JR East previously conducted a series of driverless Shinkansen test runs in late 2021, using a 12-car E7-series bullet train. JR East allocated an estimated budget of 200 million yen for the trials.

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The Shinkansen network of high-speed bullet trains in Japan has a great safety record, thanks in large part to Doctor Yellow, the Shinkansen test train.

The Doctor Yellow Shinkansen is so named because it literally diagnoses any problems with the track and overhead wires as it speeds along, and is painted yellow instead of the regular white to make the trains more visible at night.

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Rail travel serves as a primary means of transportation in Japan. The Yokosuka Line, for example, spans 73 kilometers or 45 miles, originating in central Tokyo. International travelers can purchase a Japan Rail Pass, which provides quick and easy access to these efficient trains.

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