{"id":4629,"date":"2021-01-19T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jrailpass.com\/blog?p=4629"},"modified":"2024-08-23T14:33:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T12:33:14","slug":"tohoku-shinkansen-jr-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jrailpass.com\/blog\/tohoku-shinkansen-jr-pass","title":{"rendered":"The Tohoku Shinkansen line: Travel guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is rare among the shinkansen, so if you wish to travel on this line, be sure to make your reservations early! Green cars<\/a> and Gran Class<\/a> cars are available on most trains, as are standing tickets when all seats are booked.<\/p>\n

This train line has a long history. The first portion of the Tohoku Line opened in 1982, but its services did not reach Aomori until 2010. Today, this shinkansen bullet train line allows access not only to the length of the island of Honshu, but to high-speed train routes to some of Japan\u2019s other islands as well. The Tohoku Shinkansen is the longest Shinkansen<\/a> line in Japan<\/strong>, stretching 674 kilometers.<\/p>\n

The Tohoku Shinkansen connects cities in the island of Honshu from Tokyo in the south to Aomori in the north<\/strong>. It has two branch lines, the Akita Shinkansen<\/a> Line and the Yamagata Shinkansen<\/a> Line. These are sometimes called \u201cmini-shinkansen\u201d because they are narrower and operate on normal railway tracks.<\/p>\n

The Tohoku Shinkansen also connects to the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line<\/a> at Shin-Aomori Station<\/strong> in the north via the Seikan Tunnel. This line is scheduled to extend to Sapporo by the year 2030.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/p>