Japan By Rail

February 02, 2025  •  Leave a Comment

Gifu Station seen from the Limited Express Hida 7, Japan I'm writing this post for two reasons. First, I'm an engineer and can't seem to get enough of these long machines we use to zip around the world on our travels. Second, it's the year of the snake!

Ok, that second thing's not my real motivation, but the timing is fortuitous, so we need to at least give a shout out for the new Lunar Year. The real reason I'm writing this is because we travelled Japan by train - as many locals and foreigners do - and the recurring track-side theme in this trip's photos reflects the time we spent on trains.

Japan has a very famous rail system and the praise heaped on the system is well-deserved. The bullet trains, or Shinkansen, are world-famous for their speeds, but it's especially notable that trains run on time in Japan. And I mean on time: you can literally set your watch to the second per the timetables the trains run on. Watch a cell phone synched to network time click over the seconds and roll into a new minute exactly when the doors close and the train begins to roll out of the station. It's amazingly precise.

For example, the photo in Gifu Station was taken from my comfortable seat on board the Hida 7 Limited Express. The caption notes the station and line, but I don't know this due to my excellent note taking skills - I only have a ticket stub from that day and a timestamp on the photo. A quick google of the Hida 7 timetable shows it departs the Gifu station at 11:08 am and this photo was taken at 11:07. Bada-Bing...Gifu it is! Takayama, Japan


Takayama Station

We encountered some lovely and fun weather in Japan. Snow in a few places along our journey, including at Takayama on the day we arrived.


Scene along the Nankai Koya Line, Japan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo, Japan The primary state-run railroad in Japan is known, unsurprisingly, as Japan Rail or JR. Foreign travelers can buy a JR Pass (it's apparently not available to citizens) to cover regions or the entire system. It is not a great value, but this one pass grants you access to the entire rail and bus system run by JR (within the regions your pass covers), which makes traveling easy and convenient. Inside most cities, an "IC Card" is used to pay fares for local buses and trains. Station names are phonetically translated into the Latin alphabet and most trains and busses make announcements in English, so it's very easy to find your way around. Google Maps works wonders and it's probably easier for English speakers to travel in Japan than many places in the US.

Of course the JR doesn't take you everywhere and there are private lines, such as the Nankai-Koya Line we took to visit Koyasan. That is a stunning trip and winds through small towns, mountains, and numerous tunnels on the way to Mt. Koya. You are spared mediocre photos of a beautiful and snowy landscape taken from a moving train, so you'll need to take my word for it.

One final note on this way through the country. The infrastructure to pull it all together is always close by. The Shinkansen has dedicated rails and routes (to minimize speed-sapping turns). Trips through the mountains are dotted with bridges and tunnels, and OMG the tunnels are long and numerous! We passed through no less than 24 tunnels on our trip to Koya just look at this route, and note that the final stretch which winds through mountains to get to to the base of Mt. Koya opened in 1929!


Two scenes from the large-windowed Limited Express trains designed to show off the beautiful countryside.

Scene from a Hida Limited Express train, Japan

Scene from a HIda Limited Express train, Japan

Anyone who has traveled by rail knows the pleasure of seeing the landscape whizz by while you sit comfortably in a railcar sliding smoothly down the track. Parts of the country you can't see by air and often don't have time to see by other means are exposed to give you another slice of place, if only for small instants at a time. The train nears a station and slows as an ephemeral repartee between travelers is glimpsed from a high overpass. Or a bright red vending machine pops output the landscape before you notice it's strapped to its power-pole-lifeline planted along a country road. By the way...Japanese vending machines (which are everywhere) welcome you with an array of lighted and blinking blue and red buttons as you decide from various teas, coffee, water, or juices. Press the red button to get yourself a nice coffee-in-a-can and when you reach to retrieve the can...it's HOT! Slick, huh? No cold coffee here!


The fast moving Shinkansen blurs the countryside for camera and passengers

Scene from a moving Shinkansen (Bullet Train) Scene from a moving Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

Hida Limited Express Train, Japan The trains are efficient, comfortable, and clean. Towards the end of our trip, we waited to depart Kyoto by Shinkansen and marveled as a scene unfolded before us once the disembarking passengers had cleared the train. Officials swarmed the track to guard the doors as service personnel launched into an orchestrated ballet with cleaning supplies, vacuum cleaners, and supplies so the once-westbound train could point eastbound, renewed and ready for the journey. After a few minutes we boarded to our assigned seats and settled in for the two-hour hop to Tokyo in a meticulously cleaned car. We settled in, pulled out noodle dishes, fancy breads, and some sushi purchased at a 7-eleven and relaxed for our trip to Tokyo.

 


Scene from the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) just outside of Tokyo, Japan                       Recorded on the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo


A treat of traveling on the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto is a few minutes of ever-changing foreground leading away to Mt. Fuji. What a view!

Mt. Fuji as seen from the Shinkansen


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