Lucky to have a nice clear day today for good views of the scenery zipping by (Mt Fuji being the highlight, of course). The accommodation in the N700S Green Cars is very nice. When I was buying my kakinoha sushi box for lunch I couldn't resist the Doctor Yellow ice cream spoons. It'll go nicely with my Doctor Yellow bento box from the Kyoto Railway Museum...
Our ride: an N700S operating the Hikari 648 service from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo. It was about 10 minutes late in the end.
Shinkansen time again, for the third and final time this trip. We're taking the 335 km/1 hour 34 minute trip from Nagoya to Shinagawa. We splashed out on Green Car (1st class) tickets again, with seats on the Mt Fuji side. For the full Shinkansen experience we'll be getting bento box lunches to eat en route.
Due to snow we're currently expecting a 5 to 20 minute delay in departure.
I did play the Densha de Go! train arcade game a couple of times, and on the second go recorded POV video with my Go Ultra.
It was fun, despite the fact that I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing and I completely misjudged the braking both times.
I'll upload the video later, but here's a snapshot.
Just a train simulator with triple monitors, reproduction control panel and cab in a video game arcade.
(yes, I will be having a go)
Longer video for those who can't get enough Shinkansen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aytlnZZws00
The full video gives a good feeling for just how long these 16 car Tokaido Shinkansen sets are.
You'd have to have a cold, hard, train-hating heart not to be at least slightly moved by trains as cool as these...
That's an N700A Shinkansen departing Kyoto station eastwards towards Tokyo and (3 minutes later) an N700S leaving in the same direction. The Tokaido Shinkansen line runs 378 trains per day.
Shinkansen time again! About to board an N700S from Kyoto to Nagoya. It's a bit extravagant to take the Shinkansen for such a short journey, but the regular train services require changing trains (not ideal with all our bags) and take a lot longer.
Standing on the platform I am struck by just how frequent these huge 16 car high speed trains are. They are constantly coming and going.
I took a great many photos and videos with my various cameras at the excellent Kyoto Railway Museum that I will process in due course, but for now here are mobile phone snaps of their Shinkansen: a 0 Series (the original "bullet train"), a 100 Series (pointier successor to the 0 Series), and a 500 Series (pointiest of all Shinkansen).
Retro Librarian
Anthony Horton