Now We're hooning along!: Finally I got to ride on the Shinkansen, but since this was the end of the New Year's holidays and we were travelling in the unreserved cars, we had to stand up for most of the three hour journey from Hakata to Shin-Osaka station!
In the photo above I am in the canteen car of the Shinkansen pointing that the Speedometer which is displaying (although it can't be seen at this resolution) that we are travelling at 220kmh. You might have noticed the sixties style decor of the train, this train was one of the original zero series Shinkansens which first went into service in 19641. On this day we were travelling on a "Hikari" service.
On the San'yo(Hakata-Osaka)/Tokaido(Osaka-Tokyo) Shinkaken lines there are three types of services. The "Kodama" (echo) which stops at all stations. The "Hikari" (flash of light) which stops all stations on some sections then goes express for other sections. The "Nozomi" (hope) which only stops at Hakata, Kokura, Hiroshima, Okayama, Shin-Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Tokyo stations2. The Japan Rail pass is only valid for the Kodama and Hikari services3.
At Shin-Osaka we had to change to another Shinkansen, however when the train was pulling into Kyoto we were able to grab some seats as people got off before any new passengers came on. Finally we arrived at Gifu-Hashima (the stop before Nagoya) where we met Ritsuko's other brother and his two sons. My first impressions of these two boys were very cute, but very naughty! I wondered if their mostly wood and paper house would stand up to their treatment of it!
In the Japan Rail map the San'yo line is the thick dark blue one, and the Tokaido line is the thick light blue one. Some trains travel on both lines and other times you have change trains at Shin-Osaka. Check the timetable first, however the Shinkansen trains have some (recorded) announcements and messages (on electronic displays) in English.
