Sunday 16 July 2017

The Most Expensive Train Ride of My Life - Kyoto to Tokyo on the Shinkansen

While planning for my trip to Japan, I had decided to take the bullet rain (Shinkansen) from Kyoto to Tokyo for the sake of experiencing it.

The Shinkansen is one of the most efficient and safest trains in the world with no fatal accidents in its history.

Just to give you an idea of why it's called a bullet train, the 450km journey between Kyoto and Tokyo can be completed in approximately 2 hours. That's how fast it moves.

But safety, efficiency and speed comes with a price, and that's why this ride has become the most expensive train ride of my life.

So how much did the ride cost?

A whopping JPY13,080 for the 2 hour journey!

(JPY13,080 is equivalent to approximately MYR500 which could have bought me a return ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Bali or someplace else).

Take a look at the ticket for the most expensive train ride of my life:



We purchased our tickets from the ticket counter at Kyoto Station because we wanted to pay using our credit cards so that we don't have to touch our cash. Money exchange bureaus are difficult to find in Japan, you know ...



Tickets can also be purchased from the ticket vending machines:



We bought non-reserved seats because it's cheaper compared to reserve ones.

[Tip: Since it was a weekday and low season in Japan (we went in June 2017), purchasing non-reserved seats poses a low risk of not finding a seat on the train. However if it's the peak season, perhaps it's better to get a reserved seat or risk standing throughout the journey.]

After purchasing our tickets, we made our way to the turnstills that leads to the Shinkansen tracks:



After inserting our tickets into the turnstills and collecting them back, we made our way to the platform to wait for the train.

Non-reserved seats are in Cars 1 - 3:



Soon the train arrived and I started to get excited:



The type of train was the Nozomi 226:



The train interiors were bright and clean:

The seats were wide and comfortable, even better than airplane seats.


Just like on an airplane, the Shinkansen also had stewardesses who went around selling food:



Prior to the trip I had read that food sold on the Shinkansen is nothing to shout about. So I had pre-packed a ginger pork burger from McDonald's for lunch:

A most delicious burger, cannot be found in Malaysia of course. 
Price: JPY 200


I had also bought a can of Kirin Ichiban to accompany my burger:

Japanese beers are just so delicious!


After wolfing down the burger and beer and cleared the rubbish, I started dozing off. The ride was smooth and almost noiseless - would put anyone to sleep after that burger and beer.

Soon I woke up with a start and realised that I had fallen asleep on the middle aged guy seated on my right.

Interestingly he didn't push me away, said or did anything when I fell asleep on his shoulder. So it's true that Japanese people do fall asleep on each others shoulder in the subway.

After about 2 hours, we arrived at Tokyo Station.



The cleaning crew were already waiting when we arrived. In typical Japanese style they thanked us one by one as we alighted from the train.

I stayed back a few minutes to watch them clean the train in 7 minutes. Watch this video to see how they do it.



1 comment:

art said...

Julie Lim My old friend:

How are you. Been a long time. Are you still collecting magnets? I rode the high speed (not bullet) train from Beijing to Tianjin last year where I was doing some lectures.
I was in Shanghai this year a well as Riyadh again and Bangladesh and The Philippines. I can feel what you do about travel. For me its the people as much as the places. I will never forget a man I met in KL when I was staying at Hampshire Place off Ampang.
We would nod at each other every morning in the elevator for a few weeks and that was it. One morning we said hello and he asked if I was a Brit. When I said I was from the US he sort of laughed and commented we shouldn't be talking to each other because he was from Iran. A little conversation revealed he was there teaching math at the university. I asked why Malaysia and his answer was it was bad in Iran and he wanted a better life for himself and his family.
Therein lies the crux of human development. We ALL want a better life and killing each other over inane issues like who's God is better have set us back to the stone age in some places.
My business is now global. www.giccllc.com an www.path-away.com
Having fun. Meeting people. Enjoying the food in other places. Pretty much a similar attitude to yours. I may actually be in KL in September or October. I shall make it a point to find you if you are not out gadabout somewhere.
Stay well Julie Poo.

Art
amartin@giccllc.com

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