Japanese trains
Japan has gotta be the train capital of the world, despite more recent claims to that title by China.
Indeed, the world’s first high-speed rail line was Japan’s Tōkaidō Shinkansen, also known as the “bullet train,” which began operating in 1964 and connected Tokyo and Osaka.
Today the Shinkansen has nine active lines which connect major cities across the Japanese archipelago.
Japan’s first underground line of the subway Ginza Line opened on 30 December 1927. The distance of the line was only 2.2 km, as it went between Ueno and Asakusa. It was publicised as “the first underground railway in the Orient.” Today, Tokyo’s metro system is a veritable labyrinth, with 179 stations, which can take you everywhere.
But what is most charming are the little local trains, which can seem like museum pieces, as they wind their way through villages, farms and rice paddies.
On a recent trip to Japan to go hiking on the Ohenro san pilgrimage on Japan’s southern island of Shikoku I experienced all facets of Japan’s train system.
I started by taking the hyper efficient metro from my hotel to Tokyo station. I then jumped on the Shinkansen and headed south to Okayama. Please follow my example and always take the “Green Car” which in polite Japanese means business class. The comfort and service are exquisite.
Then came the first change to travel on a much smaller train to Takamatsu. This trip was wonderful as it crossed the beautiful Seto Inland Sea which lies between the Japanese main islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.
The next change to a much smaller train took me out into remote Shikoku and the town of Ikenotani.
Lastly, I took a small local train to an even more remote destination, Naruto.
The photos for this article all come from this latter train. A tiny little train, perfectly clean, perfectly efficient, and full of antique charm. The train driver and conductor looked like museum pieces.
The countryside was decidedly “Oku Japan”. The Japanese word Oku can signify a sense of something hidden or profound, a journey into something deeper, whether physical or metaphorical.