I will let you in on a secret. I have been to all kinds of intimidating places in my travels to 70+ countries. However, nothing scared me more than a underground station in Tokyo on my first visit there in 1984. The unfamiliar maps and signs, the large crowds and the thought I would end up somewhere where no English was spoken all conspired and I turned around and took a taxi.
On our recent trip to Japan, I was glad to have my wife with me. I was thankful my daughter built an itinerary which allowed to build courage on relatively simpler train networks in Osaka and Kyoto before we tackled Tokyo.
How complex is the Tokyo train grid? Metropolitan Tokyo has nearly 900 interconnected train stations. The busiest station - Shinjuku - handles over 3.5 million passengers a day! In the 35 years since my first visit, the grid has become much more complex, but in some ways much more pleasant. We particularly enjoyed the Yurikamome autonomous, over ground, waterfront transit line. It is relatively new and you can see the elaborate urban planning and see how the city keeps expanding even as it prepares for the 2020 Olympics. It is the green line in the Southeast of the city in the map below. We took it across 14 stops and were awestruck how thin and tiny it looks compared to the rest of the network.
I am glad we tried out all kinds of trains in Japan. It punctuated how trains are the fabric of the country as they carry over 22 billion passengers a year. Train stations there are hubs of social activity. We stayed in hotels in Osaka and Kyoto near major stations. We ate in the nearby underground food courts. We learned about Ekiben - bento boxed meals, sold on trains and train stations in Japan. We saw 7-Elevens near every station with their own selections of sandwiches and snacks (unbelievably, there are over 20,000 7-Elevens in Japan).
We learned about train etiquette - food and drink ok on long distance trains, not on local ones. Speak in whispers, no mobile phones. There are posters which parody train "jerks" who don't follow norms. In contrast, there is a whole generation of train nerds - nori-tetsu, people who enjoy traveling on trains; yomi-tetsu, those who love to read about trains, especially train schedules; oto-tetsu, the people who record the sound of trains; sharyo-tetsu, fans of train design; eki-tetsu, people who study stations; and even ekiben-tetsu, aficionados of the snack boxes sold at stations. The cars are strikingly clean and safe. It was jarring to see young girls under 10 get on the trains on their own and go to school in their tidy uniforms.
Our favorite train was the Shinkasen, the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo in a little over 2 hours at over 175 mph. The more I asked about it, the more fascinated I got. 25,000 volts overhead are converted via pantograph to kinetic energy across the 16 cars. There are regular ultrasonic checks for cracks in the wheels and immaculate calibration of the 128 wheels. There is a body incline system which offsets the centrifugal forces across curves at that speed. A diagnostic version of the train painted yellow, called Dr. Yellow, runs over every foot of the rail network every few days and the crew documents specific issues that nighttime crew come and repair. Dr. Yellow is a celebrity. Parents bring their kids to cheer the train every time it comes through town. They are the next generation of Japanese train nerds.
In a country plagued by earthquakes, they have rail-side sensors which provide early warnings of tremors so the trains can be slowed down or stopped. At that speed, anything less would be catastrophic. So far, the train has delivered an amazing safety record.
The Shinkansen platforms have their own fascinating nuances. Braille markers show where specific cars stop. Automated safety barriers which only open when the train has come to a complete stop. Displays which are accurate to the second for trains which rarely run late even when snow and fog affect performance.
Watch this Smithsonian documentary for more mind-boggling details of this high-speed network.
Not surprisingly the trains in Japan have developed their own unique set of jobs. There are “pushers” who literally push people into crowded trains during rush hour. There are cleaning ladies dressed in pink who clean out every Shinkansen train in under 10 minutes. We saw a lady employee at one of the stations with this unusual gadget. It helped her retrieve a mobile phone which had fallen on the tracks. Like they say, they have seen everything and plan for even more.
On my next visit, I will make time for the Train Museum in Nagoya and try out the simulator for the Shinkansen. Maybe I will time it for 2027 - the next-gen magnetic levitation version will be ready by then. Early tests show it will double today’s speeds!
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