More on the Wonderful World of Japanese Trains

We have been on all sorts of trains throughout Japan, from 1940s/50s restored jalopies to the wonderful bullet trains. There is this fab online timetable (hyperdia.com) that you can use to plan your journey. 99/100 the trains are on time. The conductors bow to the passengers before leaving the carriage when they have checked tickets. The trains also have romantic names like the Sakura 542, the Hikari 456, the Midori and the Sonic.

This train made me start when I realized the whole thing was made of metal apart from the seat cushions. No plastic in sight. That is a shocker - the Japanese love encasing everything in plastic.

These are our wonderful Japan Rail Passes.

They cannot be bought within Japan, but in your home country. Or rather, a voucher is bought in your home country. When you arrive in Japan, you take them to the JR station and trade in your voucher for the pass, once you know when you want to start it. They come in 1 week, 2 week and 3 week durations, so if you are travelling for more than that (which we are), you can get multiple passes and have them start when it's convenient. Because we are here more than 4 weeks, we got a 1 week pass and a 3 weeks pass, and went pass-less in Kyoto for a few days, knowing we'd be walking or using local buses instead of trains.

The only negative thing is you can't change your mind - once the start date has been set, it's been set. It's also a bit odd that you must have a ticket official look at them every time to enter or depart the platform areas. With so many hundreds or thousands of these passes on the go at any one time, you'd think there's be an easier way for them to be scanned then having to squeeze past one person going on to the platform as you are going off the platform, both trying to get the official to make sure they are valid. They rarely get more than a cursory glance anyway.

They are awesome in that you can hop on and hop off any JR train you like, except a few of the poshest high-speed bullets. Reservations are free. If you want to reserve a seat, you get a ticket like this (or two if you have to change trains during one journey).

With the pass, you don’t need to reserve a seat (there are always the ‘no reservations’ carriages), although on the busier trains it's nice to know you have a seat. So well organized. 

We got to one train station an hour and 7 minutes before our reserved journey, and, knowing that most trains go every hour, we thought perhaps we could catch the one leaving in 7 minutes. Nowhere but in Japan could you go to the ticket desk, get reservations changed (including for the next train we need to change to) and leap on our train, a train already at the station, within 3 minutes. 

I had a lovely "trainspotter" experience on the train from Nagasaki to Arita. I sat next to a man who was pinned to his phone. Glancing over, I saw he had google maps showing our current position on the train line. He invited me to watch him click on the train on the map, which showed the train's details and also gave him digital badges for travelling on a certain type of train. I showed him my google map basic version and he explained (with no English) that his software was a Japan Rail uplink add-on. I then showed him my pix from the Kyoto Railway Museum and he knew all the trains in them. Then he showed me pix of the actual trains in operation rather than in a museum. At the end of our nerd fest, I gave him a pair of earbuds with the Canadian flag on them and he gave me a packet of red bean candy that tasted like old shrimp!