Riding the Bullet Train in Japan

Riding the bullet train in Japan was on our wish list of things to do.  Using The Man in Seat 61 website we researched Japan trains and purchased our tickets one month in advance, the maximum allowed, on the Shinkansen high speed train from Hiroshima to Tokyo.  One of the ticket sellers The Man in Seat 61 recommends is the baolau ticket agency, we found it an easy site to navigate and buy our tickets.  Once purchased we received an email with a QR code we could use as a ticket.

Having heard that the trains in Japan wait for no-one we decided to do a dry run to the train station and print physical tickets at the same time.  Our ticket instructions warned that there can be problems scanning the QR code from your phone at the entry turnstile so we wanted to avoid any potential delays.

From our Hiroshima apartment the train station was a pleasant 25-minute walk along the river and through the city.  Once there we found the correct machines, scanned our QR code, followed the English instructions and received physical tickets.  Below are the ticket pickup instructions sent with our QR code, they sure make it easy!

Then we checked out where the taxi would drop us off and where to enter the platform area for the bullet trains.  Without a doubt this little bit of planning made our departure from Hiroshima incredibly smooth, and we got to the train on time 👍

We booked the 10:03 am express train from Hiroshima to Tokyo and when the train arrived, we had 15 minutes to board and find our seats.  It was easy because our tickets stated what car number we were in and what seats we had reserved.  The station platform also had markings on the ground identifying exactly where each car would stop, how organized is that!!  We reserved seats in the Green Car because we have two large suitcases and a carry-on bag each, this was the only car we were guaranteed reserved space behind our seats to store them during the trip.  There is no way the overhead luggage racks would have held our large 20kg suitcases!!  Reserved Green Car tickets cost USD $196.28 each.

The express train had 8 stops during the 3 hour and 50 minute journey and between those stops we hit speeds of 320km.  The train is incredibly smooth with banked turns, so you don’t notice the speed unless you look out the window and see how fast the fields and buildings are flying by.  Each of the 8 stops was about 2 minutes long so there is no dallying getting on or off because the doors close, and the train is on it’s way again.  Food can be pre-ordered and delivered to your seat, or you can pick up something from any number of food places in the train station.  You can even bring your own beer on the train!

Here is a short video of part of the ride, hopefully to give an idea how fast we were traveling.

Whoooosh, that was a fun ride!!

Disembarking the bullet train in Tokyo, we have 5 days to explore this mega-city…..