Tick tock timekeeping - punctuality in Japan



Nozomi Shinkansen

Whooooooosh…… The speed with which the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) passed through Himeji station was unbelievable. We were caught completely unaware and found ourselves involuntarily tightly hugging the platform pylons to the sound of discrete giggles from the ever polite onlookers. The Shinkansen platform at Himeji has 4 tracks running through it, one each side of the platform for the trains stopping at this station and the other 2 in the middle for all non-stopping, express Shinkansens – for reasons which soon became obvious. We had just walked onto the platform and had our backs to the oncoming express Shinkansen as it flew through the station. On hearing the whoosh and looking around we thought we were going to be sucked onto the rails by the speed of the train. Richard had thought from his previous ride on one, that the speed was not really that much faster than the express trains in the UK! After peeling himself from around the pylon, he soon admitted that he was very much mistaken!! The Shinkansen may not feel that fast when you are in it due to the smoothness of the ride, the straight tracks, the lack of clickety clack, the wide aisles and wide comfortable seats, but when you see one fly by, believe you me, it goes fast!







Rail travel is a fantastic way to get around Japan. I suppose the fact that Japan is the most railway using nation per capita allows for a great network of rails. Apparently there are 5 stations in Japan that each serve more than 2 million passengers on an average day, fortunately we were not in any of those stations. Not only are there dozens of rail companies competing for a share of the travel market and thus providing connections to pretty much anywhere you want to go, but trains are known for their punctuality. In fact we had to adjust our watches to JR rail time so as not to miss any connections. I read somewhere that a train is recorded as being late if it does not arrive at the specified time and that the average delays per train on the Tokaido Shinkansen line was 6 seconds!!! There are apparently some 250 Shinkansen trains running throughout Japan, the fastest being the N700 Nozomi series which we were lucky to have taken twice. They operate at a maximum speed of 300km/h, no wonder we needed spare undies while waiting on that platform!!

When the timetable says the train will leave at 10.56 and arrive at 14.34, that is precisely the time that it will leave and arrive! Actually, it is not just trains that are punctual, the buses in Kyoto were exactly the same. Now I can understand how you can keep trains punctual, there is no traffic variation to contend with as on the roads. But the buses, well they have to contend with all the other traffic on the road, including getting around in peak hour. Yet if you are waiting for a bus at a bus stop and the timetable says it will arrive at 17.35, then you can pretty much expect it to arrive at 17.35 regardless of traffic conditions. Here in Hong Kong, they do not say the arrival times of buses, rather that they will run every 8 – 10 minutes, or 20 minutes etc. between certain hours to take into account traffic problems.

Richard snoozing on the Super Hakuto train from Tottori Prefecture

Everyone is so polite on public transport; actually amend that to in all facets of Japanese life. People dutifully queued; there was never any pushing and shoving to get on. The bus drivers in Kyoto wore microphones headsets and kept a constant patter of conversation going - to let you know what stop was coming up, even though it was written on a board and there was an automatic announcement, to remind you not to forget anything and to warn you that he was shutting the door. He also thanked everyone personally as they got off the bus. The conductors on the train bowed deeply every time they entered a carriage and then turned around to bow again as they were about to leave the carriage. Richard nearly split his sides laughing on one of the trains, as the conductor came to the carriage to check tickets and one of the passengers was heading out of the carriage, obviously on his way to the toilet. Immediately began a parody of bobbing with each seeming to try to out bow the other for the most apologetic.