For subscribers
Many happy returns: 60 years of the shinkansen
Since the first bullet train left Tokyo Station six decades ago, it has become an icon of speed, style and national identity.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The shinkansen bullet train is the closest we will ever come to a teleportation machine, says the writer.
PHOTO: AFP
Leo Lewis
Follow topic:
Five minutes before its scheduled departure at 6.16am, the Hokuriku Shinkansen pulls into Tokyo Station – with absolutely no right to look this good so early in the morning. The rising sun, splintered by a hundred office windows, dances on the blue and gold of the train’s arcing, aquiline nose cone. The carriages, gleaming in pearl white and shaped by the man who designed the Ferrari Enzo, come to a millimetre-accurate stop at the platform gates. Doors slide apart to the welcome of soft reclining seats, inviting you to sit down, open a perfect egg sandwich bought on the platform, and enjoy it at 260kmh.
On Tuesday, Japan will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first bullet train’s inaugural journey. It’s also three decades since my first shinkansen experience, but 10 minutes into my trip from Tokyo to Nagano it all still feels a bit like cheating. There’s a nagging sense that I am exploiting the obsessiveness and largesse of a benevolent maniac.
