We were introduced to Japan's excellent public transport system soon after our plane touched down in Osaka's Kansai airport. We had to get to Kyoto, 62 miles away, and our guide book described a number of ways to get there with the fastest (and therefore the most expensive) being on the ‘Haruka’ airport express train.

As Kansai is a major international airport, we weren't expecting to have any language problems using this train and it was actually very easy. There were English signs directing us to the airport station where we found a crowded ticket office and some ticket machines with instructions in both Japanese and English.

We had just obtained some Japanese Yen from an ATM in the airport (on the 4th floor) but this only issued ¥10,000 notes (worth about £50 each) and these were too large for the ticket machines so we joined the long queue in the ticket office.

When we reached the front of the queue, we were told that the next two (½-hourly) trains to Kyoto were already fully booked. While we were toying with the option of travelling first class, the clerk told us that we could still travel in one of the unreserved carriages but that we wouldn't be guaranteed a seat. We decided to run this risk, as we could always catch the second train if the first one was full (these unreserved tickets were much cheaper too!) As it happens, there turned out to be plenty of room for us on the first train.

Ease of use

We were planning to use the trains a lot when we were touring Japan and we have to admit that we were expecting to experience some problems using them, particularly when we were away from the major stations. As we expected, English was not very widely spoken in Japan and our Japanese language skills (which consisted of almost two words) were even worse. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that, in general, the trains and the underground systems around Japan weren't that difficult to use.

All of the stations that we used had signs in both English and Japanese. We did sometimes find signs that were just in Japanese but there was always the same sign with English on somewhere else in the station - we just had to find it!

We usually bought our tickets from ticket machines - which always had instructions in English (and they gave change so we didn't need the correct money). The fare for the journey was easy to work out from a nearby map which showed the fares to all stations in both Japanese and English. On the rare occasions that we needed to use a ticket office, we didn't have any problems conveying what we wanted. Our attempts at pronouncing our destination were surprisingly always understood (try that in Paris!)

The tickets were usually fed into an automatic turnstile or occasionally checked by a ticket inspector. The correct platform was usually found by following directions to the end station on the line (which were in both Japanese and English). Once we were on the train, working out when to get off required us to keep a keen lookout through the train's windows as we pulled in to each station. The station names were indicated on regular signs along the platforms but only alternate signs were in English and there was always the danger that they might be obscured by waiting passengers. This wasn't a problem on some of Tokyo's underground trains as they had electronic displays of the train's current position on a map above the door.

Buses
We found that Japan's buses, in general, were harder to use than its trains and underground, mainly because we usually didn't have a route map but also because the fares could sometimes be difficult to work out in some cities. However, in Kyoto we did have a bus route map and there was a flat fare within the city limits (¥220) so we gave them a go. This turned out to be quite an ordeal as this bus was just about full to capacity when we got on it and yet an unbelievable number of people still got on after us. Most of the people standing (including us) were crushed up against each other and it required a lot of effort to keep our balance as the bus cornered. Some of the passengers seemed to be enjoying this challenge and also one business man in particular was taking full advantage of his close proximity with a schoolgirl.

Taxis
We occasionally used taxis in Japan, usually when we were on the move with our suitcase, and we found them to be reasonably cheap particularly as most of our journeys were within the minimum fare (which was around ¥640). We certainly had problems with language when using taxis. If we were leaving from our hotel we would need the doorman to tell the driver to take us to the station. Elsewhere, we usually had to show the driver the destination written in Japanese (which we got from our Lonely Planet guide book).

The passenger doors on taxis are opened automatically by the driver when a passenger approaches and they are also closed when you get in - which takes a bit of getting used to! Tipping is not expected anywhere in Japan including their taxis. We made the mistake of rounding up the fare on our first journey and not waiting for the change. The driver had to get out of the cab to chase after us with our change.

Punctuality

They say that you can set your watch by the Japanese trains as they are frighteningly punctual. We therefore thought that it would be a good idea to make sure that our watches were correct throughout our tour as we were planning to use the trains quite a lot to get around.

I had set my watch according to the time displayed on the plane's in-flight navigation system thinking that this would definitely be accurate. However, the very first train we used, the airport express, departed early according to my recently calibrated watch so I decided to change my watch to be in-line with the train's actualdeparture time. This turned out to be the correct thing to do as, throughout our trip, we monitored each train's departure and arrival times against this recalibration and found that they all ran within 15 seconds of their scheduled times! (I checked my quartz watch against a reliable time source as soon as we returned back home and it was just a couple of seconds fast!)

What makes this punctuality even more impressive is that these trains only stop for a very brief period at each station (so there really is very little opportunity to recover any lost time by shortening these stops). To help ensure alighting passengers get off the trains quickly during these brief stops, announcements are made in both Japanese and English a few minutes prior to arrival at each station. There are also displays at both ends of each carriage counting down the approach to the next station (in both Japanese and English).

To make sure that pasengers can get on the trains just as efficiently, the exact position where the carriage doors stop is marked on the platforms along with the carriage number so that embarking passengers can be waiting exactly where the door to the carriage that they will be seated will stop. In addition to this, it is clearly marked where they should queue in order that they don't block the exit of the alighting passengers (and they don't either! - unlike in most other countries where alighting passengers usually have to fight their way past the people waiting to get on).

The Japanese Bullet Trains

Two shots of a JR West 100 Series Hikari train arriving at Kyoto station. This was the type of bullet train that we used the most.

Although they are known throughout the world as “bullet trains”, this isn't what the Japanese call them. They usually refer to them as Shinkansen which you might think would contain some suitably descriptive Japanese adjective to convey the phenominal speed of these trains but it actually just means the unimaginitive phrase: “new trunk line”.

These shinkansen trains are quite expensive to use (compared to the normal, slower trains) but we had bought a JR rail pass which allowed us free use of them for 7 days. We used this pass during our 5 day tour from Kyoto to Tokyo followed by a couple of day-trips out of Tokyo which overall totalled more than 1000 miles on the Shinkansen.

The bullet trains were fairly easy to use - particularly with a JR rail pass. Tickets had to be obtained from a ticket office but they had the added complication that their seats could be reserved and this seemed to be the default despite the fact that it cost extra. Luckily, our JR rail pass included free seat reservations. We simply stated our destination and and asked for a non-smoking carriage and we were issued with tickets for the next available train. We later found out that if we didn't want seat reservations (say because the next few trains were fully booked) then we didn't need tickets. We could simply present our JR pass to the ticket inspector and then try to find a seat in one of the unreserved carriages on the next train (and we never had a problem finding a seat when we did this).

The shinkansen stations, particularly in the major cities, usually have many platforms to choose from. The platform numbers for each train would be indicated on a departures board in the main station area. As the bullet trains ran so frequently (about every 10-15 minutes), there were usually many trains indicated on this board going to each destination and so we had to make sure we picked the one with the correct departure time. As an additional check, the train's number was also indicated on the departures board and this could be compared against the one specified on the ticket.

The bullet trains do not stop for very long in each station so it is important to be waiting on the platform in the correct place. The ticket contains the carriage number for your reserved seat and the exact place where this carriage will stop is marked on the platform. The position of the unreserved carriages are also marked including whether they are smoking or non-smoking.

These high speed trains are very comfortable - they have a very large gap between seats allowing you to stretch your legs right out and you can recline your seat without worrying about the person behind. Although they accelerate rapidly, they do it very smoothly indeed and you can hardly notice them cornering as they automatically bank into the curves. In fact you have to look out of the window to believe that you are really travelling at well over 100mph shortly after leaving each station.

Mobile phones are extremely popular in Japan but it is definitely frowned upon to make or take a call while sat in one of the carriages of a shinkansen train. We saw quite a few people leave the carriage when their phones rang to take their call in the space between carriages.

Unlike back home, where British Rail food is a popular source of ridicule, the standard of food available on the shinkansen is very high. These trains are regularly patrolled by people selling bento boxes. These are shallow boxes divided into rectangular partitions each containing different types of complementary food with a strong emphasis (as always in Japan) on presentation. The contents of these boxes vary and are often local specialities picked up along the route. Our inability to understand Japanese definitely hindered us here as we couldn't understand the description of the food that the vendors were calling out as they touted for business. I suppose we could have taken a peek as they passed by but instead we cheated and either bought ours from the restaurant carriage or, more often, from the many stalls in the station (which we browsed around while we were waiting for the train). Both of these outlets had the added advantage that we could choose from a bigger selection of bentos.

The super-sleek looking 500 series Nozomi is currently the fastest of the shinkansen trains in operation with a maximum speed of 300kph (187mph). Although this is slower than the top speed of the French TGV, the Japanese Nozomi more than make up for their shortfall by their actual day-to-day performance both on the track and in the stations. They currently hold the world record for the fastest scheduled average speed between two stations (@164mph) as well as the world record for the fastest scheduled average speed between start and end stations (@152mph) which includes multiple stops!

Unfortunately, these ultrafast Nozomi bullet trains were excluded from our JR Pass - we could only watch with envy as they rapidly glided in and out of the stations while we were waiting for the merely superfast Hikari bullet trains. Having said that, the Hikari bullet trains that we used didn't hang about! They have a top speed of 144mph and can average 125mph between stations.

All of the various shinkansen trains are powered by electricity and one of the ways that they can achieve such high speeds and, in particular, their rapid acceleration is by powering every axle throughout the train (instead of all of the carriages being pulled by the engine at the front). The Japanese have also dispensed with trackside signals - the information is instead fed directly to the train electronically through the tracks from a central computerised facility in Tokyo which monitors and controls the movements of all of the trains.

You can read more about the various shinkansen trains and see many more pictures in Dave Fossett's comprehensive web page (which is where we went to identify some of the trains in our pictures).