I Rode the Craziest Trains in Japan

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JR East Joyful Trains
https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/joyful/

JR West Trains
https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/train/

Tom Scott – I rode the world’s fastest train.

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Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:38 Shinkansen
02:43 Crazy Fast
03:57 Crazy Pink
05:52 Crazy Nice
08:56 Crazy Recreation Options
10:59 Crazy Decorated
12:23 Crazy … Stargazing!?
16:16 Getting to the craziest one of all …
17:33 Crazy Pokémon
20:05 Concluding thoughts
20:42 Ground News

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Corrections
01:38 There have been no fatal crashes, but there have been derailments with no fatalities

Japan is famous for its trains and for good reason they’re fast and frequent and clean and you can take a train pretty much anywhere you’d want to go and with so many train companies trying to differentiate themselves the Japanese have created some crazy trains that just don’t exist anywhere else so while I was in Japan I tried to ride a bunch of them these trains range from the fast to the luxurious and even what the Pikachu the most famous Japanese trains are probably the shinkansen the high-speed bullet trains that act as the main lines for the Japanese train Network which is actually how they got their name new main line um it’s kind of boring name when you say it like that I took a lot of shinkansen while I was in Japan because there is no better way to get between cities why would I drive over 5 hours from Hiroshima to kumato when I can get there in less than 2 hours by shinkansen I mean you got to go see monkey tofy somehow right shinkansen run really frequently too at Tokyo Station they leave about every 6 minutes during rush hour that’s a high-speed inter city train carrying more people than any Aeroplane leaving as frequently as Metro trains do in many other cities and even with all those trains running on the Network their average annual delay including those caused by earthquakes and typhoons is less than 1 minute you know what’s really crazy though there has never been a shinh conen crash ever since they started in 1964 think about that how many car crashes have there been since 1964 or aerplane crashes or fatal accidents on literally any other form of transportation all of this is possible because the shinan and are on their own network they have no level crossings they do not share any tracks with conventional trains and they are all governed by a coordinated signaling system that keeps trains clear of one another the shinon Zen will even shut down automatically if an earthquake is detected most shinkansen operate at around 300 kmph Jr Central is building a maglev that could operate at 500 kmph but that project has been delayed and is not expected to open until 2034 at the earliest for this video I only rad trains that are currently in operation so if you want to see that crazy fast magav you’ll have to watch Tom Scott’s video I hope that came across on camera I’ll leave a link in the description I had to settle for the fastest train currently in operation in Japan which is the Hayabusa shink kanzen that reaches a top speed of 320 km per hour you would never know this train is riding so fast when you’re on it there is some slight JW Ling at times but in general the ride is very smooth even at high speed so could I balance a coin on its side at 320 km per hour no because I couldn’t even do that while the train was stopped at a station but I could balance a bottle of picari sweat upside down at top speed so that’s something from the inside this is no different than any other shinkan Zen the seats are in a 2×3 configuration with luggage racks above interestingly there’s no bar car on these trains like is common on high-speed trains in Europe Japan has also stopped providing smoking rooms and they even sto providing payphones it’s not the 1960s anymore the best part of the shinhan xen though is that the restrooms have Japanese style bedet toilets amazing there’s also a urinal and a sink with a mirror but these are standard features so other than speed the Hayabusa is just like any other shinhan Zen but that’s not the case with this next one this Hello Kitty shink conzen is insane it’s a pink themed 500 series shink conzen that has been decked out this way since 2018 you can look out of the Hello Kitty windows and there’s a place for kids to get their photos taken with Hello Kitty next to the Hello Kitty theme storage for strollers and all that other annoying stuff you have to haul around when you have kids there’s a Hello Kitty theater with a guy in a hot tub for some reason there’s a Hello Kitty themed toilet and a Hello Kitty sink there was a Hello Kitty train smoking room but it was closed in March 2024 there’s a shop on board where you can buy Hello Kitty merchandise a Hello Kitty shinkun and water bottles and they’re only four times as much as any other bottle of water the carriages themselves are Hello Kitty themed with decorated isway and Hello Kitty seats and they’re labeled just in case you somehow forgot what train you’re on but interestingly the farther you get from the shop in car 1 the less Hello Kitty they become by the time you’re at the end it’s like you’re not even on a Hello Kitty train this is no fun so book Car 2 if you want to experience Peak Hello Kitty there is only one Hello Kitty shink conen and it just runs on the kod line like any other train there’s no extra cost and I wasn’t even completely certain that I had booked the right one until it showed up because I just booked it by its train number which means that it’s possible that some Japanese salary man thinks he’s getting a typical shinhan Zen to Osaka for his business trip when this pink monstrosity full of children rolls up the one difference I did notice when booking is that there is no green car on the Hello Kitty Shin conen so there’s no first class but that’s the complete opposite with this next train this futuristic looking train is the sapphir odor Rico a luxury train that has only first class seating it’s a luxurious way to get to the ISU Peninsula a popular tourist destination for beach towns cherry blossoms hot springs and cppy bar swimming with lemons this train is more than just Transportation as they have an extensive food menu you can eat in the bar car but you can also have food delivered directly to your seat half of this train is regular first class carriages which are a 2X one configuration similar to a typical green car on any other Japanese train there are also some surprisingly luxurious restrooms on this train and with the higher end Toto washlet bedet too but on this train the green cars are the cheap seats in the middle of the train are the private compartments these are set up with a table with chairs around it like a conference room and there are four and six seat options the compartments are decorated in a fancy wood finish with shelves and a bunch of chachkies on it to make it look fancier the window blinds can be opened and closed and there’s a serving hatch that food can be passed through I can see these compartments being used for corporate meetings which is definitely more interesting than the typical crappy meeting rooms I’d have to use for work I wanted us to sit in the compartment for our trip but you can’t book them online so I had to go into the ticket office in person which ended up taking over 20 minutes while the woman in the ticket office consulted Ed a paper manual in order to book the correct compartment Japan really can be the most backwards futuristic country sometimes but if you think the private compartments are fancy this train has something even better the premium green diamond car and since I was traveling in a regular old green car they wouldn’t even let me in to see it so the next day I bought a ticket to go just one station away so that I could film it ha so much for keeping the Riff Raff out the diamond car has only two chairs per row they’re designed as self-contained pods that are independent from every other seat these are like a living room recliner with lots of position options and a built-in tray table the best part though is that you can rotate them to different angles you can turn them to Face the People you’re traveling with or turn them to look out the window the best seats on this train are definitely the first row of the premium car which looks out this giant window behind the driver though on my trip the train was going backwards I guess if you were going away from Tokyo it would look something like this huh that’s that’s actually pretty convincing the front seats were sold out for basically every day I looked at and for good reason this would be a really great way to get out of the city for a holiday but if you’d prefer to get out of the city to do some cycling then this next train is for you this is BB base a special train that only runs on weekends and is designed specifically for you to take your road bike for a ride outside of the city this train leaves from roag Goku station in Tokyo in the morning and returns in the afternoon the train is accessed by the side entrance of the station where Travelers can bring their bicycles right to the platform without any stairs ironically though this was the only train I rode in Japan that didn’t have level boarding which is funny when almost all passengers will be bringing a bicycle Most Japanese trains are not very bike friendly if you want to travel with your bicycle you need to dismantle it and fully enclose it in a bag BB Bas is one of the few exceptions to this rule here there are dozens of bicycle racks for your bike as long as your bike is a typical road bike that is I wouldn’t go trying this with an Oma Feats but there’s another open car that could be used for other types of bike or these spaces at the end of the cabin oh and be careful if you’re tall because the doors are not very tall which I learned the hard way okay yeah I’m okay like Too Tall the train is modern and spacious with comfortable seats and power sockets at every seat for charging your phones bicycle accessories or your Nintendo switch on board you can get maps to plan your route and decide which station you’ll ride to for the trip back and if you don’t have your own bike then you can rent one too I love that Japan has trains like this that allow people to take recreational trips that would typically require a car in most other countries it reminded me of the trains in Switzerland that you can take to Trail heads where you can go hiking or the trains in Norway that take you right to the ski hill because fundamentally trains should be available for all kinds of trips not just commuting BB Bas requires a separate reservation and it’s clearly a specialized train other trains I took operated on normal routes but were decorated in some way like this random train with wood paneling I’m digging the 1970s Suburban living room aesthetic here and this regular train I picked up in Tokyo was decorated with Dorimon characters but nothing was quite like this one this is kot train gaku a train that runs between Koto and Osaka you can ride this train on holidays and weekends at no extra cost and no reservation is required but this is no regular train each carriage on this train is decorated in a unique way one for each season of the year a few of the carriages even have Zen Gardens it’s really well done this train is beautifully decorated and there are many different types of seats including some that face directly to the window for a better view these round windows are interesting and they’re decorated differently in every Carriage of course you can travel between Osaka and KY tooto in about half the time on a shin conen but this train is much more interesting plus it brings you right into the main train station rather than Shin Osaka the shin conen station on the edge of the city and it’s cheaper too I really like that Japan provides lots of different options for traveling by rail so you can take whichever train is best suited for your trip and this next train is certainly a unique option this is the high rail 1375 known as the train closest to the sky this train runs on the highest track in Japan at a maximum altitude of 1,375 M that’s uh the 1375 part the station had these waiting rooms that were decorated to look like log cabins and the train itself was only two carriages and decorated in a space Motif throughout it was pretty nice now I got to admit I booked this train while booking some other trains in this video without really looking into what it was all about this was buildt as a stargazing train so I thought this train would slowly travel through the mountains with the lights out allowing you to stargaze from the comfort of your seat which is why I booked this seat directly facing the window and it’s why I booked this train at night yeah I probably should have done a little bit more research because this train was truly weird I didn’t know you can pre-book a star themed bento box that is delivered to your seat um there was a little shop though so I didn’t totally miss out and I even got some star themed beer so that was nice shortly after we departed one of the staff handed out a brochure about stars and the noyama observatory a telescope located in this part of Japan that does radio astronomy then the presentation started entirely in Japanese I’m sure this was very interesting but I didn’t understand a word after the presentation was complete the train stopped at station and everyone just got off the train at this point I was thinking I really should have done some more research before booking thankfully I made friends with some of the passengers who spoke English and they told me what was going on so this train is a stargazing train but you don’t gaze at the stars from the train itself instead you get out at noyama station down the road from The Observatory and stare at the sky for 45 minutes this was truly bizarre because we were literally in the parking lot of the station and they didn’t turn off the lights or anything so it was kind of hard to see the sky I tried to adjust my camera to show how dark or rather not dark it was it basically looked like this and this vending machine was so bright but to make matters worse it was cloudy that night so there was nothing to see anyway so they went to plan B which was a presentation in the planetarium yeah did I mention there’s a planet Arium on this train I’m sure this was very interesting but again I didn’t understand a word the visuals were pretty though the ceiling of the station itself was interesting as well it doesn’t look like anything at first but when you take a picture with a camera flash it shows all the constellations you can kind of see it there on the left if you look carefully okay so it looks better in photos we then got back on the train and continued to our destination but because they kept the lights on all I ever saw in the windows was glare so I think this train is really interesting but I would definitely recommend taking it during the day then you’d get a better view out of the window and they also just go straight to the Planetarium show instead of standing around in a parking lot waiting for a break in the clouds but how crazy is this right Like A Train That’s just built for stargazing and learning about astronomy isn’t this great it’s so cool that something like this exists this video doesn’t even scratch the surface of the number of crazy trains in Japan Jr East has a whole list of what they call joyful trains several of these trains need to be booked 30 days in advance and a bunch of them only run a weekend so I was limited in how many I could ride during my limited time in Japan but there was one last train that I absolutely had to ride and I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. to book it because it typically sells out within an hour of tickets going on sale this train is a fairly long distance from Tokyo over 400 km away but thankfully the departure station is on that crazy fast Hayabusa Shin consen line so it took me only about 2 and 1/2 hours to get there it’s pretty amazing that I could do an easy day trip to a city over 400 km away but that’s what’s possible with a good high-speed train Network and it’s incredible watching The Many Many rice fields in Japan go by at 300 kmph these trains are incredible machines but if I can give you one piece of advice it’s this before you get out and start filming that beautiful train leaving make sure you get out at the right station because I didn’t yeah that was dumb and since this was a small station not serviced by every train I had to take a taxi to the next stop which was a very expensive mistake though I got to see what the elevated shinan end lines look like from the ground and I also got to see rice fields go past at 50 kmph so that was nice I guess and thankfully I was able to make it to the station on time for the best train yet this train is called Pokemon with you a Pikachu themed train that is completely over the top this train is ridiculous and it’s decorated in every possible way the outside is painted yellow with Pikachu all over it including this special train conductor Pikachu and his friend uh I guess Sun bleached Pikachu the inside of the car is also covered in Pikachu and other Pokémon characters even the hand holds on each seat are decorated as pokeballs they really covered every possible part of this train with something related to Pokemon this train is made of only two carriages so far I’ve only shown the passenger seating car but the other is a huge play room for kids thankfully the crew allowed me to film when it was closed to other passengers otherwise you would hardly be able to see it because as you would expect this Carriage is where basically all of the kids played the entire time this train was in motion there are dozens of stuffed Pikachu for kids to play with and an area behind the driver where kids can pretend to drive the train several of the stations are decorated too with Pokémon on the stairs Pokemon on the railings Pokémon on the signs along with various places for photo ops with Pikachu and other Pokémon characters they even stamp the tickets with Pikachu too they also handed out these booklets and at each stop kids would run into the station so that they could put a stamp in their book for the record I did in fact catch them all and this large statue of Pikachu approved of my work this train was started in 2012 as a way to bring tourism back to Cuma an area that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 this is a pretty amazing train for children but everybody was having a great time time and the arrival of this train brought out the locals too this guy even brought a tripod you really can’t ride this train and not be happy the Pokémon train takes a winding route through this forested part of Japan and if you can pull yourself away from Pikachu there are some great views along the way and I’ve now been able to see rice fields go past at every possible speed with all the stops the ride to cassena took almost 2 hours along this winding route much of which is only single track and I had to take a boring commuter train back to the shinkansen station but it was totally worth it I love that Japan makes trains fun we often think about trains as something purely utilitarian just another way to get from point A to point B of course Japan has those kind of trains too and they work very well and I talked about that in my video about Shinjuku station the busiest train station in the world but it’s so great to see some kind of crazy trains too trains that are much faster than driving trains that get you out of the city for the weekend trains that get you there in Comfort trains that just look nice and of course trains that make people happy one thing that bugs me so much is how in some countries trains have become a culture War issue with people spreading the lie that better public transit somehow threatens people’s personal freedoms when it’s literally the opposite trains give people the freedom to not to have to drive of course a great train Network really is threatening that is to the people who make billions selling you Automobiles and fossil fuels while you spend your life in Soul crushing traffic because there’s no viable alternative to get around which is why it’s important to know the bias behind your news and the best way to do that is with this video sponsor ground news ground news is a website and app designed to give readers an easy data 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