The Shinkansen

After departing Tokyo, I took the Shinkansen (a.k.a. the bullet train) to Otsu. The Shinkansen is extremely fast. It took only 2 and a half hours to get to Otsu, whereas if I would have taken the Express train it would have taken over 8 hours. The Shinkansen is also very expensive! For my one way trip, it cost $150.00. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for it. My contracting organization did. Like all trains here, the Shinkansen is also very reliable. We only had one minute to get off the train before it took off for its next stop. This posed somewhat of a problem since everyone had their luggage. Ten minutes before we were about to get off, we carried our luggage to the front of the train. Then when the train stopped, we literally had people throwing our suitcases onto the train platform. Everyone was able to get off in time and then they went to collect their luggage.