[Newsletter] Ōsaka to Fukuoka on a legendary but fading Shinkansen (Patreon)

You might know the Shinkansen, Japan's famed bullet train network. But you might not know the details of the various trains and the unexpected stories in the hills and towns on the routes.

I sure didn't, even after years of living here. They're all fast, and when buying a ticket on one, the clerk or the machine will just tell you which one makes the most sense.

I recently rode a Shinkansen that is more unusual, though. I did some research and found that the bullet train line between Ōsaka and Fukuoka (the Sanyō line) still uses a few trains that are scheduled to be removed and demolished soon.

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They're called 500-series trains (in Japanese, 500系; the kanji is pronounced "kay"). They were introduced in 1997 and at that time were the fastest in the world.

But that was then. They were soon superseded by 700-series trains. The eight 16-car trains were reduced to eight 8-car trains (with 64 cars being scrapped). Two of the eight sets were later removed altogether, and the six remaining ones are going to be scrapped soon.

But! If you study the schedules, you can find the occasional one still running. That's what I managed to do.

I found that, once a day, there is a 500-series Shinkansen running on the entire length of the Sanyō Shinkansen line. Better yet, it's a "local" Shinkansen – it stops at every station.

It's not called "local" in Japanese; it's called "Kodama". It's the Shinkansen version of a local, the only one that stops at every station. In fact, I was unable to buy a ticket for it at a machine because when I entered my start and end stations, this didn't come up as an option. Other trains would get me there much faster.

But I wasn't into speed, I wanted the experience. It was a perfect opportunity.

So after buying a ticket from a live person (who questioned my intentions) I went and rode the entire thing in my 500-series car. I even lucked out and got a more spacious than usual seat in what used to be the first-class "Green" car.

I learned about every station on the way, and got a really close-up look at the line and some of the weird history along it that I never knew before.

This video shows what I saw – the landscape and the stations and the other Shinkansens (including those decorated in One Piece and Hello Kitty designs). And the anecdotes from history along the line.

And I never saw another 500-series train the entire day.

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Everywhere is worth exploring!

–Jeremy