“The evening of Japan v Scotland may have been rugby’s greatest”
THE HIGHLIGHT of the whole Japanese experience for inveterate travellers was blindingly obvious from an early stage of the World Cup. The Shinkansen – bullet train – simply shrivels Japan up. It is so beautiful, so rapid and so efficient that the country seems way smaller than it actually is.
The precision of the whole thing is extraordinary. You stand exactly by the door to your carriage, which is indicated on the station platform. Every seat is reserved in advance except for a few coaches for latecomers. It is always spectacularly, inevitably, on time when it arrives and when it drops you off. No messing around, you jump off at your exit and it glides elegantly away to hit the schedule at the next stop.
Rolling stock? Absolutely tons of it. Whereas our ‘express’ trains at home come once in a blue moon, the Shinkansen tracks are always busy; if you miss one long-distance train, there will be another along shortly.
It does get a little wearing but the staff turn and bow to the carriage whenever they leave it. The catering is peculiarly Japanese. “What the hell is that?”
