The book I read to research this post was Shinkansen which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. The bullet train or shinkansen was first built in 1964 and at the time was the most advanced high speed train in the world. The first line built was the Hokkaido line part of which links Osaka with Tokyo and it rather famously goes past Mount Fujiyama. The bullet train is quite possibly the most iconic thing in Japanese culture. There are nowadays quite an extensive network of these trains and they are rarely more than a minute late. Funnily enough the conventional trains do sometimes run late and of course stop at more stations. Even at level crossings bullet trains travel at 160 kmph and on high speed stretches do 300 kmph. As the bullet trains are decommissioned and replaced they are mostly sent to Taiwan where they comprise a high speed network. They have the longest land tunnel in the world on a stretch of track for this train. Announcements on the trains are normally made in English. Shinkansen to the Japanese refers to the railway as well as the train. There are many railway companies in Japan and they usually make money from alternate sources in addition to trains. I really enjoyed this book and one thing I would mention is there is a complete bullet train on display at the National Railway Museum at Shilton, Durham, England and they have free admission.
scratbagroberts 