Had planned to leave from tokyo to kyoto on the 30th but was told the typhoon would cause the shinkansen to shut down. No worries we thought-we would leave on the 29th and beat the storm and get to stay an extra day in kyoto.
Got to the station, bought our tickets and boarded the train and it took off on time. About halfway through the route the train stopped and an announcement was made that the train was suspended due to the rain. However we did not stop at a stop we could actually get off at. Instead everyone was stuck in the train for over 10 hours.
Eventually the train reversed all the way back to tokyo station. I’m guessing it took so long because there may have been other trains behind us that needed to get out of the way.
The result was an adventure that led to nowhere except back to the hotel we started at in tokyo. makes for an interesting story nonetheless. talked to some other japanese passengers who said they’ve never experienced or heard of anything this bad ever happening to passengers on the shinkansen.
Can’t blame JR railways im sure they made the right call by suspending it. i’m glad we are all safe. it just sucks this wasted an entire day.
by Rasta_Lance
13 comments
Sorry you had to waste a day on a precious trip! It is a story you’ll probably remember and share for life though lol.
“You guys have have ever been out of the country?”
“Sure have! Went to Japan once and got stuck on a cross country train….. for 10 hours… we went nowhere except in reverse. “
“Jesus.”
“Eh better trip than it sounds lol”
Yeah this is insane and totally unprecedented from what I know. There is crazy flooding in Shizuoka right now, every line is fully suspended and there’s no way in or out. I’m glad they at least got you back to Tokyo instead of having you (and the trains) get stuck in Shizuoka for the rest of the week.
They refunded your tickets, surely? Might be good to ask about if not. I wouldn’t expect you’d have to pay for the trip.
Did they have food? Ten hours is long.
Wow, that is really unfortunate. 10 hours to go nowhere. Some quite extreme weather happening. They take safety very seriously.
We departed Japan last Monday, the 26th, but I’d been keeping a close watch on the storm’s progress.
My only adventure on shinkansen was my train to Hiroshima ran 1.5 hours late a few years ago.
We were also going to Kyoto today but trains are cancelled. My wife and I got a private car (which is mad expensive). If anyone is riding solo and wants to join us (they take a max 3 people) and is willing to pay $375 for the ride, feel free to join us. It is picking us up around 10am at Dormy Inn in Shibuya.
Damn I thought waiting over 2 hours just for the shinkansen to not depart was bad enough, but this is another level of chaos. Must’ve been 10 boring yet stressful hours, hope the rest of your trip is fun enough to make up for it.
At least you weren’t going to a new hotel in kyoto and sent your bags along ahead of time…..
That sucks and it hurts to lose time while you’re out there traveling, but I’m glad you’re safe. Now you have memories to talk about.
If it makes you feel any better, a couple of decades ago, I was taking a bus from Dar es Salaam to Mtwara (both in Tanzania). I figured this trip would involve a reasonably well-maintained highway but no, the roads at the time were just dirt. What was supposed to be about a 20 hour ride took me four days because of all the rain delays and traffic getting stuck in the mud. Lots of fun was had trying to push our bus (and other vehicles blocking our progress) out of the slippery tire grooves, sleeping on the bus and trying to buy food from people living in small villages along the way. Thankfully I had some iodine tablets with me as I had to resort to filling up my water bottle with rainwater flowing down ditches.
This is how the shinkansen has no fatalities in 60 years. Sucks but better to be alive.
You can now say you’ve been on a bullet train ride which had a net velocity of 0 m/s
Didn’t board the Shinkansen yesterday but was inShin-Osaka station with a ticket to Tokyo and every single train got cancelled 😭 ended up back at the same hotel in Osaka, now in the airport headed to South Korea and then home. Only a day early but still a terrible day!
Shinkansen have been at least partially shut all week between Tokyo and Nagoya (mostly due to the heavy rain in Shizuoka). Will probably last through the weekend
The same thing happened to me when some guy turned himself to mist at himeji, it happens from time to time. At least they passed out paper thin pillows.