Imagine the guttural thump of a mortar shell being dropped into its launch tube, followed in a calculated instant by the compression and decompression of acceleration. This is exactly what it felt like to have a Kansai Bullet Train sneak up behind me on the platform in Mishima. Each platform is well armed with steel rails to keep the casual strolling passenger from being sucked into a passing train.
Naturally, I was paying attention to track immediately in front of me, on which the train to Kyoto would arrive. Listening to my ipod and enjoying the warmth of the sun on a 50-degree Fahrenheit day, everything was loose and perfect.
When at first the thud hit me from behind my instinct was that something had just exploded which generated a reflexive knee bend and turn to survey evasive action. By the time my brain took in the scene and realized I had just missed being shot by a bullet train, the last car of the sixteen cabin train and then the hyper aerodynamic caboose / second engine blurred out of focus. Immediately, I paced the ten feet to the other side of the platform to try to catch a view of the departing vessel. No such luck. It was gone! Now that is fast!
I really wanted to catch a blurred picture or maybe an mpeg of a passing train, but since “through trains” are unannounced as they pass the terminal, it would literally be impossible to take a camera out, turn it on, and shoot before the train was just a memory. Maybe this is what NASCAR or the Indy Racing Series is like? If so, I definitely understand the rush.
When the Kyoto bound bullet train rolled into the station, it glided. The smooth transition from high speed to stop and then returning to its original pace was flawless. There was no jolt or hyper accelerating push into your seat but an almost imperceptible reostat of velocity.
Fuji glided into memory and and the old capital city of Kyoto was here before you knew it.
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