Practical Japanese is a new series I am starting where from time to time I will publish a photo and/or video displaying Japanese characters whether Kanji, Katakana, Hiranga or a combination of them. I hope that seeing Japanese being used is a practical everyday sense will help expand the vocabulary of...

I may have had a romantic experience with the Narita Express but the Shinkansen has had been captivated for years and while in Japan I clocked up a lot of miles going between Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka on theTōkaidō Shinkansen as I made good use of my 21 day Japan Rail Pass which after being lost...

Train enthusiasts in Japan are ecstatic as East Japan Railway Company (JR East) official debuted the E5 Series Shinkansen or “Hayabusa” today which will be operating on the Tōhoku Shinkansen Line from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori with major stations like Sendai and Morioka. Hayabusa is Japanese...

Aomori Prefecture is at the northern tip of Honshū, Japan’s main island and is now home to two brand new train stations and fully connected to the country’s high speed rail network. The Tohoku Shinkansen Line has expanded to Shin-Aomori Station which now connects it to Japan’s capital...

Just when I thought Japan themed videos could not get any more awesome and trust me I’ve shared a few and watched a whole lot, I surfed into Japan – Smashbox by Tom Banks. Just as artsy as the last video I shared called Japan – Waiting… Arriving… Departing done by Australian illustrator...

I saw something recently that made me realize realize something very very important – I love Japanese trains more than Star Wars O.o! I experienced a geekgasm when I saw the Star Wars chopsticks a while back but the new Shinkansen ones have the aspiring densha otaku (Japanese train enthusiast)...

Come Spring 2011 Japan will add another Shinkansen model to it’s already impressive lineup. The E5 Series Shinkansen will be put to work by JR East and run from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori in just over 3 hours eventually reaching speeds of 320 kilometers per hour. E5 Series Shinkansen meeting the press The...

The BBC’s website has been a very important resource for me over the years for not only news related to Japan but through some interesting features, photo galleries and more recently videos I have been exposed to many things I couldn’t read in a book and can only get better by experiencing...

The year is 2015, 100 billion simultaneous devices, 10 gigabits per second transfer speed, high-speed wireless access even on moving high-speed trains and us$260 million in research costs; those are the important details of a new next generation high speed global network being developed by Japan’s...