JR Kyushu has some of the most extravagant trains in Japan. Their in-house designer, Eiji Mitooka, has designed everything from humble commuter trains to ultra-luxurious cruise trains, and they all look very distinctive.
Today, for our Channel’s very first train video, we will be trying 3 of these express designer trains on our journey in Northern Kyushu:
– Relay Kamome (787 Series),
– Sonic (885 Series)
– Kamome (N700S Shinkansen)
These trains may already look pretty spectacular on the outside, but I promise you, the insides are going to blow you away. At the end of this video, I’m going to show you how much it costs and how you can ride these trains affordably.
Timestamps:
0:00 A little backstory
0:28 Relay Kamome LE (787 Series Train)
4:22 Sonic LE (885 Series Train)
8:33 Kamome SE (N700S Shinkansen)
#trainreview #shinkansen #jrkyushu
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JR Kyushu has some of the most extravagant trains in Japan. Their in-house designer, Eiji Mitooka, has designed everything from humble commuter trains to ultra-luxurious cruise trains like these, and they all look very distinctive. Today, for our Channel’s very first train video, we will be trying 3 of
These trains on our journey in Northern Kyushu. These trains may already look pretty spectacular on the outside, but I promise you, the insides are gonna blow you away. At the end of this video, I’m going to show you how much it costs and how you can ride these trains affordably.
So let’s jump right in with this limited express train, the Relay Kamone 787 Series. My journey starts here at a very chilly Tosu Station at the junction between the Kagoshima Line and the Nagasaki Line. At 11:37am sharp, this striking 8 car 787 Series train approached
The platform right on time. This train will take me westwards to Takeo Onsen Station using the Nagasaki Main Line. We don’t have much time before the train leaves so let’s get onboard shall we. As the door slides open, the first thing that strikes me is the cosiness
And warmth of the cabin interior, with the brown and plush seats lining the car. As we leave Tosu station behind, let me show you the various cars available on this train, starting with this standard car, which is configured in a comfortable 2-2 layout. Standard Cars
Are separated into Reserved and Non Reserved cars as seen by this symbol on the LED board. Stepping into Car 4, berths of 4 seats with a fold-out table are available to reserve for groups with at least 3 people. This seat layout seems to be quite rare in Japanese trains.
A very stylish reserved seat standard car is also available in the same car. Moving on to the very pointy end of the train, is the green car section, with wide and spacious recliners in a 2-1 configuration.
Now let me show you a secret. You know the unassuming wooden door we just walked by, there’s a whole private compartment inside! This is surely the most comfortable way to travel on this train. As there were no longer any window seats available in the reserved cars,
I decided to just settle down in one of the non-reserved cars. Flying past the Japanese Countryside at a top speed of 130 km/h, I’ll show you what you’ll get as a standard-class passenger. Even with the cheapest ticket on board, you will get a very spacious seat with very good recline and legroom. It’s also
Well equipped with leg rests and a tray table, so you can enjoy some very good Family Mart food while watching the world go by. Unfortunately, there isn’t any food available for sale onboard, so do get some food from the convenience store before you get on board.
Some more cool features onboard include metal sinks in every toilet, a mobile phone booth, and even a mini private lounge with curtains. After what seemed like a very quick journey, we soon arrived at Takeo Onsen station where a sleek
And beautiful high-speed train was waiting for us on the other side of the platform. But first, let me show you an even cooler Limited Express train, the 885 Series on the “Sonic” service. This train travels from Hakata Station in Fukuoka to Saiki
Station via Beppu, but we are just riding it to Kokura station in Kitakyushu for today. YouTube tells me a whopping 99 per cent of you watching are not subscribed, so do remember to hit that subscribe button to help us reach 1 thousand subscribers. Thanks.
After eating this delicious bowl of Gyudon, I collected my pre-reserved seat reservation tickets from the ticket machine. Waiting at Track 2 here at Hakata Station is this gorgeous white bullet that will take me to Kokura. This 885 series train can travel at speeds of up to 130 km/h,
And it can tilt too, as we will see later. Stepping on board, the beautiful blue artwork on the walls greeted me as I entered the train. The main standard cabin is also in a 2-2 configuration, with luxurious armchair-style seats lining the car. The wooden flooring also gives the cabin a very cosy feel.
For the green car at the pointy end of the last car, the office chair style seats spaced apart from each other ensures that every passenger has their handrests, and an even larger legroom compared with the standard seats. A pretty unique table set-up is also seen.
Settling down at my standard seat at Row 2, the legroom is pretty good, and the seat comes with a coat hook and a pretty small tray table. Right in front of me is one of the best parts of the train, where you can take a glance of
The driver speeding down the track and flying past stations in this very futuristic cockpit. We can also see the whole train tilting as it navigates the curves on the track, which enables our train to travel at much higher speeds on bends when compared with normal trains,
Especially on conventional tracks with many bends such as this line. After a very quick 44 minutes, we reached Kokura Station on the dot at 5:44 pm. I mean you can take the shinkansen between these 2 cities non stop in just 15 minutes, but where’s the fun in that? Speaking of Shinkansens,
Now let’s ride Japan’s newest High-Speed Train, this beautiful N700S on the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen. After stepping off the relay Kamone train, all we need to do is to just cross over to the other side of the platform and board the waiting high-speed train.
The reason why this arrangement exists is because Saga Prefecture did not want to fund the high speed tracks between Takeo Onsen and Fukuoka due to disagreements on the track alignment, and that the benefits for Saga are limited given the high building costs. Currently
There are still no plans to link this line to the main shinkansen network so such an arrangement will be in place for quite a while. Stepping on board, and wow, this is really a beautiful cabin. These seats here at the reserved section are laid out in a 2-2 configuration,
With wooden-style seats. Moving to the back, we can see the bright yellow non-reserved seats, which are laid out in a slightly less spacious 2-3 configuration. These seats aren’t too bad either, with the same very generous legroom as the reserved seats, as we will soon see.
My seats at the front reserved section are just impressive, it’s almost like narrowbody business class seats with the generous recline and the impressive legroom. The plush seats, coupled with the beautiful wooden finishings, made this a very comfortable train ride, furthermore, we are travelling almost twice as fast as the last train.
This train is so good, even Santa Claus is on it. After a super quick 30-minute ride, we reached Nagasaki Station, with a total journey time of 1 hour and 20 minutes from Tosu. Overall, travelling on JR Kyushu is indeed a very unique and pleasant experience, especially when
Travelling on their express trains. They really put great thought into designing their trains such that passengers will have a great experience onboard, such as having very comfortable seats with great ambience. But these great experiences come with high prices, with one-way fares starting
At 5520 yen or $50 one way to Nagasaki, or $17 to Kitakyushu. If you are just travelling in Northern Kyushu, buying the 15000 yen Northern Kyushu pass will gain you access to these trains in this video without limits for 5 whole days, saving you quite a lot of money on your trip.
Thanks for watching, stay tuned for the next video where I’ll be flying on a Japan Airlines 767. Meanwhile, click on this video next to see how I got here with Philippine Airlines. See you soon!
1 Comment
Are you guys long distance train fans? Could feel the energy😍