The Shinkansen with its feet in the water 新幹線
TGV Onsen
With an already almost impeccable service - impeccable cleanliness, punctuality, changing tables, ekiben (meal trays) ... - the Shinkansen, a Japanese fast train, never ceases to pamper its customers.
Latest find to date from the JR East (railway company north of Honshu): a wagon intended for foot baths ... A comfort that the Japanese adore, they who flock winter and summer to the thousands of spas that make up the region. country thanks to its volcanic soil.
In the most famous onsen (hot springs), such as Beppu , or Nagano , you could already rest your tired legs in ashi no yu (foot baths), in the city center or lost in the mountains.
Soon, travelers will be able to relax while enjoying the scenery thanks to the 2.4-meter -long pools, ideally placed along the train windows.
The train in question, Toreiyu (a combination of the Japanese words sun, train and hot spring) will be inaugurated in July 2014 for a journey of 150 km (about 2 hours) between Fukushima and Shinjô .
Japan Railways had already inaugurated six months ago a luxury train, the 7 Stars , a replica of the Orient Express circulating on the island of Kyushu. This new initiative by JR East aims above all to promote tourism in two prefectures which are not on the rise , Fukushima recovering from the nuclear disaster of March 2011, and Yamagata, which has long suffered from being one of the major most abandoned cities in the country.
