^{I love, love, love Japan trains! They are clean, comfortable and range from the fast super sleek to cosy old carriages that ramble through beautiful countrysides.They enable me as a visitor to Japan to reach so many places. Mostly, they live up to their reputation of running on time. But not always. It was a shock to me the first time I found myself at a station to find my scheduled train hadn’t turned up! A planned day trip from Tokyo to Nikko was thrown into disarray. After a long delay, we did get there, but with a lot less time to explore than planned. So, as train travellers you need to be aware that delays and cancellations do happen -and you should be prepared if things go wrong.}

^{In early June 2025, all Shinkansen services between Tokyo and northeastern Japan were suspended for more than five hours after an ‘out of service’ bullet train ground to an unexpected halt between stations. As a result, 80 trains on the Tohoku, Akita, and Yamagata shinkansen lines were canceled, affecting around 54,700 passengers. In March this year, a coupler connecting two trains on the Tohoku line came apart – when they weren’t supposed to! Again,services were halted.}

^{The Tohoku’s woes continued in the last weekend of June when one of its Shinkansens hit a bear on the line! The train, travelling between Sendai and Morioka, was delayed for about 40 minutes, causing a ripple effect for other train services.}

^{I related to this as the previous month I was travelling on the Tohoku line, plus we also had a few rail disruptions on our May holiday.}

^{Arriving at Shin Aomori on the Tohoku line from Tokyo, we were to switch to a little local train into the main city station. Only it didn’t arrive! And announcements were all in Japanese. There was a lot of confused passengers on the platform. When the locals look confused, you know you might be in trouble!}

^{I realised I could use our free Google translate app by tuning into the announcements. Not 100 per cent accurate, but we understood from it that there had been some sort of incident that had disrupted the service. MJ confirmed this by going quickly going back into the station to make inquiries, although we still didn’t understand what the incident was or how long a replacement service would be.}

^{‘Incidents’ can range from an overhead wire down to someone walking in front of a train deliberately or accidentally. How do you do it accidentally? A 61 year old Chinese tourist was hit by a train in Otaru, Hokkaido earlier this year after walking onto the track to take a phone photo of the nearby ocean. Hokkaido Railway temporarily suspended train services following the incident, affecting 19 trains and approximately 8,200 passengers – many of whom would have been tourists as Otaru is a popular day trip attraction from Sapporo. I was there in May. I kept away from walking on rail tracks!}

^{The only other foreigners on the platform with us at Shin Aomori were an American couple who had flown into Tokyo earlier that day from the USA – over 30 hours on the go – and they were desperate to get to their hotel room for a shower and rest. So despairing of a train connection arriving soon, they disappeared in search of a taxi. We hung on, and not long afterwards a train arrived – not our train, but a replacement. Well, that’s what we hoped. Everyone on the platform got on board, so we did too. We figured that if it didn’t end up in Aomori city, we’d find another train to our destination. When in doubt, go with the flow. Thankfully, it was going to Aomori!}

^{Several days later we were back on the Tohoku Shinkansen headed for Hokkaido, switching to a local JR Hokuto Limited Express train at Shin Hakodate for the 3.5 hour journey to Sapporo. But we came to an unexpected halt at the first stop not far along the way, with the announcement that “this train service has been suspended indefinitely’. What! There was no explanation and the Japanese passengers around us seemed unperturbed. No one moved from their seats. We were the only foreigners in our carriage. Eventually a train conductor came into the carriage to explain – in Japanese! Once more we quickly turned on google translate! It seemed there was a major incident somewhere ahead – we couldn’t figure out what. And no one knew when or if our train would resume.}

^{I begun to formulate plan b in case the service was cancelled. We weren’t far from Hakodate, a city we had visited before, and we knew it had an abundance of hotels. If necessary, I planned to book by phone/internet if we were hoisted from our train. Having a good phone connection when you travel in Japan is essential!}

^{We continued sitting in our carriage and thankfully the air conditioning continued to operate. We took this as an indication that ‘suspended indefinitely’ did not mean ‘cancelled and get off please!’}

^{A metre from my train window on the platform was a vending machine, and I saw several people make a dash from the train to pick up supplies. I contemplated making the same dash – so close, so far – thankfully I didn’t.}

^{I had bought a nice sandwich and an Aomori apple juice at Shin Aomori station, but foolishly consumed them waiting for our train. In my defence, we had skipped breakfast and had arrived at Shin Aomori well ahead of our departure. Still on our stranded train, I saw a guy make the break from our stranded train and presumed he was also trying to get some supplies. As he left the train, an announcement came over the loudspeaker – “This train will resume service soon”. Soon meant almost immediately – and the guy did not make it back on board!}

^{And this is one of the reasons I’m telling you this story. If you are taking a long train journey in Japan ensure you have food and drink with you. Some trains still have trolley services – the Tohoku Shinkansen does for some sections, but not for all of its route. The service, with its delicious train ice creams, is sadly becoming a thing of the past.}

^{Last year we experienced a major delay at Okayama when torrential rain, caused by the lingering effects of a typhoon, saw train services to and from the station at a standstill. No one was going anywhere. We had a day trip planned, and it all fell apart.}

^{On another occasion, we arrived for a three day stay in a tiny rural town, intending to use it as a base for visiting nearby places. No one told us before our arrival that train services were suspended that week for most daylight hours, due to track work! Plan B ended up being a little local bus – and it all turned out well.}

^{So: if you are travelling some distance by train in Japan – don’t expect all will go smoothly. It most probably will. Train journeys have mainly been plain sailing for us during our seven visits to Japan. But stay cool and calm if it doesn’t. Go with the flow and work on a plan B! A translator app is essential – it can make such a difference! And learn to use it effectively.}

^{I’d also advise to set off early so that you have plenty of time to sort any disruptions to your journey. Ensure you have drinks and some food, nibbles, etc with you. And a good book! I keep two or three loaded onto my Ipad throughout my holiday journeys.}

^{The other challenge you might face travelling in Japan is getting on the wrong train! Been there, done that. Survived LOL! I have a story coming up later this month on what happened when we did just that in May!}