TOKYO > HAKODATE

The northern region of Japan’s main island remains a natural paradise, a landscape of great lakes, steep rocky cliffs, and volcanic mountains covered with snow in wintertime. Tohoku, far from the bright lights of the capital city, has become a desirable destination for eco-tourism. It was, therefore, quite a challenge to build a high-speed line to pass through this extremely uneven landscape, then to cross the Tsugaru Strait to reach the island of Hokkaido. Running on this Tokyo-Hakodate line are the Shinkansen trains, setting the standard for design, comfort, and performance. Thanks to the advent of high-speed rail, the southern and the northern regions have grown much closer to each other.

• Leaving Tokyo
• History
• Tokyo-Hakodate, the journey
• The Seikan Tunnel
• In anticipation of earthquakes

• Station shopping and services
• The Shinkansen
• Arriving at Hakodate
• Punctuality, a way of life

Leaving Tokyo

Tokyo Station is very much a city within a city, a space for culture, shopping, leisure, and a business centre. The station is centrally located in the Marunouchi district. A few steps west lie the Imperial Palace and its famous surrounding gardens, covered with cherry blossoms in the spring. To the south is the chic quarter of Ginza. The red brick rail station stands in remarkable contrast to the city’s skyscrapers. Erected in 1914, the station was entirely renovated in 2012, to reinforce resistance to seismic activity and to develop the shopping concourse. Activity is mostly concentrated below street level, where travellers and window-shoppers stroll through a vast labyrinth of underground passages, one of which is over four kilometres long.

Here is a gallery dedicated to pop culture enthusiasts, there a food court full of restaurants and fast food shops. On ground level, there is an art gallery and many shops, while the south sector boasts a luxury hotel, the Tokyo Station Hotel. There are smoking cabins on the platforms as well as lunch boxes for sale to passengers. Though this gigantic station receives hundreds of thousands of travellers every day, it is only the third-largest station in the city in terms of passengers, after Tokyo Shinjuku and Tokyo Ikebukuro.

History

After the success of the first Tokyo-Osaka line, Japanese authorities were encouraged to pursue major infrastructure works in order to extend the high-speed network to reach all regions. Projects were developed from the south to the north, in successive section increments, despite the natural obstacles encountered along the line. In 1982, the Tohoku Shinkansen was placed into service between Omiya (north of Tokyo) and Morioka, then extended in 1991 toward Tokyo. In 2010, the line reached Aomori, in the north of the archipelago. Finally, in 2016, the Hokkaido Shinkansen line connected to the island of its name, thanks to the Seikan Tunnel. Constructed in 1988, this tunnel was for a long time the longest in the world, surpassed only by the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. The Seikan is equipped with a double gauge track to receive high-speed trains. From then on, passengers have been able to travel from Tokyo to Hakodate in less than four hours. Hokkaido Island residents look forward to when the Shinkansen will reach the charming city of Sapporo, the country’s premier winter sports destination. Patience is a virtue, to be rewarded in 2030.

Tokyo-Hakodate, the journey

Once past the sprawling city of Tokyo, the train runs through green countryside, cultivated in part with terraced paddies where a high-quality rice is grown. The Shinkansen passes close to Nikko and its fabulous array of richly-coloured temples, inspired by Chinese architecture. The line then enters the wild and harsh region of Tohoku, isolated behind tall mountain ranges and sweeping forests. Thanks to efforts undertaken by authorities, this region - devastated both by the tsunami and the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima - has now been almost entirely rebuilt. Off the coast of Sendai, Matsushima Bay offers one of the beautiful panoramic views of the archipelago and its two hundred pine-covered islands. A stop at Morioka, in the shadow of 2000-metre-elevation Mount Iwate.

The train continues on, not far from the high mountains of Hakkoda, which boast the finest powder skiing in Japan. The north is the region of Kokeshi, the round-headed traditional dolls hand-carved from cherry or maple wood. The port town of Aomori faces the Mutsu Bay and the strait that separates the northernmost point of Honshu from Hokkaido. The train then travels underground only to reappear at Hakodate, the current terminal station for the Shinkansen.

The Seikan Tunnel

Approximately 675 kilometres long, the Tohoku Shinkansen is the most extensive line in the country. One hundred and fifty tunnels mark the course of the rail line. In 2011, major renovation works were required in the wake of an earthquake that rocked the Tohoku region, but as testimony to legendary Japanese efficiency, the line was restored in only 49 days! The most important engineering work, extending the Tohoku Shinkansen to Hokkaido Island, is the Seikan Tunnel. The tunnel is 53.8 kilometres long, 23 kilometres of which are under the waters of the Tsugaru Strait. It is in fact the deepest rail tunnel in the world: the sole circulation gallery was excavated at a depth of 240 metres below sea level and 100 metres below the ocean floor. The construction of this tunnel was precipitated by a pivotal event. In 1954, the Strait was the site of a terrible maritime catastrophe: the sinking of a ferry during a typhoon, which cost the lives of a thousand passengers. In 1971, drilling began from both sides, and the junction of the two segments took place in 1983. The tunnel was inaugurated five years later. A total of seventeen years, then, were required to complete the works, as most of the gallery was dug from volcanic rock that required the use of explosives. Double gauge track was laid to make way for the Shinkansen. Two passenger stations were built inside the tunnel, underground. Travellers can discover the history of the tunnel in an exhibition on display.

Two different networks

Unlike most of its European counterparts, the Japanese high-speed network is not connected the classic rail network, due in part to the different rail gauges.