When I was traveling from Tokyo to Sendai to visit my parents' house, I ended up traveling in the luxurious Shinkansen carriage called Tohoku Shinkansen GranClass. It happened like this...
Actually...I'd forgotten to make a reservation for the Shinkansen, and when I realized it, it was too late! All seats were fully booked, including Green Car seats, and I had no choice but to buy tickets for GranClass, the only seats still available at the time. When we travel at the end of the year to go home we usually carry a lot of big baggage with us, and so traveling while standing in a non-reserved carriage that is filled to 200% capacity is just too unpleasant to even think about.
Therefore, I ended up buying the GranClass tickets. But GranClass?! What in the world is that!? I'd never heard of it before. Intrigued, while paying the high fare reluctantly I checked it out. The Shinkansen is operated by each regional JR company, and there are lines such as the Kyushu Shinkansen, Sanyo, Tokaido, Tohoku, Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen, which run throughout Japan. This GranClass carriage was a newly-introduced high-class carriage for the Tohoku Shinkansen Line only. The highest-grade carriage on other Shinkansen Lines is the well-known Green Car.
For someone who was born in West Japan, Shinkansen to me means the 'Hikari', 'Kodama' and 'Nozomi' cars that run from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line. I strongly believed that IT was the KING of all Shinkansen Lines. However, when I moved from the center of Japan to more isolated areas, I slowly came to realize that the Tokaido Shinkansen is not particularly superior to all Shinkansen Lines in Japan. For instance, the newly opened Kyushu Shinkansen looks fabulous (as does another Kyushu train, the Cruise Train 'Seven Stars'), and I clearly remember being flabbergasted at seeing the flashy, double-decker Shinkansen on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line for the first time in my life. And this time, the GranClass was completely new to me. Of course I was all eyes and ears!
In the late afternoon on December 29, Tokyo Station was crowded with people going home, but the platform in front of the GranClass carriage was not so crowded. I later found out that this was because it only has 15 seats in the carriage. Full of expectation, I waited for a few minutes for the cleaning to be finished, and finally the door of the carriage opened. The corridor was done up in wood. Inside the carriage cream colored leather-covered modern seats jumped into view. They look like the leather seats of a sporty BMW. I couldn't tell if it was genuine or fake. According to the JR GranClass Homepage, 'part of the seats' leather is artificial'. A part of! What does that mean?!
The carriage, as I mentioned before, has only 15 seats. There was 1 seat x 5 rows on one side, and on the other side 2 seats x 5 rows. For your information, there's only one GranClass carriage per train. And seat number '4' is excluded. In Japanese, '4' has the same sound as 'death',and so is believed to bring bad luck. What a typical kind Japanese consideration for customers!
At first glance, the seats look like business class seats on an airplane. They are auto-reclining seats, which resemble auto car seats. The overhead rack has a cover like ones in an airplane. And like in an airplane business class, stylish slippers in a lovely colored pouch are provided for each passenger, so that you can take off your shoes inside the carriage and relax. Please see my photo essay for more information about the inside of the carriage.
Next: All drinks are free including alcohol in this GranClass carriage! (Note: Free drinks/food/attendant service are not available for some routes/times, so please check before making reservations). Adding to that, snacks/food are also served for free! Snacks consist of dried Japanese biscuits and sponge cake, you can have one each, and the food is either a Japanese Bento Box or Sandwiches, your can choose from these two. As for drinks, if you order beer, Ebisu Beer, the highest grade beer in Japan, will be served. There is also Red & White wine, which tasted great. And you can have them to your heart's content.....what more do you need?! To top it all off, truly lovely attendants dedicated to GranClass carriage in stylish uniforms will look after you all the way. During my trip, two attendants took care of 15 passengers. The quality of their service was better than what's provided by flight attendants on a JAL flight. Considering JAL attendants' high international reputation, I can safely say that you'll be able to receive the best service in the world if you take the GranClass!
I, who love drinking very much, drank a lot in pure glee. I believed that I had the right to get happily drunk after a long, strenuous day of traveling through jam packed Tokyo. Unfortunately though, I couldn't drink and eat to my heart's content this time because my mother was waiting for me with delicious dishes she cooked for me at home.
Once upon a time there were dining cars in the Shinkansen when the traveling time was still longer than it is now. Passengers at the time enjoyed the slow travel and dining. However, that idyllic time didn't last long. Due to the reduced travel time achieved by the progress of Shinkansen technology, and also because many began traveling by air, the elegant dining cars were discontinued. The advancement of technology has forced Japanese to become busy travelers, always keeping their eye on the clock.
Lastly, the price of GranClass: It varies depending on when and where to you travel. To give you one example, if you travel from Tokyo to Sendai by 'Hayabusa', a one way ticket including everything (train fee + express fee + seat reservation) would cost: *Regular reserved seat=11,090 yen, *Green Car seat=14,380 yen, and *GranClass=19,380 yen. A one way ticket for the GranClass can be nearly the same as a round trip ticket for a regular reserved seat! You'd be crazy (or rich) to not at least hesitate to ride GranClass; regular Shinkansen seats are comfortable enough. However, if you consider the fact that food and drinks are free, and that if you traveled first class in an airplane, you'd have to pay more than 1,000,000 yen, but the GranClass costs only 40,000 yen, round trip, and you can feel like a king or queen (though just for a few hours)!
At the end of year, wherever you go will be crowded with millions of people. If you travel only once a year, you may want to travel in style, don't you think? Those who agree with me, I can tell you, GranClass is just what you need!
