1st generation bullet train will be retired

Hakone: By this time, we will be in Hakone to view Mt. Fuji-san (the Japanese do not call it Fujiyama), which, thanks to Japan’s fine but cold weather is the best time to view Japan’s most famous snow draped volcano. Then as my sister Adela suggested, we would be doing a day trip to the City of Hiroshima, the historic place where the first Atomic bomb was dropped towards the end of World War II. I will write about this visit next week.

For the trip to Hiroshima, we would be taking the Shinkansen a.k.a. the Bullet Train. Three days from now, the original model of the O Series Bullet Train, inaugurated in 1964 at the Tokaido-Shinkansen line connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka would be retired. This original bullet nosed train (hence the name) operated 10 times a day between Shin-Osaka and Hakata in Fukuoka on the Sanyo-Shinkansen Line. Hundreds of rail enthusiasts went to the platform to take photos of this historic train. This old bullet train originally runs at the high speed of 200 kilometers per hour. Today’s newer versions of the Shinkansen Trains are hitting speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. What’s remarkable about the Shinkansen Bullet trains is that, since its introduction 44 years ago, there has never been a single death attributed to a train accident or mishap, except a murder incident inside the train a long time ago.

Bullet trains are always exactly on time. In a one-year period, the combined delays of all the bullet trains in Japan railways was only 12 seconds! They are a major contribution to the Japanese economy and a source of pride by the Japanese. I gathered that by next year, bullet trains would have Wi-Fi connection!

I know what you guys are thinking… that perhaps the Japanese government might just “donate” their old trains to the Philippines! But then, what makes the bullet trains extremely fast is not just the huge engine, but also a well-designed railway track that can handle high-speed trains. If you put a Shinkansen train in our battered railways, I doubt if it can even hit a hundred kilometers per hour! So stop dreaming. If you want to ride in the world’s best railway systems, then you have to visit Japan, even if coming here is an expensive proposition!

For as long as we Filipinos cannot look forward to a better future and immerse ourselves in useless politics, with their scams and scandals, we can never hope to see a bullet train in the far future. Gads, we cannot even get rid of the jeepney as our principal means of mass transit! So if you ask why Japan is eons ahead of the Philippines, it is due to the fact that they don’t give a damn about their politicians and work hard with their entrepreneurial spirit, something that we Cebuanos have, but have to develop further.

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There are two English language news channels in my hotel in Tokyo: CNN and BBC. Last Sunday evening, BBC came up with a documentary about pneumonia in the Philippines, where it was reported that 3 million children contract pneumonia and 9,000 of them die of pneumonia. While the documentary was about a health issue, that story was much about our poverty that causes grave health risks. Pneumonia after all is caused by the spread of bacteria or a virus. I’m sure that many people in Japan who watches English language programs must have seen that embarrassing docu.

But then, what really embarrasses the Filipino people these days? When we hear of endless scams, corruption in the government from all the major branches, including the Judiciary. So who really cares if 9,000 children die of pneumonia, an illness that is easily curable by antibiotics? For that docu, the principal cause of the pneumonia in that particular squatter colony in Manila is due to burning of garbage and charcoal making. But how do you prevent children from contracting pneumonia in such squalid conditions?

Perhaps this question should be rephrased to, “How do we get our country or our people from the vicious cycle of poverty?” Well that is a tough question to answer, but there is no doubt that the solution to what’s bugging our nation is within our hands and therefore within our reach! With most of the world having a global recession, I don’t expect the Philippines to be moving faster on our economy. However, because many of our people don’t have jobs, the recession in other countries really have no impact on their daily life.

The Japanese government started a war with the United States during World War II because of their fear for losing oil. Now that the Japanese have found prosperity in peacetime, I’m sure they would move heaven and earth to save their great economy!