Having seen all that Tokyo could offer in three days the Blogs headed for the station for a train ride to Shizuoka.
On the way to Tokyo Station for the next leg of the big adventure Mr Blog reflected that this city was city of 37 million people was missing a few things, namely,
- Car horns - no one uses them. They sit patiently in traffic rather than shouting and getting stressed with jams they can't unblock
- Graffiti
- Litter
- Aggression/impatience
- Late trains
When it was first launched the Bullet Train didn't have the aerodynamic design to the front of the lead of the lead carriage. As a result the train would barrel through tunnels at high speed causing a rush of air out of the tunnel, that made a booming sound which scared the wildlife. A nation which prefers to not use car horns is filled with people who worry about birds and small animals being deafened.
One of those people was an engineer who had worked on the project to design the train. He was also a bird-watcher. He'd noticed how Kingfishers make almost no splash as they dive into water so he set about mimicing the design for the front of the train. No more sonic booms... happy birds.
Charming!
Buller Train
Kingfisher
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