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On track to innocent merriment Series: FOOTLOOSE IN JAPAN

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From: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: 19870712
Author:Judith Randal; William Hines

Third in a series TOKYO The Water Rat, in Kenneth Grahame's children's classic The Wind in the Willows, observed that "there is nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." There are those who feel the same way about trains, and for buffs of this stripe, Japan is the promised land.

Of course, you have heard about the "Bullet Train" - Shinkansen, as it is called here - but you have to ride it to appreciate it. The true pioneer of the world's ultra-high speed railroads, it is rounding out 23 years of service this fall.

Outpaced now by France's copycat TGV, ...

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