If you’ve ever hopped on the Japanese shinkansen (bullet train), you’d know that it’s a pretty sweet ride with speeds of up to 320 km/hr. But come June 30th, your rides are about to get even sweeter when the Hello Kitty-themed shinkansen debuts!
That’s right! The first photos of the highly anticipated shinkansen connecting Osaka and Fukuoka are now out and let us just say that kawaii doesn’t even do it enough justice.
Decked out in pink with Hello Kitty plastered all over complete with its trademark bows and ribbons, the 500-series shinkansen will even have a photobooth named the Kawaii! Room for all your selfies and wefies.
Brought to you by JR West, the train carriage will feature seats with Hello Kitty armrests, headrests, windows and floors. Needless to say, the Hello Kitty theme song will play every time the train approaches a station!
In another car in the first carriage of the train called Hello! Plaza, there will be no passenger seats and instead, it will be used as an exhibition space to promote various parts of Japan and the regional specialties of those areas available for sale.
From June 30 until September, Hello! Plaza will highlight the prefectures of Shimane and Tottori in the San’in region whereas from October onwards, the Yamaguchi prefecture will be spotlighted.
As of now, the train will run on most days from June 30 to September 29. The rail operator JR West has yet to unveil the dates of operation from October. Here’s the full operations calendar and official website just in case you’re interested!
