Maibara (408.2km / 255.1 miles)
Maibara is the only other station apart from Toyohashi that is built on the ground level. Like Toyohashi it has a five-track layout, with an extra platform on the up side which is normally used only when there is disruption.
The station enjoys the same service as Gifu-Hashima, one Kodama and one Hikari train in each direction every hour. All other services pass through on the centre roads. A quick search on YouTube will be rewarded by lots of images of trains passing through here in the winter snow.
Back in early 1964 the Maibara to Shin-Osaka section was opened a few months before the rest of the line. Japan National Railways then ran test trains over the section for members of the public.
In and around Maibara Station
I walk over the footbridge towards the south exit enjoying views of the conventional station as I go. Maibara first opened as a stop on the Tokaido Line in 1889 and it is still an important junction today. From here the Hokuriku Line branches off towards Kanazawa around 170km to the north east. The Ohmi railway also has a terminal here.
Maibara is also the boundary point between JR Tokai and JR West. The latter company operates all services west of here (apart from the Tokaido Shinkansen) including the large Osaka suburban network.
Yet, compared with a lot of the other interchange stations I have been to today, Maibara seems quite modest. The eastern side is the more modern of the two exits, but the station building is relatively small. Nevertheless, It does have a rather imposing graphic on one of its windows to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Shinkansen.
On the western side of the station there is no building at all, just an escalator up to the footbridge. But there is “Tette” which is a kind of business space / shared working area. The attractive adverts for it feature the various animals , including deer and bears, which inhabit the area around Maibara City.
Train #9 – Maibara to Kyoto
My next train comes in, Kodama 723 is the 15:16 departure for Shin-Osaka. As we leave Maibara, once again we are keeping the Tokaido Line by our side. We will now travel along the wide shoreline of Lake Biwa, although we are very much inland and the lake itself will never be much in view.
It is on this section that many of the Shinkansen speed records are set. The test centre is based at Maibara and night time runs of new and experimental rolling stock have often been conducted here. An N700S train reached 363 km/h (226 mph) during tests in 2019.
I have fond memories of this bit of line too from the days when I used to travel up from Yamaguchi to Tokyo. Having boarded back at Ogori at around 10am, I would often be having lunch in the dining car by the time the train was passing this point.
The scenery between Gifu-Hashima and Kyoto provides quite a long respite from the tunnels and built-up areas of the rest of the trip. Here views of the mountains on the left side are complemented by vistas towards the lake on the right hand side.
Our trip along the Biwa lakeside almost done, and having passed the 450km from Tokyo mark, we cross the Yasugawa Bridge (748m) and curve around to the right now heading directly towards Kyoto. One of the original plans for the route in the 1950s had the line bypassing central Kyoto and serving the city with a new station in its southern suburbs.
We plunge into Otohayama Tunnel (5,008m), the third longest, and enter Kyoto Prefecture itself. We come briefly out into the open air, now on the outskirts of the old capital, and then with the arrival announcements already in progress, into Higashiyama (2,094m) which is the very last tunnel on the line.
Our journey time of 18 minutes for the last 68.1km compares with 27 back in 1965. The Tokaido Line appears on our right, although the ancient city itself hides behind the modern hotels and office buildings. We are into Kyoto at 15:34.
Trains To Beyond 