The Hello Kitty Shinkansen

In march 2018, JR West announced that they will introduce a special shinkansen : the Hello Kitty shinkansen!

Since late June 2018, a shinkansen, a 500 serie, is indeed running from Shin-Osaka to Hakata Station (Fukuoka) as a Kodama.

Departure from Hakata: 6:42 (Kodama 730)
Hiroshima : 8:13
Okayama : 9:57
Himeji : 10:39
Shin-Osaka: 11:13

Departure from Shin-Osaka: 11:29 (Kodama 741)
Himeji : 12:02
Okayama : 12:38
Hiroshima : 13:55
Hakata : 15:38

Good news : as a Kodama train, it is covered by the Japan Rail Pass ! 

As the the Harry Potter shinkansen and the Evangelion shinkansen in 2015, a 8 cars shinkansen is wrapped with the famous Character from Sanrio Co.

In the car 1, no seats but the sales of local specialities and a display set up to promote the appeal of various regions in western Japan.
In the car 2, the Kawaï room, a very special pink interior will surprise you !

Cars 3,7,8 are non reserved seats car.

Cars 4,5,6 are reserved seats car.

Learn more about the shinkansen history and the the shinkansen 500

Here are the detailed itineraries from Shin-Osaka to Hakata : 

- How to go from Kyoto and Shin Osaka to Okayama ? 

- How to go trom Okayama to Hiroshima ? 

- How to go from Hiroshima to Fukuoka ?