木曜日, 10月 02, 2008

N700系 「のぞみ」

Well, for some time I've been meaning to do a series on the shinkansen, or 'bullet' trains, in my son's スーパーのりものシリーズ (super vehicles) book, しんかんせん. So today we start with the first and foremost, the mightly N700.

東京えき~博多駅(福岡)の間を走っています。最高速度は時速300km。お客さんを乗せて、日本で一番速いスピードで走れるのが自慢の新幹線です。カーブを曲がる時でも スピードを落とさず、少ない揺れで上手に曲がることができます。
Right then, what does this mean? Here's what I think...
The train runs between Tokyo and Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture. Its top speed is 300km/h. [Gets a bit trickier now, but something like...]Customers can take pride in riding the fastest bullet train in Japan. The train leans in to corners so it doesn't have to slow down, [and I'm paraphrasing the next bit] it corners without wobbling.
Of course, I may well (ie am) some way off with this translation, so feel free to correct me or add anything you think may be useful.

Key words :

  • 走っている (はしっている)= running - literally "running", just like with a pair of Nikes. Odd that it is the same turn of phrase in Japanese as it is in English - speakers of many European would screw up their faces if you used that, after all, trains don't have legs.
  • 最高速度 (さいこうそくど)= top speed - that phrase again "さいこう"(in romaji, "saikou"), meaning top, best, excellent.
  • 落とさず (おとさず) = is, I think, something like "without reducing", but I can't be sure since I can't find it in my books. However, the root verb 落ちる is also useful in the sense of dropping (a ball for example) or failing (a language exam for example).
About the train
This bizarre looking duck faced train is the quickest in Japan, and for some time was the fasted in the world. It is a 'nozomi' which is the fastest, least stoppingest type of shinkansen around. Inside the seats are in groups of three, either side of the wide aisle, which makes this train very much wider than a UK train.

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