Japan has launched a brand new 186mph luxury bullet train, complete with a business class carriage modelled on airliners.
A network of cutting-edge Shinkansen train lines has been built up across Japan since the 1960s, and the island nation now hopes to sell the technology abroad.
The latest ultra-fast train, called 'Hayabusa' or Falcoln, will make two trips a day between Tokyo and Aomori, a scenic rural backwater on the northern tip of the main Honshu island.
It will also make one more trip a day to Sendai, between Tokyo and Aomori.
Mutsutake Otsuka, chairman of East Japan Railway Company, said: 'To the best of our ability, we will strive to improve Hayabusa's passenger comfort, safety and environmental friendliness, not just its sped.'
The thin-nosed train's debut journey was delayed by seven minutes after a passenger fell from the platform at Tokyo station, where more than 1,000 train spotters had gathered to take pictures.
The train was not moving at the time, and the man climbed back up to the platform unaided.
From next year, the green and silver E5 series will push its top speed to 200mph to become Japan's fastest train.
