Vehicle Quiz
Shinkansen (Bullet Train)
With lots of people on board, you race down a set track, right on schedule.
The Shinkansen is Japan's high-speed railway, which began running between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka in 1964. It runs on its own dedicated tracks at more than 200 km/h (about 125 mph), carrying large numbers of people a long way in one go. Today its lines stretch from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south.
The Shinkansen is also known for how rarely it runs late. When a train turns around at the end of the line, the cars are cleaned in a short time and the seats are turned to face the direction of travel, ready for the next departure. That's how you handle plans that involve lots of people: you push them through in one go, exactly as arranged.
The Shinkansen is at its best where track has been laid. You move fast along a set route, but when there's no route yet, it can take you a while to get going. Lay down just one stretch of track first, then move, and your usual speed comes back.
Strengths
- You can pull together lots of people's plans and keep everything running on time
- Once the steps are set, you can get through it all in one go without hesitating
- You can quickly get things ready for the switch to whatever comes next
Where you may stumble
- When someone invites you on an unplanned detour, you feel unsettled
- You take on the arrangements for a whole crowd at once and lose your time to yourself
- With a request that has no set steps, you can't decide where to start
Sounds familiar, Shinkansen (Bullet Train)?
- Before you head out, you've already decided what time you'll come home
- You can tell the time pretty accurately without looking at a clock
- You're the first to make a schedule for everyone and pass it around
Where you shine
Arranging an event where lots of people move together, or days full of things that must be done by a set time. Because you speed along the route you've set, everything tends to run on time.
Tips for “Shinkansen (Bullet Train)”
- Put one 30-minute block with nothing planned into your schedule
- With a request that has no set steps, decide only the first one and get moving
- When you're put in charge of arrangements for a crowd, hand some of it to others
Matches
See every match in the Vehicle Quiz compatibility chart →
Streetcar — In quite a few Japanese cities, you can step off the Shinkansen and onto a streetcar. The Shinkansen carries crowds far in one go and the Streetcar makes frequent stops around town, so each of you takes over where the other leaves off.
Airplane — The Airplane also carries lots of people far in one go. The Shinkansen runs on rails and the Airplane through the sky, and which one fits best depends on how far you're going. You share the same job, and you can divide it up instead of fighting over it.
Canoe — The Shinkansen works backward from its departure time, while the Canoe looks at the water that day and then decides when to push off. Your ways of planning are different at the root, so when you go somewhere together, it's hard to agree even on when to leave.
Close neighbors
These differ from this one on just 1 of the 3 axes. If one of your axes was near the middle, you may have their side too.
Which one are you? 18 everyday situations, about 3 minutes.
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