I can attest to how awesome rail is. I recently took the shinkansen from Tokyo station to Sendai in Japan, and it turned an 8-hour car trip into a two hour trai

I can attest to how awesome rail is. I recently took the shinkansen from Tokyo station to Sendai in Japan, and it turned an 8-hour car trip into a two hour train ride. The seats were as large as business-class airplane seats. It would likely have taken much longer by bus because of all the stops and transfers.