It’s also often more flexible. I’m right now sitting in a major European city Centre eating lunch because I was running a bit late to take my train and it was l

It’s also often more flexible. I’m right now sitting in a major European city Centre eating lunch because I was running a bit late to take my train and it was less stressful to just take the next one 90 minutes later. To some extent you can do that with flights in major cities, but you’d have to have the correct (not cheapest) ticket and make the decision a few hours in advance. In Japan it’s even nicer, as the next train is probably in 15 minutes.