On one of the days we were in Tokyo in late March we made a day trip to Nikko. We purchased Shinkansen tickets from Tokyo station to Utsunomiya to cut the travel time but also we hoped to ride one of the newer trains that are now running on the Tohoku Shinkansen line.
We were not disappointed and got to ride two Shinkansens that we had not ridden before. The E5's running in 10 car formations are common on the Tohoku Shinkansen line as seen on the board shown here.
On the trip back to Tokyo we rode on this E3 which is not exactly new but we had never ridden on one before. They also appear to have a new paint job from ones I've seen before.
I noticed that the E3 had these little steps that fold out when the train came into the station. The E3 is a bit narrower than the other Shinkansens we had ridden with the seating arrangement being 3 + 2 as opposed the normal 3 + 3.
I later learned that both the E3 and E6 Shinkansens are narrower so the trains can fit through narrower clearance areas on both the Akita and Yamagata Shinkansen lines.
As I often do, I got a photo of the train guide that is in between cars. As seen in the guide, this was a 7 car formation.
So it looks like now I"ll have two more Shinkansen models I will want to add to my collection.
