所有信息来自于 JTB 时刻表复刻版，并非 CC-BY 协议！若有版权纠纷，立即撤下！
All information from "JTB TIMETABLE REPRINT VERSION", not under CC-BY! I would take down immediately if there is major copyright concern!
1972 年 3 月 15 日，山阳新干线 新大阪——冈山 间开业，东京至冈山最快仅需 4 小时 10 分钟。 山阳至九州、四国、山阴地区的联络以冈山为中心，形成了优等列车网。 原书对特急的粗体强调旨在提高出行者使用特急的意识，进而淡化特急高高在上的印象，为后来开设的 L 特急打下基础。 同时，即使有青函与宇高联络船的不便，以及飞速发展的航空运输的竞争，国铁的长距离在来线列车仍然处于全盛期。 然而，早在 20 世纪 70 年代，日本乡村的过疏化已经很明显了：很多地方交通线一天的班次可以用手指数过来。
朝风中迎曙光，初雁并肩夕鹤；北斗映于浅间，明星闪耀银河。让我们开始那个昭和味十足的年代之旅。
On 15 March 1972, The Shin-Osaka to Okayama part of Sanyo Shinkansen started operation, and it cost only 4 hours and 10 minutes by the fastest Shinkansen from Tokyo to Okayama. Centred at Okayama, a web of express trains was formed between Sanyo area and Kyushu, Shikoku, San-in areas. The original book stressed on Limited Express trains by using bold fonts to raise the awareness of travellers for using limited express trains, destressing these trains from "top luxury" stereotypes, to prepare for the operation of "L-Tokkyu" (lower-cost limited express) several years later. At the same time, despite inconvenience of Seikan and Uko ships (there were no railway or road links from Honshu to Hokkaido and from Honshu to Shikoku at that time) and fierce competition from rapidly developing air transport, long-distance ordinary trains were still during their best era. However, as early as the 1970s, the depopulation issue in rural Japan had already been a major concern, with some local railway lines only a handful of daily departures.
Let us go back to that period, to experience the good old days.