Shinkansen
The Shinkansen (Jap.: 新幹線, "Bullet Train") is an underground ice-highway network on the island of Japan. It currently is one of the largest and best developed highway system on the server by conecting around 30 towns and spanning over 5000 blocks in total lenght.
History
In early 2019 Jaxosm, a Japanese player came up with the idea of an ice-road-network to connect major towns in Japan. He and FenZenyatta made a plan in February 2019 and soon started digging the first tunnels. Their lines mostly were 2 blocks wide, used normal ice and redstone torches. Many of the original tunnels still exist today and were renovated. In August of 2019 many of the tunnels were in bad shape or completely griefed. Taima_, mayor of Owari, came up with a design for the tunnels and soon started renovating them. His design was adopted by many players and mayors who renovated the lines under their town during 2019.
Design
Today nearly all of the tunnels are 3 blocks wide and use blue ice. All lines are build on the same Y-level 45 and use Taima_'s design. An unknown player from a town in Hokkaido renovated the whole northern Part of the network in the fall of 2019 with an own Design using bricks and redstone lamps.
Japan Railways
Japan Railways (JR) is a company found by Yllalen and Taima_ in late 2020. Their goal is to reapair and upgrade existing tunnels as well as building new lines.