Shinkansen Hayabusa, the story of a name

The Japanese trains bear beautiful names, always carefully selected to convey a particular meaning. The JR East high-speed service between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori, operated by E5 Series sets, is called Hayabusa (the Japanese name for the peregrine falcon) and it was named via public contest in 2010.

The name was previously used for other train services, and a funny fact is that the old Hayabusa train was going... in the exact opposite direction, to Kagoshima.

The reason for the selection of this particular name was that the peregrine falcon reaches a maximum speed of 320 km/h, a speed that coincides with the maximum speed of this Shinkansen line, for now the highest commercial speed in Japan.