One of Japan’s busiest bullet train lines was brought to a halt by a snake. Not some massive anaconda that can swallow John Voight in a single gulp, but rather your average run-of-the-mill snake. It somehow managed to tangle itself in a power line, and it couldn’t have happened at the worst time.

The incident struck the Tokaido Shinkansen, the high-speed line connecting Tokyo and Osaka. It happened right in the middle of Golden Week, Japan’s annual hectic travel season, where four national holidays collide and everyone decides to go everywhere at once.

With Osaka currently hosting the World Expo, millions of tourists and commuters were counting on smooth rides. Instead, they got a dose of the kinds of train delays American commuters are used to.

Japan’s Busiest Bullet Train Line Was Stopped by a Snake

Trains were shut down for over 90 minutes as rail staff worked to remove the slithery saboteur and get power flowing again. Between Gifu-Hashima and Maibara stations, the sleek bullet trains were stopped dead in their tracks.

This proves once and for all that no amount of cutting-edge tech is safe from an animal that simply does not care about your technological advancements.

Frustrated passengers express their frustrations as politely as possible. This is still Japan, after all. 26-year-old Kazutoshi Tachi stated plainly and firmly: “I want them to run on time,” he said, as if officials can account for a snake gumming up the works.

This isn’t even the first time a snake’s brought down the whole system. Back in April 2024, authorities had to delay a train for a whopping 17 minutes (well, whopping by Japanese standards of punctuality) just to boot a 16-inch snake off a ride between Nagoya and Tokyo.

It’s safe to say that Japanese trains can and will continue to run like clockwork. That is, unless a snake decides to single-handedly throw off the entire day’s schedule. But snakes have no limbs, so maybe that’s no-handedly, which is even more impressive.