But if you drive from Tokyo to Osaka, it's 6:30 (at least!) driving in a featureless tube of sound barriers and tunnels with a high probability of traffic jams(*), while the Shinkansen zips you across in under half that time in comfort and a nearly infallible schedule.

(*) Once, on my way back from Gifu to Tokyo, there was a massive jam on the Chuo Expressway because (IIRC) there had been an accident in a tunnel and all traffic both ways was taking turns going through the other tube. So I was stuck inside a kei-car so small I couldn't even sit up straight without my head hitting the ceiling, for ten hours, after an all-night rave where I hadn't slept a wink. Fun times!