The story of Kumiko is so unbearable that seems to be a joke, but I don’t think that because The Times and The Guardian are so important and truthfully papers. Also the fact that two different papers published the same story makes me think that is true. Perhaps Kumiko thought that she was travelling in a bullet train, as the ones they have in Japan that are the fastest trains all over the world. So, if the travel takes about three hours time it’s quite possible for you to cross the sea and Europe in a bullet train. I don’t know if the train she was seemed to be one of those modern ones but I don’t think so. What is sure is the fact she was sleeping deeply, otherwise she cloud realise she couldn’t see the train crossing the sea.
In my life never happened anything like that. Once, while me and my parents were in the subway, my father misunderstood the voice calling for the next station and went down. Me and my mother stood seated and couldn’t avoid him to stay there while the doors close and the train goes away leaving him alone. It takes some time and some train changes to find him.