Friday
Train Observations:
- THEY ARE HUGE. The Tokyo subway trains all had 11 carriages. The Shinkansen seem to have around 20.
- The average delay for trains in Japan is 30 seconds.
- Subway trains seem to run every 2 minutes.
- On the main lines, all station signs are also in English and tell you what stop is next. So navigating isn't as difficult as it could be.
- Each city has characters for their Oyster-style cards. Tokyo had a penguin and a robot, Nagoya had a chick and a lemon.
It was tough leaving Tokyo, and literally tough to work our way through rush hour. It had been a frantic week of no sleep and a lot of walking, so a change of pace was needed. Luckily, that was just what we had planned.
We took a Shinkansen to Shizuoka, and a local train on to Kanaya. You really start to notice how lucky you are in the bigger cities to be surrounded by tranlations, subtitles and people who understand you. We had a slightly awkward exchange at the ticket office, but luckily they really don't seem to mind if you just point at things.
We then got on a huge old steam train. It was full of families on package tours, tucking into bento boxed lunches which looked and smelt amazing. The train guard had metal teeth and played old folk songs on his harmonica. The train took us up a valley surrounded by Sakura (cherry blossom), tea fields and bamboo trees. It was quite the combination.
We came to a stop at Senzu, and got on a tiny little train to go further up the valley, clinging to the cliff as we climbed higher. We passed three massive hydroelectric damns, and a painted sign that could be roughly translated as "if you hear an alarm go off at the dam, run for your life!" Igawa was our last stop, and we had little choice but to do the whole journey back again. I'll never forget the train guard's energy, bounding up and down the track as to check we hadn't lost a carriage on the way.
After re-tracing our steps back to Shizuoka, we went on to our next destination: Nagoya. We arrived around 9pm and it was still unbelievably busy. There only seems to be a couple of hours when it isn't rush hour. Our hotel was only a couple of stops away on the subway, and we were greeted with more station jingles to get in our heads.
Saturday
The first day of really bad weather, and even then we missed the worst of it. After another tasty pastry breakfast from the 7 Eleven, we set off for Kinjo-Futo and the SCMaglev & Railway Park. We were met with a massive queue, when it finally clicked what day it was. I had completely lost all concept of time, as thinking about it just cost valuable sleep.
The museum had only been open a year and was a fine experience. The Shinkansen past and present were lined up along with various other vehicles, plus all sorts of facts and buttons. And children. Lots and lots of children. Staring at me, mostly.
At all these sorts of places we've been so far, we've pretty much been the only foreigners there. It does feel quite weird to see another Westerner. It's almost annoying. "What are YOU doing here??" Still, we had another local experience by having our first Bento Box for lunch. For around £8 you get a huge meal. Ours was 8 rice balls, 2 meat things, 1 large fish thing and various vegetables. Rather nice it was too.
After that we went across town to Sako and the Toyota museum. And I actually learnt something. I had no idea that the family behind Toyota started out in the cotton business, and invented the first automatic loom. The More You Know. We also saw our second robot. This time "Harry" serenaded us on his trumpet (seriously) and we got to hear Aux Champs Elysées, the theme from My Neighbour Totoro (still in my head) and When You Wish Upon A Star. All very good, but he was no Asimo. You know you're cynical when you witness a robot playing a brass instrument, and all you can say is "meh".
The viewing platform on Nagoya's tallest building was not only going to charge us rather a lot, it also didn't have a roof. It wasn't really the weather for it, so we just went up and down in the big glass elevator and got giddy. That evening we got lost in search of dinner, and came across a tasty little noodle joint. I continued my home habit of accidentally ordering the hottest thing on the menu. I was left with a tasty beefy dish that was burning my face off. Again.
Sunday
We now only had 2 nights in each city, so we said goodbye to Nagoya and set off for Kyoto. My first impressions were of a fairly faded city that had a bit of a "we used to be the capital but now we're not" feel to it. That soon changed.
Outside of the nationalised JR lines, Japan has a lot of independent railways, and seemingly nowhere more than Kyoto. We had to get across town using three separate companies, none of which were integrated in the slightest. Eventually we found our destination on a charming/rustic/just plain old half train half tram hybrid, which seemed to stop at stations tacked on to back gardens, or just dropped people in the middle of the street.
We came across a park that was having a Sakura party. There were large pergolas to rent and families were gathering. There was a carnival atmosphere, the laughter and music from the gatherings mixing with the sounds and smells of the various food stalls that had sprung up. Alas only a few trees were in bloom. We've still only come across the odd one or two trees flowering. My hope is that we find a whole bunch of them in full bloom before we go.
Walking around the city centre, I've seen more fellow Westerners here than I have in any other city in Japan so far. And with each one I see, I feel less like an explorer and more like Any Other Tourist. I can sometimes see it in their eyes too.
Highlight of the day was making our way around a large park full of temples of every size and shape, Buddist mixed with Shinto, past combined present. I fulfilled a wish by having my photo taken with a massive cuddly Totoro. Happy boy!
Japan Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Train Observations:
- THEY ARE HUGE. The Tokyo subway trains all had 11 carriages. The Shinkansen seem to have around 20.
- The average delay for trains in Japan is 30 seconds.
- Subway trains seem to run every 2 minutes.
- On the main lines, all station signs are also in English and tell you what stop is next. So navigating isn't as difficult as it could be.
- Each city has characters for their Oyster-style cards. Tokyo had a penguin and a robot, Nagoya had a chick and a lemon.
It was tough leaving Tokyo, and literally tough to work our way through rush hour. It had been a frantic week of no sleep and a lot of walking, so a change of pace was needed. Luckily, that was just what we had planned.
We took a Shinkansen to Shizuoka, and a local train on to Kanaya. You really start to notice how lucky you are in the bigger cities to be surrounded by tranlations, subtitles and people who understand you. We had a slightly awkward exchange at the ticket office, but luckily they really don't seem to mind if you just point at things.
We then got on a huge old steam train. It was full of families on package tours, tucking into bento boxed lunches which looked and smelt amazing. The train guard had metal teeth and played old folk songs on his harmonica. The train took us up a valley surrounded by Sakura (cherry blossom), tea fields and bamboo trees. It was quite the combination.
We came to a stop at Senzu, and got on a tiny little train to go further up the valley, clinging to the cliff as we climbed higher. We passed three massive hydroelectric damns, and a painted sign that could be roughly translated as "if you hear an alarm go off at the dam, run for your life!" Igawa was our last stop, and we had little choice but to do the whole journey back again. I'll never forget the train guard's energy, bounding up and down the track as to check we hadn't lost a carriage on the way.
After re-tracing our steps back to Shizuoka, we went on to our next destination: Nagoya. We arrived around 9pm and it was still unbelievably busy. There only seems to be a couple of hours when it isn't rush hour. Our hotel was only a couple of stops away on the subway, and we were greeted with more station jingles to get in our heads.
Saturday
The first day of really bad weather, and even then we missed the worst of it. After another tasty pastry breakfast from the 7 Eleven, we set off for Kinjo-Futo and the SCMaglev & Railway Park. We were met with a massive queue, when it finally clicked what day it was. I had completely lost all concept of time, as thinking about it just cost valuable sleep.
The museum had only been open a year and was a fine experience. The Shinkansen past and present were lined up along with various other vehicles, plus all sorts of facts and buttons. And children. Lots and lots of children. Staring at me, mostly.
At all these sorts of places we've been so far, we've pretty much been the only foreigners there. It does feel quite weird to see another Westerner. It's almost annoying. "What are YOU doing here??" Still, we had another local experience by having our first Bento Box for lunch. For around £8 you get a huge meal. Ours was 8 rice balls, 2 meat things, 1 large fish thing and various vegetables. Rather nice it was too.
After that we went across town to Sako and the Toyota museum. And I actually learnt something. I had no idea that the family behind Toyota started out in the cotton business, and invented the first automatic loom. The More You Know. We also saw our second robot. This time "Harry" serenaded us on his trumpet (seriously) and we got to hear Aux Champs Elysées, the theme from My Neighbour Totoro (still in my head) and When You Wish Upon A Star. All very good, but he was no Asimo. You know you're cynical when you witness a robot playing a brass instrument, and all you can say is "meh".
The viewing platform on Nagoya's tallest building was not only going to charge us rather a lot, it also didn't have a roof. It wasn't really the weather for it, so we just went up and down in the big glass elevator and got giddy. That evening we got lost in search of dinner, and came across a tasty little noodle joint. I continued my home habit of accidentally ordering the hottest thing on the menu. I was left with a tasty beefy dish that was burning my face off. Again.
Sunday
We now only had 2 nights in each city, so we said goodbye to Nagoya and set off for Kyoto. My first impressions were of a fairly faded city that had a bit of a "we used to be the capital but now we're not" feel to it. That soon changed.
Outside of the nationalised JR lines, Japan has a lot of independent railways, and seemingly nowhere more than Kyoto. We had to get across town using three separate companies, none of which were integrated in the slightest. Eventually we found our destination on a charming/rustic/just plain old half train half tram hybrid, which seemed to stop at stations tacked on to back gardens, or just dropped people in the middle of the street.
We came across a park that was having a Sakura party. There were large pergolas to rent and families were gathering. There was a carnival atmosphere, the laughter and music from the gatherings mixing with the sounds and smells of the various food stalls that had sprung up. Alas only a few trees were in bloom. We've still only come across the odd one or two trees flowering. My hope is that we find a whole bunch of them in full bloom before we go.
Walking around the city centre, I've seen more fellow Westerners here than I have in any other city in Japan so far. And with each one I see, I feel less like an explorer and more like Any Other Tourist. I can sometimes see it in their eyes too.
Highlight of the day was making our way around a large park full of temples of every size and shape, Buddist mixed with Shinto, past combined present. I fulfilled a wish by having my photo taken with a massive cuddly Totoro. Happy boy!
Japan Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
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