After my routine morning photo editing session, I began packing for Tokyo - jamming the essentials into my pack sack. Then Mrs. Shimoda entered, inviting us to their kitchen for breakfast. We washed up, put our slippers on and went over for some fried eggs, ham, toast and coffee.
She was going to drive us to the station which was some distance away. We ensured all our tickets were in order - marking them with numbers and asterisks since we couldn't read anything but numbers on the tickets - and hopped into Mrs. Shimoda's miniature, sixty-horsepower Suzuki RW Wagon.
The ride to the station, as always on the narrow Japanese rural roads, was fun - just staring out the window wondering, if their two-lane traffic is as wide as a single lane in Canada, why haven't we seen an accident in Japan yet? Surely by now in Canada, especially with five millimeters of snow on the ground, there would be emergency lights and sirens, people who have careened their minivan into a ditch, groups of 4 cars all sandwiched together, standing outside and examining the damage, wondering what powers of the universe caused such chaos.
But not in Japan. As cars seem to pass within a few inches of each other it makes one think - if we didn't have so much space, maybe we would be more inclined to pay attention to what's going on around us. You wouldn't be able to weave in your lane if it was only an inch wider than your car. Weaving at that point would send you into another lane where you would surely get honked at, or in Toronto, shot at. Nevertheless, we got to the Gifu-Hashima station with time to spare, picked up some food and beverages for the trip, and waited for our train.
Standing on the platform while the bullet trains pass is quite the exciting experience. I took a video of a train flying by, but somehow it just doesn't have the same effect. First of all, since the trains were made in a country that chooses to lead the way instead of following the leader - and by following I mean the way that a very fat person tries to follow an olympic triathlete - the trains are electric, and don't have a coal burning furnace from the days of the Model-T Ford. Because of this, and their aerodynamic shape which itself bends space and time, you don't hear them coming until they're ten metres away - too late to jump out of the way had you reconsidered your suicidal wishes, and much faster than anything in Canada.
With more reliable service, better selection of food, and much more room inside, it is quite a nice ride. And the amount of room is surprising since the average Japanese person is about half my size, yet somehow they feel it is worth having more cars with fewer seats in the interest of comfort, instead of jamming as many cattle as they can into their 18th century cars. Though I do believe that GO have put some new carpeting in their cars recently so maybe we're making some efforts there.
The Shinkansen line of bullet trains have various types that are each progressively faster than the other, beginning with the Hikari, Kodame and the fastest we were aware of which took us to Tokyo: the Nozomi. There is apparently another, faster train of which I'm unaware of the name.
We get to the busy city, and grab a cab outside Tokyo station after enjoying some ramen (noodles and soup) in the underground array of eateries. On our trip to the hotel it's obvious this is a busy place, with high end stores like Burberry, Tiffany's, Prada, and Giorgio Armani flooding the streets in the upscale Ginza district. The popular Matsuya Ginza department store takes up an entire city block, elegantly designed as a bright white Louis Vuitton suitcase complete with gold latch and edge accents, and porting the distinctive L-V pattern in multi-colours. Across the street lies the Tokyo Apple Store, Chanel and various other expensive retail stores.
In search for dinner, we cruised some small side streets for a while until coming to a great sushi restaurant my parents ate at last time - Tsukiji Sushiko. After much sake, sushi and watching some wealthy looking Japanese business men eat with their significantly younger ummm... secretaries, we eventually headed back home to sleep in the interest of a very early morning wake-up. The mission: a trip to Tsukiji Fish Market to literally get a taste of what fresh seafood really is.
