Afterthoughts and leftovers

Here is a picture of another car parking method. The steel ramps raise up like a hoist to park another car underneath.











Although the weather was forecast to be cloudy and rainy and we were traveling at around 300 kmph, I did manage a picture of Mt. Fuji.











We finally got around to riding up front in a train in Tokyo. Here is the driver. Note the pilot’s wings on his right forearm. What’s with that?













This is the control panel for a pretty simple high tech toilet. Celeste assures me that hers had twice as many buttons!












Th..., th..., th..., that's all folks!

Regina (for Mar. 28)

Today is a day to resettle. We are not really feeling any jet lag. I guess the pattern of our sleep just set us up to fit into the new cycle. Celeste was stuffy overnight and didn’t sleep well.

Today’s duties: unpack, sort mail (a half day’s job – just ask Tom), get haircuts, renew my driver’s license, and wrap up this blog.

Regina (for Mar. 27)

We were all up and had our acts together in time to head out for breakfast at 10, then checked out at 11 and went to the station to catch the express train to the airport. We found the schedule and learned that this train doesn’t run as frequently as the others and the next one wasn’t until 12:30. Oh well, what is the difference whether we kill time in the train station or the airport? Then we noticed the sign that said this train was all reserved seating – which makes sense when you consider that people are traveling with luggage. You can’t just cram them on like you would the other trains. So, while Celeste and Tyler guarded our pile of luggage, Carla and I set out to reserve our seats. After a long search and a much longer wait in line, the girl told us that she couldn’t help us and sent us to another office. Fortunately, everything went smoothly there and we were back in business. We spent about half an hour visiting and saying our goodbyes with Carla and Tyler, then set out for the airport.

Carla and Tyler were planning to spend the day checking out electronics stores and returning home late this evening. We sure enjoyed spending this time with them and very much appreciate the use of their bed while they slept on a futon on the floor. We would have been lost without their guiding and language skills. It was a great visit!

The train to the airport was 1.5 hours. We went through the embarkation paperwork and settled down waiting for our airline counter to open. Celeste did crosswords while I culled, organized, and backed up pictures, which had not been done since Australia. We checked in at 4, went through security, had a snack, checked out some shops, and before we knew it, it was time to board. We were airborne at 7:15 with an estimated time en route of 8+45. This was a far cry from the 11 hours in our flight itinerary, but the pilot said they were expecting a good tailwind and I guess they allow extra time on those itineraries for when circumstances are not as favourable.

We both watched movies and they fed us at 9 PM. Once the meal was cleaned up, I went to sleep for almost 3 hours. Celeste watched another movie and slept for about 2 hours. They started bustling around the cabin, turning on lights, and getting ready to feed us again, so there was no point trying to sleep any more and we each watched another movie. They fed us again at 2:30 AM Tokyo time or 9:30 AM Los Angeles time. We landed at 11 AM. It took at least 1.5 hours to get through customs, border security, baggage claim and transfer, walk to the terminal next door, go through security again, and settle in the new departure lounge. Celeste did crosswords and read the LA newspaper someone had left behind while I blogged the last couple of days and sorted things out for our customs declaration, which brings us to now, just before 4 PM in LA, 20.5 hours since our train left the station in Tokyo and 26 hours since I woke up this morning. We leave about 5:30 for Calgary and Regina, home at 12:30 AM Regina time. That’s 6.5 hours to go.

By the way, there are quite a few Canadians passing through here on their way home from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. They are wearing various games clothing and Australian souvenir items.

Home at last at 1 AM. We both got a couple of hours of restless sleep on the LA to Calgary flight. You can’t get comfortable enough in those seats for real sleep, but you nod off for a few minutes, wake up, shift your position, and get a few minutes more before repeating the whole process.

Tyler had a cold the whole time we were in Japan and Carla was just coming down with one when we arrived. Celeste felt one starting to come on the last couple of days, but it really began to take hold the night we were in Tokyo. She has been stuffy all day with a sore throat too.

Tokyo (for Mar. 26)

Boy, that was a short night! I woke up at 4:15 and couldn’t go back to sleep because I was afraid of sleeping through our 5 AM alarm. Everyone else was up in good time and we caught the 6:10 local train to connect with the 6:45 bullet train to Tokyo. We all managed to catch a few winks on the train, but we were still a pretty tired crew when we arrived in Tokyo at 9:45. After a train transfer and a bit of a walk, we arrived at our hotel at 11. Check-in wasn’t until 3, so we left our luggage there and went out to explore.




Carla wanted to take in a few cultural icons all grouped near the same station. First we took in a big shrine located in a huge park unlike any other we had seen in Japan. It had a gravel path as wide as 4 or 5 car lanes through a pretty natural looking forest, complete with underbrush. I am sure these forests exist in the country, but this is the first time we had seen such thick forest and undergrowth in our travels. This shrine is obviously a big tourist attraction, as we saw more white people around there than we have since we arrived in Japan 9 days ago. And they are all taking pictures. It is kind of like a "Banff in reverse" bizzarro world. It is popular for the Japanese too, as we saw two wedding parties being photographed and at least two babies dressed up like we would dress them for a christening.

We went to lunch from there, followed by a treat from a street vendor shop. They roll practically anything yummy you can think of into a crepe and serve it ice cream cone style. Mmmmm!















Next stop was a shopping street known for its outrageous clothing. It was pretty crowded on a Saturday afternoon and the clothing was pretty outrageous.

From there we headed back toward the park where Tyler had seen a bunch of concession stands set up at another entrance. This part of the park was almost as crowded as a shopping mall. The cherry trees had started to blossom and this is a real big deal over here. Many people head to the park to have a picnic. Although the
forecast had been for rain, the cloud had thinned out to a reasonably sunny afternoon, the temperature was about 14 degrees, and people were taking advantage of it. We took a long, long walk through the park, soaking up the atmosphere before returning to our hotel for check-in and a nap at 4:30.

Another cultural phenomenon that we observed all afternoon was the practice of young Japanese girls dressing as outlandishly as possible, congregating at the entrance to the park, and posing for strangers to take their pictures. There were several girls when we first went by before noon, but each time we went by later in the day, there were more than the time before. There may have been a hundred of them at the peak, vastly outnumbered by the gawkers and photographers taking in the spectacle. (That would be us.) They get many of their fashions at the nearby shopping street, but many of them are largely homemade. The idea is to be as unique and outrageous as possible.





We all shook the cobwebs out from our naps about 7 PM and headed out to explore Shinjuku, a district of skyscrapers, entertainment, and neon near Tokyo’s busiest station. Tyler says it handles 2 million people a day! Train stations in Japan are much more than train stations. They are transportation hubs through which pass many thousands of people each day. As such they are prime commercial space for department stores (some of them owned by the railways) and every other kind of shop. Often several different railways and subways connect in the same or adjacent stations, focusing more people into the target area. Airports are very similar. Changi Airport in Singapore is like a shopping mall that someone decided to build an airport around.

As we returned to the station after our evening of exploration, we noticed many homeless men setting up their accommodation for the night. They each have their own area staked out and their building materials stored nearby. A few pieces of cardboard and some plastic and they are ready for the night. One guy even had a window of clear plastic in his cardboard abode. We have noticed several other little shanty towns in our travels through the Osaka Castle park, this afternoon’s park, and along the river banks in Osaka. They are usually quite visible because they make extensive use of those blue plastic tarps. They seem to be quite well tolerated here.

We got back to the hotel and all collapsed into bed sometime before midnight.

Amagasaki 9 (for Mar. 25)

Today was a really quiet day. Carla and Tyler both worked this morning, so we slept in for a while longer after they left. After showering and eating, Celeste continued reading her book and I blogged some extras and caught up on the bank account and credit card.

After lunch we went out exploring the neighbourhood again. It was a beautiful day – sunny and 14 degrees. We checked out the newer area on the other side of the station, and then came back to this side again. We found lots more bicycle parking, underground and tucked underneath the car overpass. It was too dark for pictures, but here is an above ground one. There must be parking for a couple of thousand or more bikes around here.

We toured the nearby electronics store that is a bit like Future shop. Cameras, TVs, stereos (but not prerecorded CDs or DVDs), fridges, stoves, small appliances, pet food – Yup, you read that right, pet food. I don’t quite get the connection either. It was the only non-electronic thing in the store.

We watched a little construction project for a while that illustrated something we have observed fairly frequently. Two guys were pouring a cement curb around a new building. One was wheeling cement back and forth from a small cement truck and the other was doing the cement work. But there was a third player in this drama/comedy. He was the public safety guy. Since the wheelbarrow had to cross a public sidewalk, he had to make sure the public was kept safe. As the wheelbarrow guy was filling up, the safety guy would stand behind him to make sure no one accidentally bumped into him. When the barrow was full, safety guy would step out onto the sidewalk and try to halt traffic for the 10 foot trip. At the other end, he would stand guard for the few seconds it took to dump the cement and then escort the wheelbarrow back to the truck. I am not sure how many trips we watched, but I think the only person less productive in that time than us was the safety guy. He took it all quite seriously in his construction helmet (the workmen wore bandanas), reflective vest, and red baton. But pretty much everyone else ignored him. We have seen this at many construction sites where they are all barricaded off, but there is some guy there directing pedestrians so they don’t run into the barricade. It must be part of a full employment program.

Well rested from watching the safety guy, we set out to explore some more. We found that the train station also emptied out onto a busy street that passed over the station via an overpass. It had convenient bus stops and car drop offs for people making train connections. And, as previously described, bike parking was built into the space below. We continued on exploring, then picked up some groceries and returned to the apartment where Tyler was already waiting. We chilled for a while until Carla got home, chilled a little more, and then set out to meet up with some of their friends.

After our train ride, we toured an entertainment and shopping district before heading to the meeting place. Tonight’s venue was a restaurant where there is a little propane barbeque embedded in each table. There were nine of us at two adjoining tables. You order plates of thinly sliced meat with an occasional vegetable thrown in for colour and some sauces, and cook it all on your grill. It was great fun, especially with several beers thrown in. Suddenly, Carla announced that time had slipped away on us and we had to run to catch the last subway. We made it with about 2 minutes to spare and connected to the last train to their stop with about 5 minutes to spare. Whew! We made it home and to bed by about 1 AM.