Well, here I am at Japan airport, and making my way to the Japan Rail office to exchange my pre-paid internet voucher for my coverted Japan Rail (JR) card.
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| Narita airport with my BA plane through the window |
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The JR office at the station - Note the inevitable Coca Cola adverts!
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| Precisely 1 minute to get on board - no crossing the yellow line before-hand! |
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| Is it a dolphin, a space-ship or a bullet? |
Caught the Shinkansen 'bullet' train, changing at Tokyo to Kyoto, and what an efficient operation it was. Passengers have to queue at a precise spot on the platform, and the train with the carriage your reserved seat is on lines up right in front of you. On time, immaculately clean and the height of efficiency. Hate to say it, but we still have a lot to learn in Britain about the design and operation of our railways. The train was more like a rocket with its aerodynamic shape and clean, bright, hygienic interior, and within 3.5 hours I was at my destination, having seen a fleeting glimpse of Mount Fuji from the window, which thankfully a British businessman pointed out to me in the nick of time!
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| Mount Fuji emerging mysteriously from the clouds |
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Woodblock print of Mount Fuji by Hokusai
Hotel Granvia was a beautiful, sophisticated home for my four-day stay, chosen because it is in the heart of the ultra-modern Kyoto station (more of that in another post) and therefore less chance of getting disorientated on my arrival. My bathroom had an intriguing piece of Japanese technology - a lavatory that actually had a personal cleansing feature built in, which to the unsupecting user could either thrill or shock, depending on your attitude to personal hygiene...or fun! I think my shrieks and giggles were probably heard 11 floors down in the lobby! Maybe I'll price one of these up on the Internet for my bathroom back home...
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The bedroom was tastefully furnished with nice touches of hospitality like Japanese green tea to sip out of dainty, handle-less porcelain teacups, complimentary rice crackers, slippers and an oriental sleeping robe. Some very high tech AV equipment also quickly made this a comfortable home from home, with Internet access allowing me to Skype home to my family- no need for homesickness these days!
I enjoyed a wonderful buffet dinner that night, and tried everything Japanese I could lay my hands on.
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| Presentation of food in Japan is clearly an artform in itself |
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| Sushi (すし, 寿司, 鮨, 鮓, 寿斗, 寿し, 壽司) |
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| Getting attacked by a crab |
Retiring to bed on that first night, I felt full of excitement about what the new day would bring, with the first of my guided tours around three of the major historic sites planned, bbbbut with a VVVERY early start!
The food looks great hope you had an enjoyable day at the historic sites and have had better weather than us. The loo in your room looks interesting and I could do with one like that myself.
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ReplyDeleteHey Julia. I have just read your blog about your Japanese travels and I noticed something that caught my eye so here is my research about it…
I am going to research the bullet train as its shear velocity and speed just intrigues me so I am going to make my worksheet on the Shinkensan train
The Shinkansen , also known as the "Bullet Train", is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. The network started in 1964, and has grown to 2,387.7 km (1,483.6 mi) of lines today, with maximum speeds of 240–320 km/h (149–199 mph).
Shinkansen means ‘new trunk line’, referring to the tracks, but the name is widely used inside and outside Japan to refer to the trains as well as the system as a whole.
The Shinkansen is the world's busiest high-speed rail line. Carrying 151 million passengers per year it has transported more passengers (over 5 billion, entire network over 10 billion) than any other high speed line in the world. Between Tokyo and Osaka, up to thirteen trains per hour (with sixteen cars each having a 1,323 seats capacity) run in each direction. There are only three minutes between each train.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this post it made me want to visit Japan. I’ve always loved the way the Japanese live, the food, the country, the culture and everything Japan has to offer in general. Plus I’ve always wanted to go on a bullet train; they look amazing and the time it gets to get to your destination is a lot better than the train transport system over here. As you said Britain does have a lot to learn from Japan. While reading the last part of the blog I saw the pictures of the Japanese cuisine and thought about my unit one work which I created on Japanese lunch boxes. I have always liked Japanese food and thought it would be a great idea to choose for my Fine Art. I think that the presentation of the Japanese cuisine was one of the things that made me pick the Japanese lunchbox to focus on. I also really loved the colours and how they make their food look bright and colourful. Japanese food is very precise in its layout and very evenly spread out onto the plate making the meal look well thought out. Hopefully, sometime in the future, I’ll get to visit Japan and experience the greatness of Japan myself. I think that if I did visit Japan I would like to visit Kyoko and Tokyo the most.