This is the continuation of my diary from my RTW trip from November 2003.I am officially now faster than a speeding bullet!
After a horrific 2 hour local bus journey from Fuji to the nearest main railway line to Kyoto, I headed West on the Shinkansen BULLET train. I’m not sure what had the greater effect on my sense of nausea – the bus drivers’ shocking clutch control allied to the 48 stops we made or my hangover from the gin I had been drinking. Perhaps it was a combination!
On the bullet, the train sped out of Mishima station, heading for Kyoto hitting a top cruising speed of 300kmph. As it did so, I walked from my seat in the direction of travel, ergo a land speed of 304kmph and I am faster than a speeding bullet! Yes, I’m afraid it had to be done!
Although given my hangover, walking in a straight line while holding in the tuna sushi I’d had for breakfast was actually quite a challenge.
I know I'm moving at speed on the Shinkansen, and I know that I am moving from one town to another. The train went from Mishima, through Nagoya and eventually it arrived in Kyoto. Apart from the signs on the platform though it is striking that there is nothing else to distinguish Japanese cities apart. I mean this in two ways.
Firstly there is little imagination in the architecture here. Buildings are generally low rise – fair enough with the earthquakes – and identical. Either two up two down semi-detached with a Japanese touch to the roof slates, or a corrugated boxy warehouse for businesses. High rise buildings are similar in their 70s grey non-entity. The urban areas of Japan are largely soulless grey replicas of one another. Suburbia without a centre. For the residents, an endless sentence punctuated by 7-11s.
After a horrific 2 hour local bus journey from Fuji to the nearest main railway line to Kyoto, I headed West on the Shinkansen BULLET train. I’m not sure what had the greater effect on my sense of nausea – the bus drivers’ shocking clutch control allied to the 48 stops we made or my hangover from the gin I had been drinking. Perhaps it was a combination!
On the bullet, the train sped out of Mishima station, heading for Kyoto hitting a top cruising speed of 300kmph. As it did so, I walked from my seat in the direction of travel, ergo a land speed of 304kmph and I am faster than a speeding bullet! Yes, I’m afraid it had to be done!
Although given my hangover, walking in a straight line while holding in the tuna sushi I’d had for breakfast was actually quite a challenge.
I know I'm moving at speed on the Shinkansen, and I know that I am moving from one town to another. The train went from Mishima, through Nagoya and eventually it arrived in Kyoto. Apart from the signs on the platform though it is striking that there is nothing else to distinguish Japanese cities apart. I mean this in two ways.
Firstly there is little imagination in the architecture here. Buildings are generally low rise – fair enough with the earthquakes – and identical. Either two up two down semi-detached with a Japanese touch to the roof slates, or a corrugated boxy warehouse for businesses. High rise buildings are similar in their 70s grey non-entity. The urban areas of Japan are largely soulless grey replicas of one another. Suburbia without a centre. For the residents, an endless sentence punctuated by 7-11s.
The second difficulty in working out where you are without landmarks is the fact that after 2 hours on the train I still haven’t seen any rural countryside. There are no breaks in the urban sprawl at all… all the cities have merged into one huge lump. This is a thought confirmed by talking to other travellers here. No-one has seen a field! The urban scenery hasn’t been broken on other journeys since leaving Kyoto. Travelling from Kyoto to Osaka to Kobe to Hiroshima… Japan is one enormous urban conurbation. Where is all the agriculture?
Comments
Post a Comment