Faster than a speeding Bullet train

Another day in another place

Konichawa

Now I know what a packing day is; it means all the drawers and cupboards in our room are opened and closed many times.

How can some-one need so many things?

They all pile up on the bed, and then they are squashed into a big grey case and all the leftovers are called bad names and they are pushed into a very old red and blue back-pack. Last of all is the Capacious Black Bag, all the very important things like the passport and money go in there.

And my special place is in the CBB - I sit near the top where I can hear everything and sometimes I get to sit outside and have a quick look about.

Mme and I wait for the faster-than-a speeding-bullet train, it will arrive any minute now and speed us to Yokohama and The Ship.

I was allowed to sit outside at Kyoto station for a minute or so while we waited for the faster than a speeding bullet train. I do not know how fast a bullet speeds at but the train speeds along at just under 300 kph. Very fast.

We had a window seat and after Mme finished the bento box I was able to sit by the window and look out at the scenery passing by in a blur.

This is the bento box, here in Japan we like everything to be specially packaged and to look beautiful.

And suddenly there it was!  Fuji-san!  And we were sitting on the left side of the train, the place for the best view. Many of the passengers were not even looking.  How could they not look at something so beautiful?  Sitting in their seats, most of them asleep.  It must be very tiring working as a business man in Japan when you have to sleep on the train in the middle of the day, speeding to Tokyo at almost 300 kmh.

Here is Fuji-san, beyond the wide river bed and the bridge with many spans. Fuji-san is very beautiful.

We left the shinkansen at Shin-Yokohama and our ticket allowed us to take another train to Kannai Station. Mme made the mistake of  getting off the train at the Yokohama station where all the ordinary, really slow trains stop and it took a long time to find the right person who could tell us where we had to go to find the right train.

We had to look for the question.  The question is like the miracle, you can't always see it.  You can't see it until you are standing in front of it.  It is a big biscuit coloured question mark, stuck onto a glass window and it means you can go into this space and ask questions about where you want to go. If you are very, very lucky and ask the right questions, you will find some-one who will give you the right answers.

It was a long, long day of train travel and I was beginning to think we would never find the ship before dark.  There was a short, very unhappy time where Mme was using words that would make a sailor blush, when she discovered she had to haul her case down a very long, steep set of stairs.  Lucky for us a helpful young Japanese schoolboy came to us and stopped all the bad language by carrying the case down the stairs.

I hope we don't have to take any more trains tomorrow.  It is very stressful for a hard-working and very loyal little dog and I worry we will be really lost and when that happens I will not feel so adventurous.

I will want to go back to the toy store and be with my friends.

Until next time.

Sayonara

Bu