Tuesday 31st March
Kanazawa to Tokyo
Today we travel from Kanazawa to Tokyo. Our room has curtains and blinds, so we cannot really see out - possibly because the view is of a car park! It's not until we leave the room to go down for breakfast that I notice that it's pouring with rain. As usual I have a small 'semi-western' breakfast, but Jo goes almost full Japanese (and seems to enjoy it!),
Our Shinkansen leaves the station at 10:05. There is a shuttle bus from the hotel to the station that takes about 15-20 minutes and leaves at 9:15. I'm tempted to wait for the bus, but a nagging doubt keeps saying what would happen if it was stuck in traffic, so we opt for a taxi (about 2,000 yen) and leave the hotel about 8:30 - far too early, but we won't need to worry. (Walking would just about been an option, but certainly not in the rain.)
We rarely, if ever, go into a Starbucks, but despite the queuing and lack of space to sit, we brave it one more time, and while away 20 minutes before we decide that having got to the station early we ought to go through the gate and wait on the platform. One of the advantages of being obsessive about being on time is that one can usually get a seat on the platform - which we did.
The Shinkansen lives up to its reputation and I take the opportunity of downloading an app that measures one's speed and clock it at 170mph. (I actually saw it at 175mph but wasn't quick enough to screen-shot it.) To start with we pass through some quite mountainous terrain, with some impressive snow covered peaks in the distance. One feature of the Shinkansen is that they obviously take the shortest route which inevitably means there are quite a lot of tunnels. The other aspect is that, I suspect to protect the neighbouring area next to the line, a lot of the time the line has 'sides' so that that the view is quite restricted. It is difficult to be certain, but I think part of the route is effectively in a concrete trough and other times behind a fence of some sort.
Of course we arrive in Tokyo bang on time. Next the challenge to find the train to Shinjuku. Not easy, but by following signs to the Chou Line we arrive at what we think is the right platform. The trouble is that it's got two sides with trains going in opposite directions! In cases like these I'm told to ask someone! Not speaking Japanese doesn't help, but eventually, having speculatively got on a train, two ladies gave the the thumbs up after I showed them on Google Maps where we wanted to go. This wasn't an immediate thumbs up though and only resulted after a bit of debate between the two, and after we had actually started moving!
Navigating around Japan is a constant challenge. Our instructions were to exit Shinjuku by exit B13. We never did find exit B13, but following Google Maps, again, we found ourselves going in the right direction, confirmed in this case by sight of the hotel's upper floors looming over us. It was pouring with rain. Luckily the hotel isn't too far away.
We are staying at the Hotel Groove Shinjuku. The hotel's reception is on the 18th floor and we are very relieved to find that we can go straight to our room. It's room 2907, on the 29th floor. There is some confusion about restaurants; there is a 'posh' one on the 45th floor and a less posh one on the 17th. I initially made a move to book a table on the 45th floor, but Jo soon quashed any idea I had about that! The 17th floor would be good enough for us! So, having taken our luggage to our room we went down to the 17th floor restaurant for a snack lunch.
I was amused to see that the hotel, whilst embracing robots for floor cleaning and delivering things, thought that old fashioned technology was needed to wake up their guests!. In the event I'm left wondering whether a previous guest had forgotten their alarm clock, or was it some kind of elaborate Japanese joke? I didn't look at the clock properly and hadn't noticed that is was showing the wrong time - I was also not ready for it to 'go off' at about 4:30 that afternoon - peak nap time!
Always keen to know the lie of the land for tomorrow's train departure for the airport we return to Shinjuku station to find the gate/platform we will need. It's surprising that having orienteered oneself Japanese stations aren't quite as forbidding as they appear and we soon find where we need to be tomorrow. It's still raining...
About 7:30 pm we go to the 17th floor and try to get into the restaurant, only to be told it is fully booked. This does not please my companion - but we decide that after yesterday's experience at Kanazawa station I feel sure we can find something at Shinjuku station. The whole building above the station (maybe 5 floors) is basically a department store with cafes, bars and small restaurants. We alight on one at random and are given a table and a menu. We choose the easy option and just point at a picture on a menu - it seems to work, and the food is more than acceptable. I think Google Translate mentioned beef and beef tongue! It appears to me that with just a few exceptions most of the clients are young women. As we speculate why this might be we come to the conclusion that late night shopping in the department store followed by a meal might be a way the young Tokyo women might spend a rainy evening.
We walk back to the hotel through some streets with neon lights and bars - I guess it could be Soho. On getting back to the hotel I did a random search on how safe Shinjuku is at night. I was very amused that an American had asked the same question and received the answer: "No matter where you live in the USA, it's safer than that!" And that was my impression; provided one wasn't drawn into some shady bar it felt perfectly safe.
Our last night in Japan... It has certainly gone very quickly, just as I'm beginning to get the feel of it,