Finally I can put a ✔ beside one of the points of my japanese bucket-list. Finally I was able to ride with a Shinkansen (those long-nose high-speed trains) Being in Japan for many years, why not riding one earlier, you might ask. The thing is.. tickets are pretty expensive.
Our trip was typical japanese as well – 3 days/2 nights – Riding Shinkansen in the morning to Nagoya→ visit people→ stay overnight at his uncles house→ visit other friends the next day and then ride another Shinkansen to Osaka→ arriving at midnight→ staying at a hotel near the station→ go visit the city and some friends and then instead of wasting money for another hotel→ ride the night-bus back home for Tokyo.
[Shinkansen ride gives you a nice view on Mt. Fuji as well.]
There’s the saying ‘learning by doing‘ and I did learn a lot.
- Having lived in Argentina for some years, where land is huge, airplane tickets expensive, train-network scarce and thus buses quite comfy (you easily can ride 12h without sore back or leg pain.) Well, I thought Japan – the land of service – might provide the same service, but we ended up in a regular bus where seats were designed for small tiny Asian people. My husband and I being 180+ couldn’t even put our legs under the seat in front of us for a stretch, as those were way to low and narrow. HORROR BUS RIDE 9 HOURS arriving DEAD in Tokyo. [positive: cheaper than train or car]
- Osaka (and also Nagoya) is way more my style than I ever could have imagined. The people seem ‘real‘ – less FAKE than they behave in Tokyo. Talking to them actually made me feel a real person is standing in front of me and not one sort of ‘silent souzu‘¹. Sad thing, I can’t eat wheat stuff so the food Osaka is famous for [Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki and Udon] was out of range for me, but according to my husband – delicious.
Some tips for those who have not been on the road.
• Riding Shinkansen will be made easier for you in future; because of Olympics (and many foreign visitors) coming up in 2020, they try to implement the IC-card system also for this type of transportation [up to now you have to buy separate tickets for those trains at designated machines – not really difficult but always able to improve]
• There are really nice spots to visit in Nagoya and Osaka. Your Tokyo IC card will work for their train/bus system as well. Prices are slightly lower. Having not as much time as expected plus weather messing with us, we went to do speed-sightseeing….
Nagoya castle, some nice town buildings & gardens, shopping area in Osaka plus two more exciting things which I will write about in a separate post ⇒ [Illumination in Nagashima]
HomelessParasite 