Riding the Rocket!!!

I have read about the Japanese Bullet train for years and never thought I would get to travel on it, but Monday was the day!!!

We were travelling from Hiroshima to Kyoto and I was so excited! First of all, the train stations in Japan are awesome and the Hiroshima station was just such a location. 10 to 12 million people travel by rail in Japan daily and this becomes very obvious, when in the station!!!

There was a separate area for the Shinkansen, which is what the Bullet Train is known as in Japan.

We had our tickets, with our allocated seats and instructions to stand on a specifically marked spot, opposite which the door nearest to our seat would open. We had 60 seconds to board!!!! All on board, once the train moved on, we were able to move around and I moved to a window seat to watch the world go by. Hiroshima is quite an industrial city, but once we moved out into the countryside, one could see the rice paddy fields where the harvest has just finished.

Japanese rice is also known as sticky rice and is what’s used for sushi and sasumi. Because the rice bean is small, it absorbs water, plumping it out thereby making it sticky!!! I am becoming quite an expert on such useless information!!!

The journey to Kyoto, a distance of about 300 kilometers took one hour and twenty five minutes, with three stops and we reached a top speed of 300 km per hour!!! On arrival in Kyoto, it was a case of lining up at the exit door in advance of arrival, so we cud get off promptly, in another 60 seconds!!!! Phew!!!

I was looking forward to visiting Kyoto, particularly as it’s known as the cultural capital of Japan. However, it was raining heavily on arrival with a pretty bleak forecast for our time there. We visited two Temples, before we checked into our hotel, by which time, I was Templed Out!!! The Temples were interesting, but the pressure of visitors in this area was immense.

The Arts and Crafts throughout Kyoto are incredible. The creativity and artistic design seen throughout the City is breathtaking.

The pots featured here, that are as small as a tiny cup of matcha tea, were priced at over €6,000 each!!!There was no price available for the frame that was beautifully carved.

There were pieces of show of Satsuma ware from the Edo period, also displayed,  magnificent and not for sale.

Many pieces of this type of porcelain, now seen in Japan, have been repatriated from overseas, as part of Japanese heritage. The pieces are so intricate,  beautiful, fine and delicate like the Japanese themselves.

A week into the trip, as I predicted, some cracks are beginning to show!! Ah Maeve, we have a block buster or a Netflix series!!! The Aussies have ganged together and are loud and always late, the Brits are polite and complain incessantly and everyone keeps dropping names of countries and places they have been, much to the chagrin of those less travelled!!! And of course the Irish, Swiss and Scotish are petfect travellers! It is funny to observe the dynamics. The Guide is wonderful and a Saint!!!

Early on there was a discussion that there was no need to tip him at the end of the trip as all the Guide books say No Tipping!! I was horrified at the thought of no tip, for someone who was babysitting 18 adults for 17 days, so Jean went straight in, and discreetly asked him directly. As I thought, a tip is expected. So with the help of a retired Cop (another passenger, not a local!!!) I let this information be known to one and all.

Well,  guess what, mutiny has broken out and it’s all my fault for asking him!!! Now, one assumes that everyone on this trip, which is not cheap, has reasonable disposable income…… but eventually Andy ( the cop) came back and said he would collect the equivalent of £5 per person ( total) on the last day!!!!! I kid you not!!! When I suggested that £5 per person, per day,  would be more appropriate, he nearly collapsed!!! So, I hv learnt my lesson, from now, I am staying stum and doing my own thing!! As tbe saying goes ” Theres’ none so odd as folk”!!!!