Japan Adventure #3

The Shinkasen has lines on the platform for people to wait to board each car, and if you buy a reserved seat, you have a specific car and seat you are assigned to. I was in car 4. The doors don’t open until right on the button of when it says on the ticket and departure screens, and you’re given maybe 2-3 minutes to board before the doors close and you’re off. Car 3 is a non-reserved seat, and though my car is non-smoking, 3 is not, and the entire car smelled pretty strongly of smoke from the adjacent car. There are a few stops in the Tokyo metro area, and then it gets up to full speed. The display said that it tops out at 300 Km/h, and other than when it was decelerating for a stop or in a metro area, it seemed to be doing that pretty consistently. I could feel the train leaning a few degrees during turns, but the ride was very smooth. There was no real-time speed indicator, and it was dark, so I don’t have a great frame of reference. Each stop on the Shinkasen, instead of a tone to start the announcement, they actually play a jaunty little tune (2 or 3 measures) over the speakers, and then make the announcement – I’ve found this on some of the other trains as well.

Once underway, a woman came past with a food cart. They sold Bento-style boxes, plus drinks. The menu was in Japanese, and I couldn’t determine what most of the things in the pictures were, so I just chose one at random. It turned out to be some miscellaneous vegetables, smoked salmon, and I think some marinated tofu, as well as some gelatin, plus sticky rice and a few pickled veggies, and some very sour (pickled, I think) stone fruit. It was filling, but not exactly flavorful. Later I had some Pocky (Japanese chocolate covered cookie sticks).

I got to Hiroshima station, and was able to find my way down to the street cars, called Hiroden. A 10 minute ride on the street car, and a 2 minute walk to the hotel. The streetcar doesn’t announce every stop, and what stops it does announce are in Japanese – with one notable exception: The stop for all of the conference hotels for IETF had a recorded English announcement.

My room here is nice, but quite small (much smaller than the Hilton, where I had a queen-size bed). I have a bed that is somewhere in size between a twin and a double, and a small desk facing my window, which is basically an air shaft between buildings. The bathroom reminds me of a cruise ship – very compact, and it looks to be modular, as if you could replace the entire bathroom as a unit. The ceiling is lower in the bathroom, and there is a step up into the bathroom, and then the tub is slightly higher still, so while in the shower, my head is probably 2” from the ceiling. One thing of note – my toilet is one of the stereotypical “fancy” Japanese models with a heated seat as well as several *ahem* cleansing functions. Decorum dictates that I’ll just leave it at that, but if you must know more, this will tell you all about it. J

The mirrors in both of the hotel bathrooms I have been in have something (probably a small heating element) to keep a portion of them fog-free. Also, the shower pressure in both has been excellent. I have a feeling this is not exactly a “low flow” showerhead. If it is, all I have to say is, “US, UR doing it wrong!”

Everywhere I went today, from the Airport onward, lots of people wearing surgical masks. I don’t know if they do any good, but probably 30-40% (more in the airport) were wearing them, even outside. I’m not sure if H1N1 is any worse here, but they take the precaution.