The ride into Tokyo takes an hour on the N'ex (Narita Airport Express). That fact, combined with the sexy streamlined N'ex engine you see on the right, confused me as I knew high speed rail should be able to travel the distance between even a far flung airport and its base city in a fraction of the time. The answer was quite straightforward, mere streamlining does not high speed rail make. The actual Shinkansen require far straighter track and have streamlined nose cones that are reminiscent of airplanes.
The countryside witnessed on the journey into Tokyo is not rural but does include rice paddies. As in China and Egypt there is no arable land to spare, in large part because of the widespread hills and mountains. As I understand it, the difference is that Japanese production is artisanal rather than subsistence. Japan is a net importer of rice but has particular standards when it comes to that staple and other crops.
When we arrived at Tokyo station, Moti took a moment to exploit the JR station provided free wifi and get a map for our hotel. That said, don’t necessarily rely on that trick, in part due to use of a range of bands, some of our phones often did not see or could not use any given wifi service. We did already have an address, but under the Japanese system, addresses refer to neighborhood and block numbers rather than position on the street. The numbers are sequential within the neighborhood, but there are no numerical avenues or grid-style positioning reference points. Thus, if you don’t have mobile internet access, it is best to have the closest transit stop with a map image handy for any locations not listed in a guidebook.
Fortunately, our hotel, the Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia-ga, was labeled on the station map. The Italia-ga part of the name refers an Italian theme in the district as a whole, also reflected in the Italian restaurant in the hotel. That said, we favored cheaper fare for the night and went to one of the local convenience stores, a FamilyMart. The name convenience store does accurately describe the longer hours and range of products, but notably these stores offer a range of fresh pastries and food choices more in keeping with the prepared food section of a high-end grocery store than any counterpart in the U.S. What’s remarkable is that the prices are in line with conveniences stores in the U.S., the breakfast and snack items on the right were under ten dollars and will easily feed two. FamilyMart was Moti’s favorite variant, and indeed this one had a nice seating section and had a melon pastry (in the center top of the photo) that was a favorite of Kate throughout the trip.
We made an early night of it, to better handle the jet lag. The next morning, we would rise early to head over to Tsukiji, Tokyo’s famous fish market and the associated vegetable market. After that it was on to Hiroshima for the first leg of our trip.
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