nestled vehicles

there's a faster way to travel on a high-speed train

walking through the aisle of the car in the direction of travel to take the trash out to the bins at the end of each corridor.

320 km/h + 5 km/h

walking back feels like you are not moving at all, and for a moment Mt. Fuji stops turning on its axis.

yesterday morning I arrived in Tokyo to meet with my sisters family, with whom I will spend a week in Kobe. We are going to spend a weekend in the capital before heading back west where I have just come from, having spent a night at a youth hostel in Kobe to link connectiong between Yakushima and Tokyo.

When I lived and studied in London, I remember it taking 45 minutes to get anywhere by bike, and about an hour or so to get anywhere by public transport.

If you went far, you would take a train for an hour.

If you went moderately far, you would take a constellation of tubes for an hour, along with walking and accomodating delays.

if you went nearby, and your bike had a flat tire, you would take a bus or two for a total of an hour.

If it was any of the usual destinations – the Southbank Centre, the Barbican, Café Oto, school – I would leave at the last minute and arrive at the last minute before the performance, joining a convoy of commuting cyclists at twilight, perspiring like a small animal. I could make the trip from college to Barbican in half an hour on best days. I still know the way.

Yesterday we meandered our way through Meguro district with my brother-in-law and nephew to a local vintage road bike specialist neat Yutenji Station.

We stopped for udon on the way, befriended a korean-chinese coder, walked along the Meguro river Sakura display, and had a few small stops on the way.

My brother-in-law was like a kid in a candy store, and the bike-shop keeper gave us their brand of cycling hats to take away. I've had mine on ever since, since it's too hot for my skatta beanie here.

Joined by my sister, we went for dinner at a simple and delicious yakitori joint. My nephew gobbled on potato wedges mostly to get his fix of ketchup.

We changed trains at Shibuya, and made use of the opportunity to cross the famous scramble junction. We had a drink at the Norwegian beer bar.

I realised my youth hostel was closing in half-an-hour, so I rushed to the JR-station to get down to Omori district.

Having lost track of time, I called and apologised and they agreed to stay open for another half-an-hour to let me in.

Shinagawa is the terminal for the KK-mainline. Another train company, for which my rail pass wasnt valid. This fact was well signposted, but there were no machines to sell tickets, so I went to a till to get a cute, small ticket to Heiwajima station.

On the floor leading up to the platform there were several coloured slots for queues.

The green ones seemed to go non-stop to Yokohama. The blue ones to the nearby Haneda airport. There was a thin patch marked 'local' the queue of which I joined. I checked with the person standing behind me whether this was the queue for Heiwajima, and they confirmed.

Turns out I could've taken the airport line, as it had fewer stops before Heiwajima. I was going to have to run.

Omori district is an incredible maze of small, narrow alleyways and very friendly people with access to google maps.

I found the hostel. It had a trabant parked in front of it.

No hurry is too much hurry in Tokyo to stop by a konbini to get a can of asahi zero.

Seven hours later, my new single came out.