Shin-Yokohama: 3:20pm
Wow, I'm on my way. So far I've just taken the local lines from Hino to Shin-Yokohama, and am now awaiting the Shinkansen *bullet train*. Sometimes a Shinkansen train goes by without stopping (the super, super express) and WOW! This thing is FAST! Actually, it scares me - it actually makes me dizzy when going by. Cool, I can't wait. Of course, I'm here about 30 minutes early because I gave myself *plenty* of time to get lost... strangely enough I didn't. Well, nothing ever goes as planned in Alexa-world, and that's not a complaint!
On the Shinkansen: 3:41pm
I am now ON the Shinkansen - oh - here we go... speeding up... well gawdang this is cool. Definitely fast.. and very smooth. I like it. Oh, and I lucked out and got a window seat!
Still on the Shinkansen: 4:15pm
Did I say fast? I meant super-duper-wow-my-ears-are-clogged fast. Zoom! I don't think I've ever been on something this fast before... well, other than airplanes and the spaceship I left my homeplanet on. Anyways, we're going through (key word is "through") lots of mountains, hence many tunnels, but in between we're going through large cities, small towns, super green rice fields and lush forests. It's all very beautiful.
And this train goes directly to Nagoya! 1 hour 40 mins non-stop! I think that's impressive. To top it off, this isn't even the fastest Shinkansen... 2nd fastest. The fastest one doesn't stop in Shin-Yokohama, so this is the fastest one I could take so I'm a happy (and zoomin') camper.
Nagoya-jo: 6:50pm
Well right now I am looking at Nagoya-jo (Nagoya Castle) and it's pretty cool. After spending a good 20 minutes wandering the subway station, I found my way out (also finding a map on my way) and started to walk. I grabbed some dinner at the SunPlus (1 loaf of bread and an anpan) and tried to find my way over to Nagoya-jo for sundown. Well, I found it, no prob, and they're holding a huge festival there tonight! But it would cost me $10, so I passed. Instead I've just walked around the perimeter of the moat (quite far) and found some good photo ops! But now it's starting to drizzle. Ack!
Nagoya Youth Hostel, Nagoya: 9:30pm
Hmm I guess that was a bit of an abrupt ending to the entry... let me continue. Ok, so I was at the castle, walking by the moat. My guess is taht it's about 2 or 3 kms around. Absolutely beautiful. Very much like the Imperial Palace with the huge stone walls that are shaped like fjords.. overhanging trees... swans.. beautiful paths... and then the palace itself. It's pretty nice, as I said before - tall, white, and it's got 2 golden dolphin statues at each end of the roof. Now I'd like to say that this castle was built in the 1200s sometime, but unfortunately this one was only built in the late 1950s! It even has an *elevator* inside so that visitors don't have to climb all the stairs!
Nagoya was one of the cities that was completely demolished in WWII by bombs, so the original Nagoya-jo (which WAS built in the 1200s) was destroyed. Oh well, this one's a good imitiation..
As I said, it started to rain, but only a bit. It had stopped within 10 minutes. I decided just to keep on walking. Sure, it was getting dark, but I have plenty of time...
I headed over to the Nagoya TV Tower, which looks like a miniature Eiffel tower, kinda. Very tall. Oh! It's in the middle of "Central Park" which is actually an interesting place... there were people actually camping in tents! I think they were bums (which you dont' usually see too much of in Japan), but I'm not sure. This is in the middle of downtown Nagoya, with a population of millions! Japan's 3rd largest city, ya know.
Central Park's cool.. they were playing jazz music on loudspeakers... there were just tons of funky fountains. And best of all, they had those big stars in the pavement with famous people's names - such as Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, etc etc. Hah!
So I walked until 7:30 (32C at this point) then I caught a subway to Higashi Yama Koen (Eastern Mountain Park), where the youth hostel is. Now I'd phoned last night to get directions (in Japanese...) so I thought I'd be fine. Ok, the first instruction is "walk straight down Higashi Yama Dori". Sure - no problem... but when I got out of the subway station I was facing the street.. ie. walk straight WHICH WAY?!? Oh great... I'm gonna get lost. So I do eenie-meenie-miney-moe and go to the right. AFter 3 minutes I change my mind and go left. But then I change my mind again and go right, which ended up being the right direction. The hostel is actually very close - it's right in Higashi Yama Koen which is famous for its size, and its zoo.
I checked in OK, and go upto my room. There's no one else there - just 2 sets of bunkbeds. I was incredibly thirsty so I got myself a Coke Light (no water to be found anywhere!) and went back to the front desk to see if the guys there could help me figure out how to get to Kyoto tomorrow. Gee, I just assumed there would be a local line, but I think I may have been wrong... it took these guys awhile to figure it all out - I'm so glad I asked!
When I went back upto the room, there was another gaijin (foreigner) there (female, of course). Nancy's her name. So we started to talk - she's living in Nagano - got to Nagoya yesterday - she's Irish.. then she says "Well I work for Seiko Epson.." and I'm like, "No WAY! Me too!!" Wow, what a small world! She works as an English teacher in the Suwa office. We like, know people in common! And she knows where Hino is! Neat-o...
Oh, and I took a shower. This is notable for 2 reasons; one, because I HAD to take it tonight - you can't take showers in the mornings at this hostel. Ah well, there goes my idea about running around Higashi Yama Koen tomorrow... And the second reason was that this is a Japanese style bath, ie. a public bath. Ok, this is my first experience with a public bath. First you go into the dressing room, where you all get undressed. Then you go into the actual shower room (similar to the shower rooms at swimming pools) which is really HOT. That's because there's a steaming hot huuge bathtub in there for everyone to use (sorta like a whirlpool without the whirls). So you go in, and there are about 8 hand showers, and this big bathtub. So the idea is taht you completely wash down BEFORE you get in the bath (important point there, that "before"). I don't know if this is just me, but I'm not used to taking public baths. I guess I'm getting used to trying new things though because it really didn't bother me, while 3 months ago I think it would've.
Oh yeah, I seemed to have lost my towel somewhere along the way today, which is a PAIN IN THE BUTT!! I have *no clue* where it fell off my bag (it was just attached at the side). Ah well, my first casualty. And about the heat - hot! I was soaked with sweat. Disgusting, but it must be mentioned. OH, an thanks to the good advice from Ammon's email this morning, I am carrying most of the weight of my backpack *on my hips*. Believe me, this makes things much, much, much easier. But the bag's still heavy.