April 5th - From Tokyo to Osaka

Yay! It's finally time to use my JR Rail Pass for something else than the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. Shinkansen it is! From Tokyo to Osaka (roughly 600+km) in 3 hours. Punctually. Almost on the second. Life can be easy.

The Shinkansen have their own platforms in the station and the those are gated. That is the reason why the driver has to stop exactly alsmost on the centimeter, since otherwise passengers cannot enter.

Gates on the Shinkansen platform in Tokyo Station.

On the terminal stations like Tokyo there waits a perfectly trained team of cleaners and as soon as the last passenger left a car they jump in and make a complete maintenance. In 15 minutes. When the new passengers enter for the next tour everything is immaculate. And yes, Shinkansen lines are all profitable (I looked it up today). Wonder why...

Shinkansen coming into the station

I spent a bit more on my rail pass to get a green car pass which is comparable to 1st class in Germany. But man, there are differences. For once even I could stretch my legs and the table was in a comfortable distance.You can push them back if you want to have it a bit more relaxed without threatening to kill the people in the seat behind you and the footrests are adjustable.

Seats in a Shinkansen green car,

But the top features in my book are:

1. Japanese railway companies (and their conductors) are actually sentient beings. You can only enter the platforms with a valid JR pass or ticket. On top of that you need to make a reservation in advance. The conductors have a little paper where the reservations are noted and just go through the car (after bowing at the entrance)  and count through the reserved seats. If nothing is off there is no need to pester the passengers with controlling their tickets. So they just don't.
2. You have stewardesses! Shortly after the ride starts you get a wet towel to clean your hands (you also get these in all restaurants and even kombinis put them into your bag) and in regular intervals they come through and sell drinks and snacks or gather the waste. And the prices are the same as those paid in a vending machine! Beer is relatively expensive in Japan. a 0.33l beer costs 300 Yen in a vending machine and 550 Yen in a bar (roughly 2,50€ and 4,80 € 1€ is ca. 120 Yen). If you buy it in a kombini the beer is roughly 200 Yen (depending on the brand).

The main attraction in this train ride is of course the passing by of Hakone and Mt. Fuji. This mountain is awesome in the sense of the word. The pictures cannot really transport the impression it makes. "Majestic" doesn't even start to cut it. The following pics were taken from the train, thus through the window pane which makes for a bit strange colours.

Finally Osaka is reached and yes, japanese marketing loves onomatopoeia, which is also pretty prominent in the japanese language (like "doki doki" for heartbeat). But torture me, I have no idea what the sound pitapa should describe.

Osaka subway

I took a wrong turn somewhere in the Nishitanabe station where my hotel was located nearby and was lost. A really nice and helpful japanese girl on a bike went out of her way to help me in the right direction. After arriving in the correct backalley I was greeted friendly by the concierge? manager? owner? He was there at all times... Talk about overhours if he should have been an employee...

After the usual formalities I got my key, went to my room and... well.. Both my luggage and me would NOT fit in normally. I left the suitcase outside, since I really needed to use a toilet after 5 hours of travel from hotel to hotel and 2 beers and well... I could NOT enter the fucking bathroom. The door was too small in EVERY direction. And even IF I could have made it in, I wouldn't have had enough space to stand or regularly hit the bowl... I read that business hote rooms can be small... But hell, midget small???! City Inn Nishitanabe. Only enter when you are below 1.65m in height and your weight does not exceed 70kg.

10 minutes more, dear bladder we are almost there...

Back down to the reception, and paying an extra for a double room. It was still fucking small, but at least I could take my suitcase and backpack in.

Yes, this is a double room.... And yes, this is all of it.

Japanese hotel bathrooms seem to be ready made cubes which are put into the buildings as is. They have the same layout and features everywhere and most seem to be like one piece walls and floor. The point is that the floor of the tub is lower then the floor outside, so you have an automatic sink and for the average japanese person the small tub is till enough for submerging because of the greater depth.

Japanese toilets are a chapter in themselves, Most of them need a manual, but they have sensible defaults. When you sit down the seat gets immediately heated, some water flows and when you are finished (and studied the manual) you can press some buttons and wondrous things happen. They have a cleaning mode and a bidet mode, some come with programs for different kinds of interval cleaning and you can adjust power and sometimes even the temperature of the water. This toilet is a Panasonic model! You can barely make out the operation panel.

That was it for the day, I just grabbed some grub from the next komnini and went to sleep away the cold.