Day 4 – High speed to slow down

I have long been an advocate of the early start. Being a morning person does help I suppose, but the world has a newness and a freshness to it that the bearing down of the day can only tarnish.  It also means that, in a high traffic buffet, you get the best choice of food, and pretty much as much of it as you like. Dim sum previously unimagined were sitting in the steamer plump hot and fresh, and the previously unseen ham and cheese croissant were still vaguely warm at 6:35am. Hurrah for an early train.  Suitcases sent off on their way to Hiroshima, Charlie and I set off to Tokyo Station for our trip on the Hikari 465 Super Express. This picture isn’t of a Hikari, but what the hell, these shinkansen are things of beauty. I’m already planning a ‘tick all the Japan Rail bullet trains off’ trip…  super polite (natch) railway person who – and get this East Mids trains – stood up and bowed when we entered the ticket office – sorted our reservations for the next couple of trains for us and then gave both of us a celebratory 50^th anniversary plastic sleeve with pictures of all the classes of JR trains on. Bet you’re dead jealous now!  Made the train with shedloads of time to spare, so we indulged in vending machine drinks. Charlie bit the bullet (but not the train) (geddit) and popped a Pocari Sweat whilst I had a white coffee. Now here’s the interesting bit. Pocari Sweat is vile and was instantly binned.  Out of the SAME machine I got a tin can drink of coffee – expecting it to be iced. No sir. I nearly dropped it in surprise. It was warm! Ok, not thermonuclear, but still hot enough to be very acceptable.  We repaired into the shop on the platform, ostensibly to buy a bento box but ended up with rice crackers, squid jerky (!) and some Aussie beef jerky. Well, why not I say!  We watched the people getting the train ready and need I say more. The antimacassars were all changed, each seat hand brushed, all seats turned to face the direction of travel. And this was in cattle class. I suspect in the ‘green carriage’ they were preparing the fatted calf… We all got on the train, very calm, everyone knowing where they were sitting, and on the dot of 9:03 off we sped, out of the Tokyo suburbs and to Nagoya. I should point out that it was still raining, and that there is absolutely, definitely, no such edifice as Mount Fuji. I should know – we reserved seats on the right hand side of the train specifically. I’m just super glad that we didn’t pay extra for a ‘Fuji View’ at the hotel… Dirty liars.

Some hours later, via Nagoya, Nagatsukawa and Nagiso (there’s an ‘N’ theme going on here, clearly) 

with each train getting slower (albeit the last leg to Nagiso was, I swear, a brand new train – it had new train smell and not a mark to be seen on it) we alighted in mountainous, pine decked country and made our way by taxi to Tsumago.

Now Tsumago has  protected status which means that there can be no satellite dishes or aerials or effectively any signs of modernity on show to preserve the sense of how this post town on the Nakasendo Road would have looked previously. It was an important town on the this road because it was at an important cross roads of the Nakasen-do and the Ina-do and it has historic value in being representative of how a post town was in the Edo period. Just for pedantry’s sake it was post town no 42 (counting from Edo) of the 69 post towns on the Nakasen-do. Why that is important I do not know but it feels like the question from Mastermind or the like. Bet it comes up on University Challenge…

Anyway I’m not going to say more. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking, because, dear reader, I have unleashed my beloved D90 again and she hasn’t let me down.  Suffice to say that although it’s a pretty dank grim Autumn afternoon up here in the hills, it evokes the timelessness of the place superbly, and I for one am glad that I’m here.  Whether I’ll feel glad at 3am when I’ve got to negotiate the stairs of the ryokan to get to the loo is another story, but it’s alright – we’re back in a faceless hotel tomorrow night, hopefully reunited with our suitcases. But the efficiency of the Japanese makes me feel supremely confident that I will be.  The only thing I do want to say, and I hope is conveyed in the pictures, is that this place

seems to pay some sort of homage to the seasons - and to nature - represented by the plants and vegetables growing all around and on the buildings and so on. Hence the pictures of them and in this dark Autumn light against a backdrop of wood and tatami, they just seem to glow. .I'm deeply impressed by the contrast between the town and country that I've seen so far - and also by how much in Tokyo they were real foodies, happily naming the prefecture where the kuzu came from, or where the fish was caught. It just makes me desperate to find out more about Japan, and to visit the places where this produce is grown...

Oh, and the killer spider pic is one of the

blighters lurking under the bridge. They're everywhere  and are just a tiny bit smaller than my hand. With stripy legs. Terrifying, but rather beautiful close up. And I don't think they are killers, they just look like they might be...

I’ll tell you more about the ryokan later, but just wanted to make this post whilst I had some quiet time sitting in our bedroom.  Thankfully Charlie found the wifi….