I slept for the entirety of my 3 hour flight up until the last 30 minutes or so. I asked to borrow a pen from the guy sitting next to me, in order to fill out the customs forms that had been left in the back of the seat in front of me. He ended up striking a conversation with me. He was a native of Taiwan and was interested in hearing my thoughts of the country, including the area of Jiufen, which was where he grew up. He explained how it had gotten a lot more commercial since he was a youth. We ended up being the exact same age.
He was travelling with his boss and offered to walk with me through customs and to the train area. I exchanged my train pass voucher, and it took so long that I could not find them afterwards. I have his email, so I plan to send him my blog. The train information desk informed me that there was a "fatal accident" on the track of the train that would have brought me into Tokyo. She rerouted me on the "limited express" train that ended up taking about double the amount of time that the original train would have taken me.
When I arrived at the Tokyo station, I had to walk a short distance outside before finding another train station, where I would be taking the bullet train. I tried to take a picture as it was coming into the station.
The train was very comfortable, with adjustable seats. There were multiple bathrooms in the mini car behind my car. The private bathrooms were impressive. Outside, in the hall, there were multiple hand washing areas with built in soap dispensers.
I got into Kanazawa late. There was a small mall area inside the train station. I looked for an atm. The info packet that came with my trip planner explained that some atms won't take foreign bank cards. It took me a while before I found a machien that would work, outside of the small post office in the station. I picked all of the locations myself except for the final biking portion, which was suggested by Grant, my trip organizer. He figured out the logistics of everything, which seems from the booklet to be fairly extensive and complex. I will be taking it one day at a time. Thanks Grant!
While I missed it the first time, there is a huge, beautiful structure at the outside entrance to the train station.
When I think of Japan, I think of a technological people, being on the forefront of technology. When I walked up to a taxi, to transport to the hotel, the back door opened automatically and closed behind me. It also featured a tv inside. It was playing a televised sumo match. I was trying to pay attention to his driving, since I'd be driving in a few days and wouldn't be used to driving on the left side of the road. I have to admit though, I did watch some of the sumo wrestling. It was too unusual to ignore.
The first hotel has an amazing location and is hi tech in its own way. There is both a shower and a tub, next to each other. I took a hot bath to soothe my muscles. When I drained the tub, it emptied the water into a shared drainage area with the ground of the shower. I'd never seen anything quite like it.
Another nice feature was the do not disturb sign, which I always use extensively. I do not like using housekeeping. This hotel used a magnetic sign to affix to the front of the door. Another strange thing that I found was a folded white shirt on my bed. Grant explained to me that this is a shirt to lounge around in. It is still folded in the corner of the room.
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