9 June

Today, my last day in Kyoto, was as normal except that I had noticed how hard the bed was, and that I could feel the springs through the mattress cover. I felt rather like the princess with the pea in the bed. I was up, made sure I had everything together, prepared and went down for breakfast. I overheard someone else commenting how hard the bed was. I remembered the porcelain pillow in the museum yesterday and thought that what I had was soft compared to that.
After breakfast I packed everything up (it fits, but I am not sure about the weight), checked email and such, then went down to notify the tour operators that I wouldn’t be on their shuttle bus to the local airport here. Memo to self: DO NOT notify operators of change in future, as they are overly concerned about how foreigners will go if they are by themselves; having been in most Western European countries by myself and survived, having taken the Tokyo subway twice by myself and having walked Kyoto three times by myself, I think I can make it across the street, on a bullet train to Tokyo when I already have the ticket and then a few subway stops to a hotel by myself. After having to leave all my details and promising to check in in Tokyo, I was finally allowed to leave. I’m hiding out in my room until I leave the hotel in case they come looking for me, worried about my welfare.
I left about 9:30 and headed over the six hundred metres to the platform. While waiting, I noticed: one train was about an hour and twenty minutes late; my train was five minutes late; there are Shinkansen which stop at every station, Shinkansen expresses which stop at about ten stations and Shinkansen super expresses which stop at three stations. That’s what I was on and got from Kyoto to Tokyo in two hours and twenty minutes.
The station attendant on the platform didn’t believe I could read the ticket correctly so had to make sure that I was waiting for the correct train and for the correct carriage (you wait in a queue in a marked line which is where the door will open; as soon as those getting off have left, you get straight on).
The trip was considerably quicker than my trip to Kyoto, but the speed of the train was about the same, so you see a few blurred bits in photos, as well as unintentional content. However, it was comfortable even though I had the suitcase upright in front of me (I didn’t get the room or the opportunity to put it in the luggage rack until near Tokyo).
Once in Tokyo, I headed for the subway. The station there is the Tokyo Line, and their machines are not as friendly as the ticket machines on the other lines. However, after a bit of playing around, I got my all-day ticket and headed off on one line to change to another to end up at Shinjuku Station on the Oedo Line (E27). I felt good in that while going through the turnstiles I had to help a local get through correctly (you can enter a station where there is a green arrow on the turnstile, and exit a station where there is a red arrow on the turnstile, but you can’t enter a turnstile with a “no entry” sign on it). Once out of the correct exit I did my usual trick of looking around and not seeing how to get to the hotel, which was directly across the road via a pedestrian crossing. Then it was up to the lobby (on the twentieth floor), checking in (and getting my fax message about meeting a guide tomorrow afternoon to go to Narita Airport) and setting up the computer.
Then, armed with another map, I headed off to the Government Building 1, with observatories. It was one subway station away (it may have been quicker to walk, as some subway entrances are up to a kilometre away from the actual platform). Once there, I found the actual Tokyo Tourist office, which was well equipped with English guides and maps of the whole Tokyo area. After getting a few (though too late to be of much use to me at the moment), I went up to the Observatory on the forty-fifth floor and it was magnificent. I would rate it far better than the Tokyo tower, but that may be because here I could do my thing, rather than listen to another. The views are great (although I’m still not sure there really is a Mt Fuji, as for the fourth time I looked and it still wasn’t there), there are panoramic guides of what is visible (if the day is clear) and there is plenty of room.
On the way down, an elderly Japanese gentleman admired my beard, asked where I came from and was generally quite talkative on the very short trip down.
Then I caught a lift down into the subway and here a lady enquired if I knew how to get where I was going. I said the only problem was I hadn’t decided where I was going. Her train came in and I decided I would go to the Ginza to see it in better (?) weather, so I held up the brochure on it to her and she thought it was a good idea.
I got out at the Ginza and had a look around, at two theatres and then the actual shopping strip. I succumbed to temptation and went in the Sony Building. It was only extreme willpower that stopped me coming out with a movie camera with better still picture performance than my current camera. Then I saw a beautiful Asahi Pentax digital SLR and I had to repeat to myself: “You can’t afford it until you’ve paid for the other trip” and back slowly away until the showroom was out of sight. I thought at this stage that I had better get something to eat and then go back to the hotel before I did give in (by the way, both cameras were about the same price, but I’d rather have the still Pentax if I had to make a choice – but the Sony movie camera was beautiful and the quality amazing). As I went into the station I heard an American girl say about visiting Australia, so I spoke to her and her companion for a few minutes, trying to sell the idea of visiting.
Once on the train, I found a station where I knew I could get some food, had that, and then caught the train back to the hotel. Here I ended up in conversation with an Irish lady from the Canaries and her son, who lives and works in Tokyo. We both agreed that guide books give the wrong impression of countries, from cost of living, to ease of getting around, to safety. We got out at the same station, but I was going to visit the local shopping street to see it lit up in neon. However, after a kilometre tramp to the correct exit, it was now pouring rain, so I headed under the road, back to the hotel, had a quick shower, processed and uploaded the photos and then wrote this blog, uploaded it, checked the email and then went to bed.