Insane in the Train

As if Chieko and I haven't had enough traversing of continents, oceans, and countries in the last week, a mere two days after our epic trip back to Kanazawa from the US we returned to the other side of Japan. Our purpose was to pick up a new (to us) car from Chieko's sister, as well as get our first in-person meeting with our new nephew, Tomonori. I'm happy to report that both objectives were achieved without incident, and that I'm doing a damn thing that requires me to leave the confines of this neighborhood for the rest of the month!
We decided to change things up from the norm in terms of getting ourselves to the east coast of Japan. We usually travel by a combination of express train/bullet train during our trans-Japan trips. When Chieko goes alone, she often takes an overnight bus, which I refuse to use because I can't sleep sitting up no matter how heavily medicated/drunk I may be. Given the amount of time I'd spent not sleeping on airplanes/buses/trains in the last week, the night bus was even more out of the question than usual. But we found a compromise: the night train (cue the G'n'R).




For a bunch of money, you could get your own private little room. But we opted for the communal sleeping arrangement, which was expensive enough (about $150/person).



It was pretty close quarters, but we were fortunate that there were no smelly, snoring Japanese men in the immediate vicinity. My only real complaint was that those curtains are made of thick wool, so if you came within 5 feet of them you could feel the static electricity pulling you hair, and whenever you touched anything you got a nice shock. The train left around 10:30 at night and arrived in Tokyo just after 6 in the morning, and I was able to get a good chunk of sleep during that time.



As I mentioned, we took delivery of a new car, a 2001 fire engine red Honda Civic wagon, which is a marked improvement over our 1990-something Toyota Corolla, which I must say has served us perfectly during the past year, and I am honestly a bit sad to be bidding it farewell. But it's going to coworker, so I suppose I'll be able to take it for a spin if I ever get the urge, but which I probably won't. However, I neglected to take a picture of the new ride, and now it's dark, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that.
As consolation, I have this highly entertaining picture from our trip back to Kanazawa today. During any given drive on Japan's highways, you encounter some sort of construction site. Rather than pay actual humans to stand on the side of the road and wave a warning flag some distance before the actual construction area, Japan has implemented these very human-looking robot/dummy things (does it really need a helmet, AND a tie?). They stand there, and one of their arms moves up and down waving a flag. I've always wanted to get a picture of one because they are so damn odd, but I'm usually moving much to fast to get a clear picture. But today came my chance, as I found one commuting to a new job on the back of a truck, and Chieko was able to get a good shot. Unfortunately he was not waving his flag, nor was his warning light functioning.



So I've been on a guitar playing binge since returning to Japan last week, and that's what I'm going to get busy doing now. Look for some sexy Civic pics in the next day or so. Night.