Mon. March 25, 2024

We caught a taxi at the ship with the help of those in charge of getting rid of us as quickly as possible. We get it. The rooms need to be cleaned for the new arrivals if there are any.

Thanks to all on board who did a fine job of making or trip a pleasant one. I suppose they have had enough of me.

It was raining as we got into our taxi. The taxi driver was helpful and spoke English well enough for us to get where we needed to go. It was a long ride. The speed limit seems to be ten miles an hour or so. We arrived to the train station easily with his help.

The ticket agent for the bullet train spoke English. It is much easier to get around in Japan than in the past years when we were here before. There is more English signage around or so it seems to me.

When we came here years ago we had destinations written in Japanese by our Japanese mother to show those in the train stations where we were headed off to. Thank goodness for her help.

Her purse or large bag really, held everything we needed. No pizza, but most other things were deep down in there somewhere. Water, snacks and napkins were always at hand from her as she showed us around.

When you travel with suit cases on the bullet train make sure you reserve seats with room behind them for your luggage. They are in the rear of most cars.

We found the right line for the elevator and found the tracks below and waited. It was a little daunting but we figured it out. We gave ourselves extra time to get lost and confused but we did fine.

We caught the next train and now we are on our way to Osaka. The train can reach 198 miles per hour if there is enough distance between stops.

The last time we were on the bullet train years ago there was the Sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo at the Tokyo Train Station.

Oh well, you take the train and take your chances, I guess.