Another Seishun 18 trip north

I am back from Akita... not via Niigata as I'd planned, but perhaps later in the holiday.

My last post that I realised after I posted it had no English translations.. and didn't make sense entirely in Japanese either as part of the route overlapped.

I went up via the Tohoku Honsen as far as Kogota, and then to the Japan Sea side via the Rikuu Tou line to Shinjo, the Rikuu Sai line to Sakata, the Uetsu line to Akita and the Ou line to Odate.

It involved 11 changes.

The trip is long - 16 hours or so, depending on the route -  and at times seems rather arduous and I'm not very good at using time on the train productively,   but the seishun 18 has two major benefits.

1) It's cheap.  A round trip by Shinkansen is about $350 and takes 6 hours or so.  The seishun 18 works out at $25 or so for one day's unlimited travel. If I have the time (as in the long holidays) it makes more sense than going by Shinkansen.

2) The scenery is so much better.   I've made a series of videos. Katsu, a friend in Kyoto suggested ages ago that I take video of the train lines; with an i pad it has become much more feasible, though I didn't think of that until the return trip.

Videos to follow

View akabane odate rail map in a larger map

Tomorrow's plan...

The Seishun 18 season is here again. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be a looooooooong day.

Better go to bed so I can be up at 5...

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Impressions of being back after being away

I'm back after a southern sojourn that was long enough to defrost my blood, but not long enough to eat everything or see everyone that I had planned to....

I had four impressions of being back in Aus - two positive, two negative.

1) Sydney is much dirtier than it used to be, though a friend who had visitors from London recently said they marvelled at how clear it is.  Even so it is dirtier than Tokyo and more importantly, dirtier than it used to be.

2) Especially in the CBD and especially women, show a lot of flesh than in the past.  I'm not a prude, really, but skirts are much shorter and worn with no shame about cellulite, muffins, and other unseemly bulges...

3) Sydney is much more diverse than it used to be, and the diversity has spread out.  My hometown of 1000 people has an Indian restaurant, Vietnamese running the bakery, a Chinese restaurant (there's been one of those as long as I can remember).  In Muswellbrook and Tamworth there were women wearing hijab and inter-cultural relationships are very normal.

4) People communicate verbally. I was taken aback alighting the train when the man next to me asked "are you right with that luv" .

OOps make that 5

It's a shock going into boom mentality after being subsumed by recession thinking.


Coming back a couple of impressions.

Japanese people care about the seasons whereas Australians care about how much rain there has been.  Suntory have their cherry blossom happoshu cans out. I was irritated since I am going to Akita in the morning and it is still blanketed in snow.  But if you ask anyone how much rain there was yesterday, no-one would have a clue.  The only time precipitation measurements seem to be broadcast is when they are talking centimetres of snow or extreme rain during typhoons.  Seasons don't make a whole lot of sense in Australia when February one year brings floods and another year continues the drought.

People don't stare at abominable habits here - Survival technique I guess. Today on my way back from Ueno a man near me on the train kept snorting - a hucking deep snort.  I wanted to vomit - preferably on him.  I glared, my stomach queased, but this is Tokyo afterall, no need for verbal communication when you can be passive aggressive...

Lost in translation (twice)

We have had the pleasure of the company of two of my nieces for a fortnight at the end of their summer holidays.  On our way walking from Asakusa to Ueno we came across this sign.   They puzzled over it - their interpretation that it was for a sex change.  Go to bed as a man, wake up as a woman....  makes perfect sense really..

It's a high presure oxygen chamber (which I erroneously assumed was a capsule hotel catering for women until I blew up the picture and saw the 高気圧 and closer inspection revealed price per 40 minute session.)