Stu-Art: Day 2 - Shinkansen (the Bullet Train) and Tokyo

After some delicious pork buns for breakfast/lunch we ventured forth beyond the airport. The day was mostly spent in transit – either trying to find trains, waiting for trains, or on trains, or even finally in a taxi with a driver that got lost and had to pull over and ask people on the street for directions. The main trip was on the bullet train (Skinkansen) from Osaka to Tokyo where we were booked in for the first week at the Hotel Yanagibashi. It was a two hour journey and unfortunately I didn’t get a window seat so I didn’t get to see much scenery. Now, before we actually set off on the flight I was quite impressed to find out that David Z had booked a 5 star hotel for our first night and naturally thought that would set the trend for the rest of the hotels he had booked for us. So I was a bit surprised when I saw that this hotel was going to be one and a half stars, but I kept an open mind. They might have different star ratings in Japan, after all! After our taxi driver finally delivered us to our hotel we got our keys and were given a complimentary network cable. Internet! Promising. We hopped in the elevator went up to our room and… well check out the video and photos down the bottom to see what we found :)

Actually, although it may not look like much, it is actually quite cosy - with a TV, fridge, toilet, air-con and internet when we finally got it working. We ended up having McDonalds for dinner and even there I realised how lost I am without being able to communicate. I need to expand beyond “thank you” I think, so tomorrow I will attempt to use “sumimasen” (“sorry”).