Cycling in Japan 2016 - Shooting down to Tokyo on the bullet train

8 Sep - See what Iona did there with the subject of the email? Ha ha. Right.

Thursday morning was calm with a foreboding cloud lurking over us as Iona and I stepped off for a morning stroll/jog. All through the holiday, Col and I have struggled to keep up with Iona's walking speed. I hit upon me jogging along while Iona walked, and it worked surprisingly well.

We walked (or jogged) to a wee island about 2.5 km away, checking out things along the way. The island was connected with a bridge. If we hadn't seen someone coming out when we got there we would have assumed it was locked. The gate was certainly meaty. But it opened with a little door, and we circumnavigated the island. I ran around and Iona walked her speedy walk.

We thought we might cop a decent bit of rain, but the low dark cloud skirted us. We returned with some food and coffee for Col. We found pancakes in a cellophane packet that we thought she might like. Huge hit! Turns out the packet held four pancakes glued together with butter and maple syrup. Mmmm.

We caught the local train to the shinkansen station and the anticipation built nicely as we waited for our bullet train to arrive. It whooshed in - we found our seats and stored our luggage. Iona and I rushed out to the front to get quick photos and annoy the good natured steward preventing crazy tourists from getting too close.

We got this close

The trip to Tokyo was super fast. Four hours and we were entering the outskirts of Tokyo, our eyes glued to the window.

Iona navigated the maze of train networks like a pro and we found the line to our hotel.  The underground was a seething mass of people and my pack got a bit familiar with a couple of women's skirts in a slightly embarrassing fashion. My navigation skills got us quickly through the steamy streets of Ikebukara to the traditional Japanese Ryokan we'd booked on Iona's cousin's recommendation.

Our room was only just big enough for the three mattresses on the floor. 6 tatami mats. We had learned that is how the Japanese measure the size of a room. 6 tatami mats is relatively small for three beds. Not to mention the exploding  luggage phenomenon that can turn any number of tatami mats into chaos! The aircon was fantastic and we rapidly turned the room into a fridge. Then, fortified by the cold, we set out into the humidity for a recce of the neighborhood.

Ikebukara by night

We found an excellent sushi train restaurant and then back via a supermarket to sleep. Ready for a whole day in Tokyo tomorrow.