Leaving Tokyo, Shinkansen (bullet train) Nagoya, Toyota Automobile Museum

So we leave Tokyo. In some ways it's perhaps a bit like London, a place I like in small bites. It does feel though almost like some relief to move on and get on the road, well the track in this case again. 

Whilst I know we haven't scratched the surface of Tokyo we could only do so much in a day and a half. We have six days in Yokohama for our second week so I'm sure we'll devote a day or two to exploring Tokyo further and visiting Megaweb and the like. 

So, our first experience of the Shinkansen. Well first we had to battle the commuter train from Shinjuku to Tokyo station. It wasn't much fun in all honesty with standing room only and we had our rucksacks on our backs. But after 20 minutes we arrived in plenty of time. 

Then it was just the matter of waiting for the train to be cleaned and then we could board. The heat was sweltering as seems to be the case. It's like you are sitting there in the shade and you feel the sweat running over various parts of your body. This is horrible and I admit I'm struggling with the heat. Hopefully the heat wave will end soon! 

A view of the Shinkansen. This train travels at 150mph. The fastest, the Nozomi travels at 185mph. Our train tickets do not cover the Nozomi but we intend to pay extra and experience the Nozomi from Hiroshima to Kyoto as it is direct so saving us time. 

Green class is basically first class and it is way, way better than first class in the UK. The seats are about the same as business class on a decent airline. They recline electrically and are heated also. There is even a light in the side of the head restraint of the seat. The trains are comfortable and quiet. 

This is a great way to travel and see Japan. There is also a food and drinks service that come up and down the aisles. The experience is excellent and makes British trains look asboutely rubbish. 

Well, that was by far the nicest part of the journey and by the time we got off the heat had increased considerably. We then took a short train journey on a commuter train to our hotel in Kanayama. This would have been shorter if we'd got the train the right way, but never mind, these things happen. 

We checked in, dropped our rucksacks and headed straight back to the station in order to get to the Toyota museum. This journey was a bit of a faff as we had to take two trains and then a subway train. By the time we got off it was sweltering and we were suffering. 

The Toyota Automobile museum has a display of 100 cars on two levels and the display rotates. On the first floor there are cars from 1880-1960 or so. These are not necessarily Toyota's and there is a range of cars from the Bugatti Type 35 to the Tucker 48. Once on the first floor things get more interesting, well to me anyway as these are all the Japanese cars. A lot of these cars of course I've never seen before because they were specific to the home market. 

How about some car food! 

Overall it was a great place to visit, though I'd recommend avoiding the cafeteria entirely, terrible food and coffee! 

We headed back to the hotel in Kanayama and it was the same two trains and subway train. The temperature was 38C and really it was just a case of suffering it. It was just so intense. Fortunately the trains are air conditioned so that is not too bad. But in Japan trains and subways and the like are all on different levels and inevitably you end up going up and down stairs all the time. 

We got back to the hotel and had a freshen up before heading out for food later. The view from our room on the 25th floor was quite spectacular. 

Something we noticed when looking at restaurants is that if you want Japanese food you are somewhat reliant on at least the basic aspects of the menu being in English. If everything is in Kanji you don't know what you're ordering which is a little frustrating. I suppose the answer is to learn some basic Kanji so you can at least tell what meat it is or maybe learn favourite dishes. In Tokyo this was less of an issue, but of course as you get more rural there is less food translated in English. We will see how we fare in Hiroshima, but for this evening we opted on an Hawaiian restaurant. I tried to order Rib Eye steak, but once I realised that the waitress would not be asking how I wanted it cooked I changed my order to a burger. The potential for wasting a good steak is sacrelige really!