So this is the Shinansen eh?



So this is the Shinkansen, the famed Bullet train… It’s fast, ripping through the countryside at more than 270kph. Feels like we’re reaching that critical speed at which planes take off from the tarmac. This thing goes through cities, farms, and mountains, all in a straight line. Nothing’s blurry out the window, but it feels like I’m fast-forwarding through a fast paced music video.

It’s my first time on a bullet train. It’s my first time to Tokyo. And it’s the first leg on my trip to Nicaragua. The next stop on the route is Nagoya city. I hear it’s a boring place. The steel ribbons under the train bank to left and to the right. I’m a Top Gun pilot hunting down some bandits at 12 o’clock…hehehehehe…..

Flying low, under the radar, skimming rooftops and houses barely a few meters away. As the train tracks dip and curve I can feel gravity inching away below me. This is awesome. Rice paddies as far as I can see; now going through another mountain; now exploding into daylight again.

There are some larger mountains up ahead; some of their sides ripped open by loggers and construction companies bleeding them of resources. Antennae, high-tension wires crisscross the landscape, some above us, some bisecting our vectors.

Beautiful Japan. God I love this land. The thick fog is beginning to envelop us, another train passes in the opposite direction pushing our train sideways and smashing my ears with increased air pressure. I’m in the death star’s trench, evading Darth and crew.

Shit, we’re in Nagoya already. Its 9:22am. I left Osaka at 8:40 this morning. This thing’s really fast. Shit, now Gifu Prefecture’s just whizzed by. I’m gonna nap. See you soon.

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