Postcard from Omiya, Saitama Pref., Japan

 Hi everyone at Luna, and fellow trainspotters & "anoraks"!

Hokuriku line - Asama

I was lucky enough to finally get the train to Sapporo for work - Cambridge speaking examiner training & certification - and thoroughly enjoyed the trip (although I stupidly left my tickets sitting on my desk in Matsumoto...another story some day?!). I have taken this Tokkaido line before, but only as far as Hachinohe. I've wanted to experience the whole extension to Hakodate & the Seikan Tunnel for absolutely ages.

I still cannot believe how quickly the shinkansen rolling stock for the Hokuriku line were replaced after 1/3 of the fleet were converted to submarines by flooding from Typhoon Hakibis = first leg of the bullet train love-in. Asama still smell new!

Shinkansen fans will love Omiya station (and its nearby railway museum - which I should visit...). Shinkansen constantly pulling in & departing (precisely on time, of course), of all sleek shapes & liveries.

Conjoined Shinkansen

There was a national panic recently when ONE coupling failed and the whole JR infrastructure was in danger of falling to pieces...NOT. Its the amazing safety record of these things that a single mishap shines the light on incredible maintenance & attention to detail! Such conjoined trains decouple further north to split onto different routes (as a passenger you do not notice - unless you're sitting in the wrong half of the train and end up in Yamagata...)

My Hayabusa whooshed out of Omiya & within an hour was pulling up at Sendai, smooth as silk. Frustratingly for work though, the wifi is really rubbish & I was in a middle seat without a power socket. The northern part of Honshu glowed green in late summer, with the approaching typhoon now 'behind' me. Diving into the Seikan Tunnel was prefaced with an announcement over the PA - and then darkness & loss of signal, pretty much like the dark side of the moon! A welcomely uneventful 58km of sensational engineering, 250m below the seabed!

Jewel in the crown - Hayabusa

Soon enough, detraining at the Shin-Hakodate terminus for a the rattler ride on to Sapporo, and the  contrast of  the local line to shinkansen construction work yonder; paused I've heard because the tunnel borer has got itself jammed into a tunnel & can't reverse out...might take a while then! 

Verdict = a lot more relaxing than flying, and not divorced from bags or having to check in & sit around with an over-priced coffee. An awesomely smooth journey!

Pre-schoolers on the buses

Looking for signs of life in our flower beds already! Been a very wet last couple of days here (just rainy, or has the rainy season arrived?). The girls were very excited to see nothing at all - can't wait until we get some shoots appearing.

We were talking about the things we do, and the order in which we do them today in pre-school. Seems sensible to have breakfast after we get out of bed (OK, not always!) etc, and the first time we have asked our little ones to process activities in this way (ie sequence them formally). We also ended up talking about buses a lot - the "Wheels on the Bus" song is a firm favourite, and today no claustrophobia from Hinata so she 'got on' the bus and drove along with us to the shops, stopping to 'buy' lots of stuff. There is an app on my iPhone of this song which is cool, including being able to record your own voice(s).

Without anywhere special in mind, and not a lot of time to spare, we decided we should catch a bus this afternoon - our first time! No seat belts so sit down and hold tight! We watched the driver, and paid when we got off (at the front - we got on at the back). The bus wasn't pink or blue as we'd predicted, but white.

We  got off at Asama, crossed the road carefully at the crossing, and waited for another bus to take us back to school. We sang along on the back seat, and counted HS kids getting on. Ice cream treat from the shop on the way back, paying the man and saying thank you :)  A very exciting little excursion and a nice change in routine!