Japan ’23 Part IV: More trains in the books

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Mon: Yurikamome front row all the way

Good morning, 6:30 ☀️ Out the door at 8:15 am. Trains were packed with commuters, doh! But a lot of people got off at Hamamatsucho and we got to sit for 1 station 🙂 Yurikamome is an unidentified new transportation system that runs between Shinbashi and Toyosu. It looks like a monorail because it runs on a railing up high but it’s not. It’s not a train because it runs on rubber tires. They’re automated too!

We made it across Shinbashi station from JR to Yurikamome and kick-started the stamp rally by 9:30 am. The stamp rally was on just in time to celebrate 1 billion ridership. Although the crowd thinned out quite a bit toward the Yurikamome platform, with so many people, I was surprised we actually snagged the front-row seat with the view. Since it’s unmanned, the front row gets a spectacular view of Tokyo Bay! While we had the coveted seat, we decided to go all the way but the train stopped at Ariake. We still had a few more stations to go until the end of the line in Toyosu. No problem. The train was running every 3-5 minutes so we could let one go if the front row wasn’t available. We made it to Toyosu at ~10:30 am.

After getting the stamp, we made our way back via Daiba. Gundam was as cool as it had been but Gundam Cafe wasn’t there anymore. We were at Diver City at 10:45 am and ready for food but it wasn’t open until 11 am on the weekdays 😭 The vending machine area was full of tourists taking refuge from the outdoor sauna and it was loud. We, too, joined the crowd and we made an early lunch at the food court. A simple bowl of udon for under 400 yen wasn’t your typical food court fair. More importantly, it left room for a Mister Donuts round.

We began our journey home after 12 pm. When we got in the front car at Daiba, the coveted front seats were taken. Y wanted to get off but somehow the door was closing on people. V barely pushed. That’s just 3 people deep! Y broke down for not being able to get off 😭 We got off at the next station. Welp, it would almost be impossible to get the front row in the middle of the line. We took the opposite line all the way to Toyosu again, got a clean slate, and then rode from one end to another. Y was getting tired but he told me he won’t sleep on the train and he pushed through the entire line 💪

We got to Shinbashi at 1:30 pm. It was H.O.T!! Y was even on the fence about visiting the steam engine on display that we saw in the morning. But he was curious enough to make a brief visit. The temperature display read 37 🥵 We returned to the hotel for a breather and back out again to Shinagawa station to figure out the train for tomorrow. Good thing I looked and asked as the limited express was all reserved seating. We got food and we were on our schedule at last. Dinner by 5 pm and lights at 8 pm 🙌

Tue: The Maglev!!

Good morning, 6 am ☀️ We’re heading out early today to make a day trip to the Maglev Museum in Yamanashi. We left the hotel at 7:10 am and we were in Shinjuku at 7:45 am. I had researched where to get Ekiben and got our bento in 10 min, boom! Everything went smoothly, we would’ve even made the 8 am Super Azusa, lol. Our train, Kaiji, was the same train that we had seen many times at Starbucks. Super excited! The train wasn’t super packed. It went fairly slow through the first two stops in Tokyo at Tachikawa and Tenouji. The scenery changed drastically, almost digitally from there: from buildings to mountains and farms as the train picked up speed. The train arrived in Otsuki at 9:35 am. We knew from the reiterating-to-death announcement that Kaiji was splitting at Car No. 3 here. It was super cool to see the partial train split off. But the bus departure was approaching! We ran and luckily, this station was pretty small with 2 bus stops. Our bus just rolled in and left promptly at 9:45 am. The Maglev Center was really out in the boonies. After the drive through the rice fields, the bus dropped us off right at the museum.

Y was excited and ran to the entrance ahead of us 🙂 The museum consists of three stories. The first floor is about the history of maglev, including the previous model you can walk through. The second floor was loaded. First of all, there is a mini ride that actually floats. There were also a lot of exhibits on how the maglev works. The scheduled demo on the superconductor was really cool. The lady had a small magnet and a mini roller-coaster magnetic track without any railing or guide. Without the magnet being dipped in liquid nitrogen, the magnet was like a rock. But once that thing was frosty, it was flying on the track flipping and everything. Super cool. It’s an amazing invention. The wheels are reaching their limits at 500km/h! The most intriguing, though, was the actual maglev zooming by the museum building every 10 minutes! The monitor tracks the train in real-time. As the train approaches, you start to hear a rumbling noise, and boom, gone. I’d never gone down to 1/1250 shutter speed on my camera. Insane! The third floor was about the future of maglev, along with one giant room diorama and a small theater for a short video on that topic.

By 12 pm, we’d seen pretty much all we wanted and we decided to bust out our bento. All along the maglev viewing window on the third floor was the eating area with a few vending machines. Bento was a good call 👍 I mean can’t beat having lunch with the maglev view. Every 10 minutes or so, Y and I dropped food and went to the glass window. The thrill of waiting for the maglev, hearing the roar, and finally seeing it zoom by was something else.

The 1:15 pm bus was a must as the once-per-hour bus and the express train were carefully coordinated. We’d reserved the 2:06 pm train back to Shinjuku. Y passed out on the bus and then the last half of the train ride. It was already 4 pm by the time we reached the hotel. Just enough time for a quick grocery run. Lights out at 8 🙌

Wed: What other rides have we missed?

Waking up at 5:30 got us ready to head out at 6:50 am. The crowd was thinner at this hour but the Tokyo monorail was already hustling at 7:30 am. There were two lines formed for the next two trains. The first line was already 20 people deep so we waited 5 minutes to get on the one after. People kept flowing into the platform. Y got the front seat just behind the driver, yay 🙌. We went all the way to the end of the line at Terminal 2, got the stamp, and back.

It was only 8:30 am when we came back to Hamamatsucho. We decided to ride the Yamanote line to the other side and hit Mister Donuts in Ikebukuro. My offline map wasn’t working but the help is reliably available here. We got to Mister Donut Ikebukuro's west gate store. The second-floor seating overlooked the station entrance. We were observing an ambulance that rolled. The crew hadn’t come back but Y was ready to go. Outside, Y spotted a fire truck also near the ambulance. What a tiny cute fire truck…eh…a bus! It said 100 yen and it makes a round in Ikebukuro. It was about to leave and we jumped on it! It’s called Ike-bus and the round trip took about an hour. The bus fit maybe 12 people max and had a super cute interior (wood pattern floor, colorful seats, etc.) and jolly music playing all along. Such a cute random find!

We were back at the station at 11 am. V and I convinced Y to get lunch at Tokyo Station. It was hard to navigate that giant station but we were in line for Kaminari ramen at ~12 pm. I got a regular size for Y and I and a large for V without hesitation. We did notice the line not turning around as fast as expected for a ramen shop but had no idea what we were about to face. We got seated at ~12:30 pm with apron offerings. Bang bang, the bowls started to show up. Wow wow wow! The bowl was filled with noodles as thick as udon under a fat slice of pork and a mountain of cooked bean sprouts. Usually, V finishes his bowl and cleans our bowls. But here, V couldn’t even finish his own 😱 This is the first time ever, in Japan of all places. We had to leave so much food behind, sorry 😣

It was only 1 pm but Y was so tired in this heat, that he just wanted to go back to the hotel and build his maglev from yesterday. At 2:30 pm, he decided to take a chance on Yurakucho before it closed at 4:30 pm. We went there and he broke down because the rooftop train viewing spot was just too hot 😭 He was happy to play with his toys that he racked up throughout the trip at the hotel 🙂 No dinner today. Lights out at 8 👍

Thu: Last call

Good morning, 5:30 am ☀️ We were in Tokyo station at 7:30 am. Why? To grab some Shinkansen bento for the road. After a quick search, I found the stall that sells nothing but that 😱 it’s so tucked away in the shadow of the major bento store, Matsuri. Tokyo station is just always full of people but nothing was sold out yet at the bento stall. Y was so excited and he picked not one, not two, but three! Ehh, ok 😅 As if Y could be any happier, we were now headed to Mister Donut. The closest one was in Shinbashi. Getting there wasn’t easy as the heat was encapsulating us already. Yet we were greeted with the sign saying they don’t open until 9 am. It was only 8 am. Maybe we could squeeze a run to the Akihabara store. Unbelievable. This store was flat-out closed without any reason. Welp, this must be a sign. We returned to the hotel for the final packing and more food shopping for the road. We made the final baggage weigh-in and checked out with 10 minutes to spare. Then we said goodbye to the tail-wagging kitty at one of the shops one last time as Y cried 😢

Tokyo station got that much more crowded at 11:30 am. We spent the final hours at Starbucks Sapia Tower. This is the only repeat request from Y since this is the only place to see cool Shinkansen in AC. The cafe was pretty packed on this regular workday lunch hour. But we still snagged three window seats 🙌 On the seats at the far right were another train kid and his mom 🙂 At 12:45 pm, we headed to the Narita Express platform. Beware, it was way deep in the station. We sent off the previous N’ex and ours rolled in. We had lunch and Y passed out halfway into the ride.

At the Zipair check-in counter, we were sweating to find out that our in-flight food would count as allowed hand-carry weight. All that weighing in at the hotel 😭 I was so ready to be charged a fee and then the lady said the absolute max weight was 0.9kg more than we thought so we’ve barely made it 🙌🙌 We all slept the last 2/3 of the flight. This was good to make the time go faster and for time adjustment. But wait for it. Things went downhill from here. The JetKids decided to give up just when we landed. Both front wheel attachments were cracked. Then had stuff confiscated at the custom. To add salt to the wound, we took the bus going the opposite direction from the parking lot 🤦🏻‍♀️ We realized midway and got off the middle of nowhere without enough money for another bus fare. In the end, the returning bus driver took us in 🙏 With an hour delay, we were finally home to dig into the food we didn’t get to eat on the road.

Well, it’s a wrap! It was definitely a fulfilling journey through Japan! Some culture shocks were: 1) there is just no shortage of food and drink. So relax, no need to be planning ahead. 2) Very good access to clean restrooms everywhere. 3) Zero trash can and it’s keeping the place trashless. 4) Things are priced evenly across quantity and popularity. There is no mass-purchase discount. The price at a popular tourist site and the supermarket is more or less the same. 5) There are always, always kids’ utensils, however fancy or casual the place is. Starbucks gave one bending straw specifically for Y.

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Photos

500 km/h!
1/1250 th of a second view