Travel Day - Tokyo to Osaka

Today was our first experience on a Shinkansen or bullet train.  We walked over to the JR station, didn't find a ticket office, so bought a subway ticket to Shingawa Station.  We knew this was where we could catch the train to Osaka, that orignated at Tokyo Station (a much longer walk from our hotel and in the wrong direction).  After arriving at the station we found a ticket office for JR (Japanese Rail) and bought reserved seat tickets on the right side of the train car.  We walked up to the turnstile with two tickets studs and got help on which one to feed into the machine.  Every ticket we have used for the past two days had magnetic tape on the back and is used to enter the platforms (a little hole is punch into it by the turnstile).  For this trip both tickets together were fed into the turnstile and both were punched.  We found the correct track and dutifully queued up for our designated car number.  We waited through 2 trains before ours arrived.  

We boarded and off we went direct to Osaka with 3 intermediate stops.  We saw Mt. Fuji at an angle to our travel direction but it was obstructed by clouds when we passed it directly on the right.  

I "recorded" a top speed of 167 mph using my gps app.  We  are pretty much traveling down the eastern coast of Japan to Nagoya then to Kyoto and Osaka.  I apologize for the long-winded explanation, but I write this blog to help me remember our adventures besides amusing you all.

Also one more not so interesting thought:  after our guided tour of Tokyo each day, we gathered together as a group for beers, which cost about 900 yen (sounds cheap) but it equates to about $8.00, lunches also seem inexpensive at 1,000 yen, and finally our breakfast in the hotel today was nearly 6,000 yen (ouch) - Betsy says it is funny money.  Japan or at least Tokyo is expensive.  But one can't complain because everything works, is very clean and orderly, and there is lots of friendly help.  Postscript to the above, we are now in Osaka and have just come from dinner along a "shopping street" - Tenjimbashisuji, where we had tempura and beers for 2,754 yen or about $24.  The beer was half what it was last night.  The food was great.  We had lotus root, prawns, pumpkin and a sand borer (?), along with a bowl of rice and miso soup.

Prior to dinner and after arriving in Osaka, we navigated, mostly without wrong turns, to our hotel, the  ANA Crowne Plaza and got a free upgrade to the top floor, for some unknown reason.  We have a suite with all the customary amenities.

Our view is toward the south to high rise buildings.  One curous fact about Osaka according to the guide book - it has a GDP larger than all of Canada.

We walked about a mile and half to the Osaka Castle, another early Tokugawa Regime castle dating to around 1590s.  There is an outer and inner moat, high rock walls, four of more right angle gates (one is much larger than Tokyo's Castle) and a multi-level tower. 

 

We arrived to the tower entrance just as it closed for the day.  So, we may go back tomorrow.  One interesting thing, there are several immense stones used in the constuction, the largest is the Octopus Stone which is over 60 square meters and 130 tons (260,000 pounds).

The castle gorounds also have a handful of feral cats, which get fed and watered by locals.