A Hard Day's Travel

Greetings from Nagoya, home of Toyota.

I had a hassle free trip in getting here from Sydney. Everything went to schedule and, after leaving my Sydney hotel (Formule 1) at 5.45 am I arrived in Nagoya at 9.18 pm the same day after two flights and two high speed train journeys. And I also saw Port Moresby (PNG) and Guam on the way. Most of the rest was ocean.

Every flight was early arriving at its destination, and the last one docked at Kansai (Osaka's airport) at 6.10 pm Japan time (7.10 pm in Armidale). I was almost the first non-Japanese (most of the passengers were!) through customs. Having collected my case, I went to the Japan National Railways (JNR) Office and booked all the way through Nagoya without any trouble - the booking clerk spoke good English. After waiting 25 minutes for the Haruka (airport express), I did the 70 km or so to Shin-Osaka in the gathering dusk in about 45 minutes, waited another 15-20 minutes for the Nozomi Super-Express to Tokyo and 'flew' the distance to Nagoya via Kyoto in about another 50 minutes - but the train, by estimate, was doing something like 280km (c. 175mph) per hour (which equals doing Sydney in 2 hours from Armidale!).

Exiting the Shinkansen, the walk to the hotel Meitetsu New Grand was less than 5 minutes in light rain. However, this morning it's pouring! I must have a look at the forecast and hope it clears up because Roy Jones from Curtin University in Western Australia and I want to 'do' the town. I last saw Roy just over 2 weeks ago in Perth.

The view from my hotel window is not exactly beautiful. I attach a couple of picture taken through the grey monsoon.

AS