Just hopped a Shinkansen bullet train in Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics. Heading to Kanazawa on the west coast. I’m feeling the incredible lightness of being right now (and the speed of this beast, now approaching 196 mph in a tunnel; oh, boy…..).

Time to sit back and reflect a bit. I’ve been on the road for seven weeks now, with six days left in the Land of the Rising Sun. Very cool to be wrapping up here. Japan is super calm and chill; beyond serene in so many ways.

The trip is coming full circle for me now. Looking back, it seems that I boarded my flight to Hong Kong and Perth years ago. I’ve found that time becomes elastic on long journeys. At times, it appears short and at others, incredibly long and slow in passing. Things typically start to speed up in terms of time sense after the halfway point, but they haven’t on this trip. It has been an amazingly fluid cruise through many places, meeting many people and eating some of the best food of my life.

Great scenery is always awesome for me, but what stays with me and lingers when finding new places is the people. The people of southeast Asia are, I would say, extremely calm, reserved and polite. Many of them are also extremely happy, smiling in an instant regardless of the circumstance. That is wonderful, and it leaves the heart wide open.

The only problem with these trains is that they’re so fast it’s hard to get anything done on them. This trip is around 200 miles and it’ll take less than 90 minutes. Anyway, I’m kind of obsessed with them, because I love speed, high quality machines and, well, because I’m a guy. So, here are some photos of the beasts. It’s really hard to catch them at a stop – even while pulling into the stations, as they’re wicked fast and sleek. They have the incredible attribute of looking very fast while at a standstill….

Niseko Ski Area on the Island of Hokkaido. Some Aussie ski instructors I chatted with said the season has been a bummer so far – very warm with pretty much all precipitation falling as rain. Hope springs eternal, however, as Niseko is alleged to smoke Utah for quantity and quality of pow. Hard to comprehend that…..

I bought a Japan Rail Pass, and can travel anywhere in the country on any train. In addition to the pass, they give you individual tickets for each journey. I’ve been taking the Shinkansen – bullet trains where possible because they’re so darned cool.

Countryside of Hokkaido

Whoosh….

Oh, yeah. Speed is a drug…..

Walking to the train this morning in Nagano

Scenery en route to Kanazawa

Gotta run – pulling into Kanazawa soon. Ciao….