Its been quite a journey so far both getting to Japan and also getting around Japan. I've tried to capture some of my transportation highlights so far, in roughly chronological order.
I was lucky enough to fly on one of Etihad's nice new A380's out of Heathrow. One of my favourite features was the tail mounted camera that allowed you to see the plane and where it was heading. That coupled with a second mini-display in the video system controller meant you really were able to know everything about the journey.
Cool though it was, I don't think I would ever have believed the transport that I found in the next town over from where I am staying.
Yep, that's right, not only is it a monorail, but its a suspended monorail! This wonder of technology can be found in and around Chiba. Riding it really makes you feel like you are flying through the town, and it gives commanding views of the surroundings. It was awesome.
Here it is coming in "to land", and below you can see the carriage, its almost a perfect upside down version of a regular train. I was wondering if I'd have to flip myself around once I was onboard.
Mind you, not everything is super high tech here. Quite literally within 20 meters of getting off the monorail I found this beautiful old pickup parked in the street. It is an actual collection and delivery vehicle for a little local repair shop that specialises in vintage motors. It was such an amazing juxtaposition with the monorail tracks spanning overhead.
Although you can't see it, it'd obviously just got back from a collection as sitting in the back was a rusted up old scooter waiting for restoration.
It wasn't the only old classic I saw either, earlier that day I'd seen this lovely little Mini waiting outside a restaurant.
Tokyo
Tokyo is an incredible city. Huge, cozy, busy, beautiful, restrained, and out there. I'll be posting a lot more of what I've seen there soon, but for transport...
For oddity, not much could really compare to this beauty that was driving around the streets on my first weekend. I think there's a Fiat 500 hiding under all that, but who can tell with so much yellow :D
A less mechanical horse, although you wouldn't get very far on it, this is a previous emperor in the grounds of the Imperial Palace.
Or the modern equivalent of a horse in the Imperial Palace.
Enlarge that picture, just look at the size of the chainrings on those bikes, they must have 100's of teeth. Those guys were really having to work to get themselves going. While I was there, they had closed the main road running through the Imperial Palace gardens, so it was a free run for cyclists, walkers, and runners. There were 100's of them zipping up and down in total car freedom. At first I thought there must be a race on as there were so many fantastic bikes on display, but I think the Japanese just really take their cycling seriously (obviously this is somewhere I could fit in). I saw a lot of nice kit, and a lot of customisation. One really popular addition was a rear disc-wheel with custom graphics. I didn't manage to get many photos, but you can see an example below. There was some seriously cool artwork!
... and finally, I found this old wheeled trading stand such a wonderful object to photograph. The black and white is all my own doing, it wasn't really that old, but it just seemed fitting. This was on a street corner on the edge of Ginza, the most upmarket shopping area of all of Tokyo, and a more perfect spot for it I could imagine.
That's all I'll put in here as this post is getting really rather long already. My next post should be about what is possibly the most defining of Japan's methods of transportation, its trains. I love trains so its been a real highlight already.
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