Shinkansen

Tokyo and its tangled modernity disappeared somewhere behind me.  In an instant I was deep into the green countryside of Japan.  I'd left something that is Japanese for something that seemed somehow more Japanese.  The Nozomi 113 train bound for Kyoto and points beyond was moving so fast that if I looked from the window down to the page in my journal, whatever it was I wanted to note was well out of sight by the time I returned my gaze out the window.  This was topographic speed - villages, mountains, a river, industry, roads, cemeteries blurring by.  It was almost painful to look, my eyes registering, adjusting, going out of focus, re-adjusting, registering again.  Japan at 285 km per hour - yeah!